Groves Found Guilty of Third Degree Murder

LOCK HAVEN – A Clinton County Court jury Monday returned a guilty verdict on a charge of third degree murder against Loyd Groves, 69, a former Lock Haven area resident who had been arrested nearly four years ago in the 1991 killing of Katherine “Kathy” Dolan Heckel.

The jury found Groves not guilty of first degree murder in the death of Groves’ co-worker at the papermill where the two worked at the time of her disappearance in July of 1991. Testimony during the trial revealed that Groves had long been a suspect in the case, but no arrest made. Her body was never found and investigators had reopened the “cold case” in 2014, Groves arrested and in custody since January of 2015.

Presiding/visiting Senior Judge Kenneth Brown polled the 12-member jury individually after the verdict came in just before 3 p.m. on Monday. He said he wanted to ascertain all 12 were in concurrence with the verdict; this after the jury earlier had sent a note to the court, he said, that they were not unanimous at that point. Therefore, Judge Brown said, counsel for the defense and prosecution were going to meet with him on how to proceed, but then came a follow-up jury note that a unanimous decision had been reached.

Groves remained stoic as the verdicts were read, first “not guilty” of first degree murder, then “guilty” of third degree murder, as read by the jury foreman. The defendant had been dressed in a suit throughout the two week-plus trial and had been changed back to orange prison garb before he was transported back to the Clinton County Correctional Facility where he has been kept since his arrest in 2015. Sentencing was set for 1:30 p.m. January 17, 2019.

Conviction of three degree murder carries a sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison, according to lead prosecutor/senior deputy attorney general Daniel Dye. He later told the media he was pleased with the outcome. Dye termed the Heckel family “ecstatic,” that they had waited 27 years for this day. Once the verdict was announced, Dye huddled with the Heckel family, several of whom were overcome with emotion. He said the guilty verdict provided justice for the family.