Article: Four incidents, seven deaths

In the past six months, seven lives have been lost in domestic violence situations in Cumberland County - five as homicides and two suicides.
Those deaths make up 10 percent of the domestic violence-related fatalities in Pennsylvania so this year.
District Attorney David Freed said investigations into the county’s homicides have shown there were some warning signs - some obvious, some subtle - but there is no common thread among the four incidents.
December 28, 2010 - Nicole Berman, 27
Nicole Berman’s body was found in her Silver Spring Township home Dec. 29 after her fiance, Gary Cartwright, called police and told them he strangled her the night before during a fight.
Cartwright, 27, was arrested after leading investigators to her body in the basement of the home they shared, police said.
“You guys can go ahead and take me in,” Cartwright told officers at the scene, according to court documents. “I killed her.”
Police said Cartwright appeared emotionally distraught at the time and explained that during the fight he panicked and strangled Berman.
According to authorities, there was no evidence of a previous history of domestic violence between Cartwright and Berman, who were planning a wedding for this year. But Freed said Thursday there were some signs that things were not going as well as before in the relationship.
Cartwright pleaded not guilty to a criminal homicide charge April 7.
According to court documents, he was scheduled for a pre-trial conference Aug. 16, but it has already been moved, with no future date listed.
The District Attorney’s office is not seeking the death penalty but is asking for a maximum life sentence.
January 11, 2011 - Trisha Marie Edelman, 21
Aware of several domestic violence issues from before, investigators immediately jumped full force into finding Trisha Marie Edelman after her mother reported her missing at 4:30 p.m. Jan. 11.
Less than 11 hours later, investigators burst into the New Cumberland apartment of Edelman’s former boyfriend, Adam Trump, and found him lying beside her body in a bed.
An autopsy later confirmed that Edelman was pregnant when she died of a gunshot to her abdomen. The unborn child was not killed by the bullet but died as a result of its mother’s death.
Edelman had a protection from abuse order against Trump, which prohibited him from possessing any type of firearm.
The couple’s nearly two-year relationship was plagued by numerous domestic violence incidents, including times when Trump strangled Edelman, pushed her down a set of stairs, pulled her hair and spit in her face.
The PFA came after police said Trump pointed a handgun at Edelman, covered her face with a pillow and threatened to kill both of them in July 2010 during a custody exchange of their 2-year-old daughter.
Edelman and Trump were scheduled to appear in court Jan. 13, the day after Edelman’s body was found, for a pre-trial conference on the criminal charges filed against Trump.
Given these circumstances, investigators were immediately concerned when Edelman’s mother reported she was missing and approached it as a possible hostage situation.
Authorities have said the child Edelman was carrying was not Trump’s.
According to text message records gathered by investigators, Edelman and Trump arranged to get together Jan. 10 for dinner at Trump’s apartment. In later messages, Trump mysteriously said goodbye to other friends and sent himself a message that said “Trish is dead, so am I,” around 9:30 p.m. Jan. 10.
Trump told investigators an hour after he was arrested Jan. 12 that he is bipolar and had been contemplating suicide, according to Detective Les Freehling of the District Attorney’s office.
He had hoped to have one last good memory with Edelman before taking his life and said they had dinner and watched a movie together.
According to Trump, they went to get cigarettes the next morning around 6 or 7 a.m.
While in his car, Trump told investigators he put a revolver in his mouth and cocked it, preparing to kill himself.
Trump then told Freehling that he lowered the gun when a neighbor came out, and as he brought it back to his mouth, Edelman grabbed it and the gun went off.
After that, Trump said, he went inside and took 840 milligrams of morphine, which was prescribed to him for his bipolar disorder.
At the hearing, Freehling said that he did not believe Trump was telling him “the whole truth” and that he does not believe Edelman’s death was an accident.
Trump, 25, faces charges of criminal homicide, criminal murder of an unborn child, prohibited possession of a firearm and theft by unlawful taking of a weapon.
Trump’s formal arraignment - where he will plead guilty or not guilty - has been delayed twice now and is scheduled for July 7 before Judge Albert H. Masland.
At the arraignment, the District Attorney’s office will announce whether it will seek the death penalty. Freed has previously said that his office is considering it a capital case.
June 5, 2010 - Lisa Goss, 46, and Melissa Harris, 43
East Pennsboro Township police received a call just after noon June 5 from a 17-year-old boy who had just been shot at by Melissa Harris, who previously lived with the boy’s mother, Lisa Goss.
The boy told police he was in his bedroom when he heard a gunshot. When he went out to check, he came face to face with Harris, who shot at the boy but missed.
The boy ran back to his room and locked the door, from where he heard a second gunshot before police arrived at the Sterling Court townhouse.
Police said Harris shot Goss inside the home before taking her own life. Autopsies of the bodies showed that both deaths were due to a single gunshot wound to the head.
Authorities said Harris had recently moved out of the home the women shared.
June 15, 2011 - Wendy K. Royer, 36, Paul Johnson, 34, and Robert Liddick, 41
Police said Robert Liddick shot Wendy Royer and Paul Johnson around 1:40 a.m. June 15 with a high-powered rifle at Johnson’s home in Hampden Township.
After the shooting was reported, police warned the public to be on the lookout for Liddick, who was considered armed and dangerous, and his 2008 Ford pickup truck.
The truck was found in West Fairview Point Park near Enola around 11 a.m. with a note inside. The details of the note have not been released.
Liddick’s body and a rifle were pulled from the Susquehanna River. An autopsy showed Liddick died of a gunshot wound to the head.
Police said that after Liddick shot Royer and Johnson, he went to the Summerdale Diner to contact police and report that a child was left alone in the home.
Johnson’s 18-month-old son was in the upstairs of the home when his father and Royer were killed.
Liddick and Royer had lived together in a home in a Camp Hill neighborhood since before the birth of their 8-year-old son and neighbors said they did not know of any problems between the two.
While Liddick served two six-month tours overseas, neighbors said, he would stay in touch with Royer and their son through video chat and email.
Neighbors added that they never heard the couple swear or raise their voices to each other or their son, but they also worked separate shifts and did not seem to see each other much.
At this point, a motive has not been released, but authorities have a theory and are waiting for the results from the testing of ammunition taken from the home Royer and Liddick shared on South 30th Street.