Groves Murder Trial Under Way (Updated)

By Scott Johnson

LOCK HAVEN – After over 27 years that a Clinton County woman was last seen after taking a lunch break at the former International Paper Company in Lock Haven, the trial of her alleged murderer – after several years of delays, a grand jury indictment and no body found – began Monday morning at the Clinton County Courthouse.

Loyd Waitman Groves, 69, is charged in the 1991 killing of Katherine ‘Kathy’ Dolan Heckel.

After Lycoming County Senior Judge Kenneth Brown gave the jury – consisting of six men and six woman, with two male and two female alternates – its instructions, the Commonwealth and the defense gave their opening statements.

“We are going to prove to you that Kathy Heckel is dead and she was murdered between 12 and 3 p.m. on July 15, 1991 by the defendant, right there (pointing at Groves),” said Daniel Dye, senior deputy attorney general. “As this case moves forward … follow with what the witnesses say and and, ultimately, it will be simple. As horrifying as it is simple, it is about greed, lust, jealousy and anger.”

Dye said he will present witnesses who will testify over what they saw in the conference room at the former International Paper Co. plant just before the lunch hour, and about how Heckle didn’t want to see Groves that day.

“You’ll hear from the defendant’s ex-wife that he came home between 12 and 3 p.m. that day and the Commonwealth will prove to you he murdered Kathy Heckel,” Dye said. “He came home and changed his clothes, which he never did before.”

Further, Dye said the Commonwealth will provide evidence that Groves’ 1987 Chevrolet conversion van was searched, which turned up that some of the carpet was cut out of the van and human DNA was tested that showed it consisted of the female offspring of Heckel’s parents.

Also Dye said the jury will hear evidence that shortly after Heckel’s disappearance, Groves relocated to Ohio. Also that a gun owned by the defendant was in his desk at work with one of the six rounds missing.

“You will determine Katherine Heckel is dead and the defendant killed her,” he said.

Defense attorney David Lindsay said in his opening arguments that everyone is reminded that Heckel’s disappearance has caused many heartaches for Heckel’s family and friends, “but we are here for the evidence and to make a decision in this case not based on emotion.”

Lindsay said the defense will show there was another suspect in the case who also had an affair with Heckel.

“The sad thing is they didn’t want to find out what happened to Katherine Heckel, they wanted to prosecute Loyd Groves,” he said.

Lindsay noted Heckel was routinely in Groves’ van and the “minute” amount of blood found in the van could have come from a trip Heckel took in the van with Groves to Vermont.

He also told the jury to focus on the witnesses statements to police in 1991, noting that there recollections then were more vivid than they are now.

“I ask you not to speculate as what happenned from assumptions and innuendo,” Lindsay said. “I believe at the end of this case, ultimately they tried to convict Loyd Groves and not find out what happened to Kathy Heckel.”

The first witness called by the Commonwealth was Heckel’s mother, Margaret Dolan, who noted Kathy gave her kidney to her brother, Daniel, who had health issues before he passed in December of 2009.

She was first notified that something was wrong about Kathy the evening of July 15, 1991, when Kathy did not return to home that night and she and her late husband brought milk for the family and stayed with Kathy’s two children that night.

“It was the worst of the worst,” Dolan said. “It was not like Kathy. If they needed milk, she would have gotten it.”

Dolan said she talked to her daughter almost every day, but has not heard from or physically seen her since July 15, 1991. She then recollected seeing a ghostly image of Heckel twice.

“I wish God would have taken me instead of her,” Dolan said while crying.

Upon cross-examination, Dolan told defense attorney George Lepley she told police that she was going to have dinner with friend Dennis Taylor Heckel on July 15, 1991.

However, Dolan later said, “That’s not true. I don’t remember saying that.”

The last witness of the morning was Alicia Heckel, Kathy’s daughter, who was 13 when she last saw her mother.

