Katherine Heckel

-Robert Mueller

It was the 15th of July 1991. A Monday. Forty year old Katherine Heckel called her two children, thirteen year old Alisha and nine year old John, just after 9am from her office at the Hammermill International Paper Company plant where she worked. She worked in the Human Resources Department there. Katherine lived with her husband of twenty years John Heckel and their two children in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, United States. That day, the children were at home as they were on summer vacation and John was in New York. He was attending field exercise training at Fort Drum military base in Jefferson County, New York as he was a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Army. Katherine saw the children before she left for work that morning and she called them when she arrived at work to see how they were. They discussed what they'd have for dinner that night. She told them she would make pork chops.

Later that same day, Alisha called Katherine at work but was told by one of Katherine's colleagues that she went out for lunch. Alisha tried again after lunch but was informed that Katherine was still not back. When Katherine was not home by 6.30pm , Alisha called her grandparents, Clarence and Margaret Dolan, to let them know. Clarence and Margaret went to their house. They were immediately concerned as they knew Katherine would not have not returned home to the children. She was devoted to them. They called everyone Katherine knew but nobody had heard from her. Clarence reported his daughter missing. 

Katherine and John Heckel with their children Alisha and John

John Heckel only discovered his wife was missing the next evening, the Tuesday evening, and he went straight home to Pennsylvania to help look for her. Police questioned John and checked out his alibi. The Fort Drum military base in Jefferson County, New York was around 7 1⁄2 to 8 hours away from Lock Haven. Police asked John about his relationship with his wife. John told police that in the weeks leading up to that day, Katherine wasn't her normal self. Her mother and colleagues agreed. She seemed preoccupied. But there was no indication that Katherine ran away and those who knew Katherine well were certain that she would never leave her children behind. That led police to suspect that foul play may have been involved in her disappearance so they had to ascertain when and where exactly Katherine was last seen. 

Police established that Katherine went to work that morning as normal and she was there until lunchtime. But she never returned to the plant after lunch. Several of her colleagues recalled seeing her at work that morning and noted it was unusual for her not to return. Her car, which she had driven to work that morning in, was also missing. 

As police spoke to Katherine's family, friends and colleagues more, they discovered that Katherine had arranged to meet a man called Dennis Taylor the night of the 15th of July. When police spoke to Dennis, he admitted that he was having an affair with Katherine but told police that even though they had arranged to meet that night at a local restaurant, Katherine didn't show up. When asked what he did instead, he told police that he played golf. That led police to look into John's actions again. Did he know about his wife's affair? John himself had an alibi but they looked into the possibility that he hired someone to possibly harm his wife. They found no evidence of that whatsoever. The search for Katherine continued. 

Helicopters and cadaver dogs were used in the search for Katherine and three days after she was reported missing, on the 18th of July, her silver Ford Festiva vehicle was found in a parking lot at the Lock Haven Hospital. The keys were missing. There was no sign of Katherine. 

Further investigation revealed that Katherine was also having an affair with another man called Loyd Groves. Katherine and Loyd worked together. Loyd was an industrial hygienist at the plant and was described by others as quiet. When police spoke to him, he told police that he knew Katherine through work only but he denied that they were having an affair and told police that they had never had a physical or a sexual relationship. He told police he was married with two young children. But some of their colleagues told police that they often saw him and Katherine together often.

When asked when he last spoke to Katherine, he said that he spoke to her on the morning of the 15th of July at work. He described that day as a normal day and that nothing out of the ordinary happened. Loyd told police that he got home at 5.30pm that evening. 

The day after police spoke to Loyd, they spoke with him again at the Hammermill plant and told him that they believed he told lies and that he was having an affair with Katherine.They noted that he became defiant and loudly answered “no” to questions concerning the relationship. When asked again about the 15th of July, he told police that he could not recall that day and that he had a bad memory.

Loyd consented to a search of his van by police and they found two gym bags between the console area, a box of .25 caliber ammunition, a hunting knife, and duct tape. Loyd was asked about the ammunition that was found in the van and he told police that he owned a .25 caliber semi-automatic Colt handgun. He said it was in his desk at work as he planned to sell it because he no longer used it. 

Loyd Groves

It was the Defense's case that Loyd was innocent and that some of the evidence presented by the Prosecution only emerged years after Katherine went missing and as such, it could not be trusted.

They argued that there was evidence that had not been properly investigated against John Heckel and Dennis Taylor and the Court could not be sure that Loyd was involved in Katherine's disappearance. 

The Court heard that John Heckel acknowledged the couple had financial issues which they argued about, he suspected his wife was having an affair, and that before he left for training, he thought she was considering leaving him.

The Defense told the Jury that John Heckel did and said some unusual things after Katherine went missing. The Court heard that he told police that he believed Katherine took money from their joint bank account. There was also an unusual incident that involved a swinger's magazine and John asked police if they thought the woman in the magazine was Katherine. Furthermore, the Defense told the Jury that John threw away Katherine's purse and photo ID after she went missing. They were found in a dumpster near the National Guard Armory in August of 1991.

The Defense questioned Dennis Taylor. Dennis admitted he only told police about his call with Katherine in relation to her telling him she was going for lunch on the 15th of July with Loyd in 2014. He did not mention it in 1991 when Katherine went missing. 

The Defense told the Jury that Dennis said he was playing golf the day Katherine went missing. The Court heard that that alibi was checked some thirteen months later and the log in which Dennis would have had to sign when he was playing golf that day had pages missing from it.

The Defense told the Jury that Loyd's wife Katherine did not mention Loyd's actions the day of the 15th of July in 1991. The Defense asked Katherine when she told police that he returned home on the 15th of July to change his clothes and she admitted that she only told them in 2018. She testified that she lived with Loyd until they divorced in 2016.

In relation to some of the other evidence the Prosecution presented, the Defense told the Jury to disregard it as it wasn't relevant. They called a witness from Hammermill who claimed they believed they saw Loyd in the Hammermill office on the afternoon of the 15th of July. The Court heard testimony from another witness who believed he saw Katherine driving a vehicle a day or two after she was reported missing.

They also referred to the blood found in Loyd's car. They referred to Corey's statement in relation to the stain in the van and he told police he saw it on the 12th of July. That was three days before Katherine went missing and therefore, they argued, that the cut carpet was irrelevant to the case. 

In relation to the speck of Katherine's blood that was found in the van, they argued that even if that was the case, Katherine cut her finger badly at work before that date so it could have happened then. They referred to the police file which contained a medical report from Hammermill which stated that Katherine cut her finger at work and it was so bad, it had to be treated three times. The report stated she had a laceration on her left index finger from slicing it with a butter knife on the 6th of 1991 but the exact month was not shown in the report.

Loyd was found not guilty of first degree murder. He was found guilty of third degree murder which indicated the Jury believed that Katherine was killed in a  spontaneous act in the heat of the murder.

Loyd told the Court that he had “committed no crime.”

He was sentenced to a term of ten to twenty years’ incarceration.

Loyd appealed his conviction. In his appeal papers, he argued that the evidence from searches of his van should have been suppressed. He also argued that Dennis Taylor, with whom Katherine also was having an affair, should not have been allowed to testify.

The appeals court affirmed his conviction as they noted he previously consented to a search of his van and stated that the Jury could reasonably infer Loyd had a motive to kill after hearing the testimony of Dennis Taylor.