Evidentiary Hearing Held in Heckel Murder Case
LOCK HAVEN — The defense is challenging the admissibility of evidence found in a police search in a 25-year-old Lock Haven murder case. Presiding Senior Judge Carson Brown heard testimony in Clinton County Court on Monday in the case of Loyd Groves, 67, accused of killing Katherine “Kathy” Dolan Heckel of Lock Haven in 1991.
Defense counsel David Lindsay and George Lepley are seeking the suppression of evidence recovered during a state police search of Groves’ desk and van in July of that year, two days after Heckel was reported missing from her job at the former International Paper plant in Castanea Township.
Several now retired state police officers testified Monday in the Groves case, all involved in the investigation at the time of the Heckel disappearance on July 15, 1991. They included former officer Miles Houseknecht. Testimony was heard relative to blood found in the Groves van which had seen a piece of carpeting cut out. A relatively recent grand jury report had stated it was Heckel’s blood found inside the van and Groves’ arrest followed. Defense counsel is challenging the admissibility of that evidence, seen as a key in the case against Groves.
Judge Brown said defense counsel and prosecutor Michele Kluk from the state Attorney General’s office will have 10 days to file briefs on their positions once they receive transcripts of the Monday hearing, at some point after which he will issue a ruling. Given the anticipated pretrial motions, the case is not expected to go to jury until this fall at the earliest.
Local state police had returned Groves to Clinton County in late January of last year following his arrest; he has been in the Clinton County Correctional Facility since that time with no bail set on the homicide charges. He was in court on Monday for the proceedings; some members of the Heckel family were also in attendance.
That arrest more than a year ago 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.
The grand jury findings noted that the victim’s body was never found after she left the paper mill for lunch on the afternoon of July 15, 1991 and also stated it was Heckel’s blood found in Groves’ van:
“The Grand Jury considered and rejected any argument that Groves’ success in disposing of Kathy’s body should be an impediment to his prosecution or allow him to escape justice any longer. The Grand Jury concludes that Loyd Groves murdered Kathy on or about July 15, 1991. We conclude he disposed of her body and clumsily attempted to conceal and destroy other evidence of his crime. In short, Kathy was alive and well until she left to meet Groves for lunch, an appointment from which she never returned. Within days, her blood was found in Groves’ van around the area where he inexplicably and hastily removed the destroyed the upholstery in his van. Groves never expressed dismay or concern that his girlfriend was missing, but rather immediately set about recruiting friends and co-workers to help him manufacture an alibi. He could not account for his whereabouts during the period when Kathy disappeared or explain his sudden and total memory loss. His behavior in the period leading to and following Kathy’s disappearance shows a consciousness of guilt. Indeed, we conclude that he believed in 1991 that he had been caught and would be arrested, and we recommend that an arrest taken place in the near future.”
