Groves Trial on Schedule for November

LOCK HAVEN — The trial in a 26-year-old Lock Haven murder case remains on schedule for this November in Clinton County Court.

Procedural matters were discussed in court this week in the Loyd Groves murder case. In custody at the Clinton County Correctional Facility since his arrest in 2015, Groves, 68, is accused of killing Katherine “Kathy” Dolan Heckel of Lock Haven in 1991, her body never found. She was declared legally dead in 1998.

This week’s court proceeding was held Thursday. It was determined that Nov. 13 will remain as the start date for jury selection. Two weeks, from Nov. 20 to Dec. 5, have been set aside for the trial itself. It was agreed that a hearing on any final pretrial arguments will be on Nov. 3.

Lycoming County Sr. Judge Kenneth Brown will hear the case. He was named earlier this year to preside after Clinton County Senior Judge Carson Brown stepped down. Groves is represented by David Lindsay and George Lepley; prosecuting the case will be Senior Deputy Attorney General Danield J. Dye.

Groves was present for the court proceeding. He has been in custody in the Clinton County Correctional Facility without bail since his arrest in January of 2015. Groves had been bound over to court at a hearing in April of that year. Groves had moved from the area to western Pennsylvania following Heckel’s disappearance. Heckel and Groves were coworkers at the paper mill in Lock Haven at the time.

The Groves arrest followed a statewide investigating grand jury report based on a renewed probe conducted by state troopers Curtis Confer and Michael Hutson and FBI special agent Kyle Moore.

Their work led to the grand jury findings which determined sufficient evidence existed to charge Groves with Heckel’s murder.

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