She said her mother called her at 9:15 a.m. that day to wake her up and then brought money for a physical at 10 a.m., and later talked to her on the phone at noon when Kathy asked her about her basketball practice that night and to have Alicia prepare pork chops for dinner.

Monday afternoon’s testimony was dominated by John Heckel III, who was married to Kathy for over 18 years before she became missing in 1991.

He said he was performing training exercises in Fort Drum, N.Y., for nine days at the time of her disappearance.

“I knew that something was bothering her the day of left,” John said. “I suspected that she may be having an affair. I had no proof it was sexual. I thought that up until two weeks before my training period that she was going to leave me.”

He said his suspicions started when Kathy and Groves were on the same International Paper Company-sponsored volleyball team at the Lock Haven Area YMCA. In 1990, he said, Kathy would take their two children, Alicia and John IV, to the games, but said she wasn’t allowed to in the spring of 1991.

John said his family did use Groves’ van for a skiing vacation to Vermont some years previous, but Kathy did not suffer any injuries or gashes that would have left blood in the van at that time.

During cross-examination by Lepley, Groves said he met Taylor once while he was a DJ at a wedding reception, and later heard rumors that Kathy and Taylor were seeing each other, however, “yes, we had a good marriage and I thought that it was stable.”

He also testified that items that were in the house on July 16 were not there on July 29. These items were the keys to the family’s Ford Bronco, a photo album and picnic items. However, those items were then subsequently found.

Much testimoney centered around inappropriate pictures that Kathy had taken just before the disappearance with some cleavage being exposed. One of those pictures were given to John, which he later threw away months after the disappearance.

Concerning the photos, John contacted state police to investigate a picture that a friend had shown him in the May 1992 issue of Pennsylvania Connection that both the friend and John thought were of Kathy. However, when shown the picture Monday afternoon, he said it did not look like his wife.

“I was under psychiatric treatment and I just wanted to see my wife,” he said. “It was close enough to me that I wanted it checked.

On a security clearance application for his job that entails financial data filled out in 1993, John stated that between January and July of 1991, there were $4,400 in withdrawals from an automated teller machine that were unaccounted for.

On that same application, John wrote that a search of his records showed between $40,000 and $60,000 was either withdrawn from the bank or were not deposited between 1987 and July 15, 1991.

Also, a police report said that he told police that John had found a letter for a local credit union on July 26, 1991 that stated there was a check issued during Kathy’s lunch hour on July 15. However, John then testified that he doesn’t recollect that conversation. Further, John told police that he had heard the controller’s office for International Paper – the office where Kathy last worked – was missing money. However, Monday, John said he didn’t recall saying that.

“I’m saying I did not say that,” he testified.

John testified another check of his home revealed checks that were written by Kathy were voided, but were found in the check registry as valid.

John also called for a drug search of his house on Sept. 12, 1991, but none were found. However, he testified he did not believe the suspected drugs were from Kathy, but perhaps from company she had over to the house.

“I wanted to make sure no drugs were in the house,” he said.

Before John III, John Heckel IV, testified during the aftenoon speaking about the last time he spoke to his mother on the phone the morning of her disapperance. His father, John IV said, arrived back at the home two days after she became missing.

“He said we don’t know where your mom is. After he said that, he broke down and so did I,” the son said. “She was like my best friend. She was very involved.”

The son testified he first believed his mom and Groves were having an affair when they were both there to watch their sons during soccer practice and the two said they were going to go for a walk while the team was practicing.

Tuesday’s testimony begins at 8:30 a.m.

Groves has been incarcerated at the Clinton County Correctional Facility since January of 2015, the time of his arrest in western Pennsylvania where he had moved after the Heckel disappearance. His apprehension followed a statewide investigating grand jury report based on a renewed probe into the victim’s disappearance from work at the papermill in Lock Haven in the summer of 1991. The arrest came after an investigation into what had been a cold case.

Groves is charged with first- and third-degree murder.

The Commonwealth is not seeking the death penalty.