Mom helped son clean after he stabbed girlfriend, who planned to play soccer at PA college: police
The Peters Township School District said Karoline Heintz signed a National Letter of Intent for soccer at PennWest California.
CALIFORNIA, Penn. -- A mother and son are facing charges in connection to the death of an 18-year-old PennWest California student, Pennsylvania State Police said Thursday, WTAE reported.
Authorities say Karoline Heintz was found dead inside her parked vehicle near the California Borough Library around 12:24 a.m. local time on Thursday.
Royce Moser, 18, is charged with criminal homicide, and his mother, Rachel Moser, is charged with hindering apprehension, tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse and obstruction, Trooper Rocco Gagliardi said at a news conference.
Both suspects were taken outside separately in handcuffs and placed into police vehicles at the PSP station in Washington on Thursday night.
Royce Moser did not comment as he was being taken away by state troopers.
"My son took a life" Rachel Moser said, "I'm sorry," as she covered her face with her hands.
Pittsburgh's Action News 4 reporter Jordan Cioppa said, "Tell us why you're sorry."
Rachel Moser said, "That my son took a life."
The victim was a recent high school graduate in Washington County. According to Peters Township School District, Heintz was attending PennWest California after signing a National Letter of Intent for soccer.
Heintz was a recent graduate of Peters Township High School who was set to begin classes at PennWest as a freshman.
According to officials, Heintz had been with family earlier on Wednesday and was returning to campus housing at Pennsylvania Western University California.
When Heintz did not check in with her family, they tracked her location to her vehicle on Wood Street in California and called 911.
Police say that was when they found her dead inside the back hatch of the vehicle. Sources close to the investigation told Pittsburgh's Action News 4 that Heintz had been stabbed.
"We knew right away that this was a very serious case, but an isolated one," Gagliardi said.
According to a criminal complaint, Heintz left her family's home in Peters Township around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday night.
The victim's father told police he tracked her location and noticed she stopped at her boyfriend's house in North Strabane Township.
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That's where investigators say Royce told them the couple got into a discussion in the victim's car.
"Towards the end of that conversation between boyfriend-girlfriend, he goes inside and grabs a large knife from the kitchen, comes back out, and proceeds to stab her in the chest area," Gagliardi said.
The criminal complaint said Royce allegedly told police he was angered by something the victim said and claimed he had a "demon take over" him before he stabbed Heintz.
Gagliardi said Royce put the victim in the back hatch of her Jeep Cherokee before driving the vehicle to his mom's house in Beallsville Borough.
In an interview with police, Royce said his mom offered to help clean the car with disinfectant spray. She also allegedly gave her son latex gloves.
"They try to clean clothes, they try to clean the car up, they try to get rid of any blood stains possible," Gagliardi said.
According to state police, the mother and son drove separately to California Borough, where they dumped the Jeep.
Rachel, according to the complaint, allegedly told Royce to "take a bath and then shower," upon returning to her house.
The complaint later states that Rachel put the knife used to kill Heintz in a garbage bag and put her son's clothes into the washing machine.
Statement from PennWest California "PennWest University is deeply saddened by the tragic death of Karoline Heintz, who was a first-year student at the California campus. Our heartfelt condolences go out to her family, friends, and all those affected by this tragedy.
Pennsylvania State Police are investigating the incident, which occurred off campus, and PennWest University police are cooperating fully with the investigation."
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