Saturday, December 4, 2010

Pleasant Valley, NY: UPDATE: Police charge boyfriend in girlfriend's death

By Sarah Bradshaw
Poughkeepsie Journal

The Dutchess County Sheriff's Office has charged a Pleasant Valley man in the death of his 25-year-old girlfriend.

Robert Loucks, 30, Pleasant Valley, has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Tyrese Storms, according to the sheriff's office.

Friday afternoon, deputies responded to a call to check on the welfare of Storms after people who know her became concerned due to suspicious circumstances, the sheriff's office said in a press release. The woman had reportedly missed important appointments.

Deputies found Storms dead inside the home she shared with Loucks on Marshall Road.

The police questioned Loucks, her boyfriend, whom police described as a person of interest in the case.

The official cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner at an autopsy to be conducted later today, police said.

Police said specific details regarding the exact manner of death and circumstances surrounding the death, including the condition of the body, will not be released at this time as they are still under investigation.

The police are looking into any possible previous domestic violence issues involving Loucks and Storms are also being investigated.

Loucks has been arraigned before the Town of Hyde Park Court and was sent to the Dutchess County Jail with no bail. More charges may follow, police.

The house, a rental, is owned by GTP Real Properties Inc. of Rockland County, according to county real estate records.

This morning, police were still at the yellow-sided home situated on a slight hill on Marshall Road in Pleasant Valley. Parked behind an orange traffic cone was the crime scene investigation van and deputies were in and out of the house carrying coffee cups.

Next door, within view of the investigation, a neighbor stood on her porch holding a mug and watched. She declined an interview.

The sheriff’s office has been assisted in the investigation by the State Police, the Dutchess County Medical Examiner, and the Dutchess County District Attorney’s Office.

Residing a few houses down from the crime scene, Robert Schaefer, 87, said he remembered when Marshall Road was a quiet country neighborhood.

"It used to be all farms," he said. "Now you don't know what goes on in your neighbor's house."

According to Poughkeepsie Journal records, the neighborhood made headlines for a gruesome murder many years ago.

In March 1975, a gas station attendant was abducted in an armed robbery and taken to Ward Road, which intersects with Marshall Road near the residence where the recent suspicious death occurred. The gas station attendant was shot in the head in an execution-style murder.

George Griffin and Frederick Cunningham were convicted of shooting and killing a 23-year-old attendant who worked at a Gasland service station at Main and Church Streets in the City of Poughkeepsie.

They were sentenced to to 25 years to life in prison April 22, 1976.

"A good friend of mine built that house," Schaefer said about where the recent death occurred. "I'm going to call him up and tell him what happened in his old house."

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