Heckel Murder Case: Groves Pre-Trial Hearing Wednesday; Trial Scheduled for June

LOCK HAVEN—The next round in the oft-delayed trial in a 27-year-old Clinton County murder case is scheduled for this Wednesday.

Loyd Groves, 68, is accused of killing Katherine “Kathy” Dolan Heckel of Lock Haven in 1991. A pre-trial motions hearing is scheduled for the large court room in Clinton County Court Wednesday at 9 a.m. The court schedule lists June 18 as the date to begin jury selection, the Groves trial to begin a week later on June 25.

The trial has been on-again-off-again in recent years. The case had been scheduled for trial in the fall of 2015 but was postponed over discovery issues. The trial was rescheduled for November of last year but was delayed due to health issues on the part of the defendant.

Groves had been arrested in January of 2015 following 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.

Groves had moved from the area to western Pennsylvania following Heckel’s disappearance, her body never found. Heckel and Groves had been coworkers at the paper mill in Lock Haven at the time of her disappearance.

David Lindsay and George Lepley are representing Groves and the prosecutor is senior deputy state attorney general Daniel Dye. Senior Lycoming County Judge Kenneth Brown is hearing the case.

Groves has been held at the Clinton County Correctional Facility without bail since his 2015 arrest.