Article: Homicides increase in 2011

Originally Published Dec 29, 2011 15:56
By BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Staff Writer
Three lives were taken here this year in domestic violence confrontations between men and women — the leading motive for local homicides.
In all, police have investigated nine homicides in Lancaster County over the past 12 months.
That number jumped from the six homicides here in 2010. Still, the total is below the county average of about 12 a year.
In the only double homicide, Matthew Becker shot his pregnant girlfriend, Allison Walsh, killing her and the couple's unborn child, police allege. The Mastersonville couple were in a dispute Aug. 12 over plans for the evening, according to court testimony.
In the other domestic killing, Patricia Crouse, 39, was strangled July 8 in Lancaster city. Pablo Sanchez, 26, was charged with homicide. Their relationship hasn't been explained, but investigators said they were acquaintances.
Three people — all men — also were killed in verbal confrontations that turned physical. Motives in those killings varied.
Mark McLaughlin was beaten and drowned April 4 at a West Hempfield Township homeless camp along the Susquehanna River. Another man from the camp, Tyrick Walker, pleaded guilty this month to third-degree murder.
According to charging documents, Walker became annoyed by McLaughlin's talking. He repeatedly punched McLaughlin, then drowned him in the river.
On Aug. 31, Robert Hampton, 28, was shot on a Lancaster city street after he got into arguments with a few men. One of those men, Robert Baron Brown, was charged last month with homicide.
In a bizarre case, a Cochranville man died in March while under local hospice care. R. Tommy Stanley was fatally injured, police said, after a Valentine's Day fight in Chester County.
Stanley, 40, and Dorian Pennington fought after Stanley accidentally opened his car door on Pennington, who was walking by. Pennington punched Stanley, and Stanley fell to the ground, striking his head, police said.
The men didn't know each other, police said.
Pennington is charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Bullets were to blame in the county's three other homicides, including one that remains unsolved.