By VICKY TAYLOR Staff writer
Posted: 02/21/2011 10:54:09 PM EST
An investigation continues into Sunday's murder-suicide in Fulton County as investigators try to piece together the reasons behind Ricky Hann's attack on his former girlfriend and his subsequent suicide.
Pennsylvania State Police Trooper David McGarvey said autopsies are scheduled todayon the bodies of Hann, 51, and his victim, Tina Souders, 39.
Meanwhile, investigators are trying to determine where Hann got the shotgun he used in the murder-suicide.
They are also examining both Hann's and Souders' cell phone records to try to determine if Hann made his intentions known to anyone before he showed back up at Souders mobile home in Ayr Township and kidnapped her a second time Sunday morning.
McGarvey said Hann and Souders had been in a long-running relationship in the past, but she had gotten a protection from abuse order from him last year. He had violated that order and was facing court action in connection with that violation, the trooper said.
McGarvey said he did not know if charges filed against Hann for making terroristic threats in September 2010 were related to that PFA violation or not.
Hann's most recent brush with the law came Saturday after Souders showed up at the McConnellsburg barracks to report that Hann had come to her home early in the morning Friday, woke her up and asked her to go for a ride with him.
When she refused, he held her captive at gunpoint for about 24 hours. Saturday morning he left Souders' home, and Souders immediately went to police. Hann was taken into custody by troopers at 2 p.m. Saturday. He was charged with kidnapping, making terroristic threats, burglary, unlawful restraint, recklessly endangering another person and simple assault.
Magisterial District Judge Carol Jean Johnson set his bail at $100,000 and he was taken to Franklin County Jail.
On Sunday morning the bail was posted and Hann was released. McGarvey said he believed the bail was posted through a bail bonds firm.
He returned to Fulton County and was back at Souders home before noon, with a shotgun that he used to again kidnap Souders. This time he fled taking her with him.
Relatives of Souders were at the house with her at the time. They immediately called police, who were at the home within minutes. As they arrived, they heard shots coming from the nearby woods, McGarvey said.
The troopers, not sure if Hann was shooting at them or not, took cover and called for backup, including a state police helicopter and a Special Emergency Team along with a hostage negotiator. When the helicopter arrived and circled the wooded area where the shots had originated, officers in the helicopter saw two bodies on the ground. Police found Souders and Hann both dead in the woods just a few hundred feet from her mobile home on Cito Road.
Hann's past criminal record includes a summary harassment charge for following (someone) in a public place on June 26, 2003, and the September charges.
He was found not guilty of the harassment charge in a summary trial before Magisterial District Judge Wendy Mellott in September 2003.
Hann was also charged with making terroristic threats, harassment and simple assault in connection with an incident against Souders last year. He waived his arraignment in December and was scheduled for the trial call in Fulton County in April.
About the time the charges were filed, Souders filed a request for a protection from abuse order. Hann would later violate that order and was fined for that violation.
He was awaiting trial on the September charges when he went to Souders home and held her hostage then finally killed her over the weekend. He had been released on $15,000 unsecured bail after being charged in September.
Judges in Pennsylvania use a variety of criteria to determine if a person is to be released on bail, including the seriousness of the offense, whether the defendant has a job, family and ties to the community and whether the defendant would be a danger to the community.
Judicial guidelines outlined in Rule 523 of the PA Rules of Criminal Procedure are used to determine bail amounts.
Hann's $100,000 bail order required that some type of security be posted before he could be released.
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