Victim disappeared in April
By Victor Whitman
Times Herald-Record
Published: 2:00 AM - 09/15/11
MONTICELLO — Lars Ryder tried to burn and then dismembered the body of his former girlfriend, Elizabeth Mucci, according to a murder indictment handed up Wednesday in Sullivan County Court.
Ryder, 22, is charged with second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree forgery. He is accused of killing Mucci, who was 31, around April 26 at 427 Fraser Road, an apartment the two once shared, in the Town of Thompson.
Court papers say Ryder attempted "to conceal the body by first trying to burn it and subsequently dismembering her body and dumping her body parts into different locations to prevent her from being found."
Ryder is further accused of using Mucci's credit card at Walmart on April 27 the day after he allegedly killed her and disposed of the body; and used it a second time on April 30.
Sullivan County District Attorney Jim Farrell and state police investigators have released few details about the case. One of Mucci's legs washed up at the Swinging Bridge Reservoir on May 28. State police have told Mucci's relatives that Ryder did confess.
Farrell declined on Wednesday to comment further on the case.
Mucci's mother, Maryann Indrunas, said Mucci and Ryder had been a couple for 18 months but their families had known and socialized with each other for many years. Mucci, the oldest of five siblings, told her sisters and youngest brother that Ryder had started drinking again, and they were having arguments. Mucci had moved into a trailer in Hankins at the time of her disappearance. She was attempting to get her bachelor's degree in criminal justice.
Ryder has hired Monticello lawyer Henri Shawn to represent him. Shawn couldn't be immediately reached.
vwhitman@th-record.com
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