Neighbor, 19, arrested in girl's killing
DOG3
Neighbor, 19, arrested in girl's killing
Associated Press, 04/19/98 19:13
ALLOWAY, N.J. (AP) - Authorities arrested a 19-year-old neighbor Sunday and
charged him with murder in the killing of a 10-year-old girl whose body was
found along a roadside in rural Salem County Saturday morning.
State Police said they picked up William Francis McPherson III around 7 a.m. at
his home on Cedar Street here - about three blocks from the house on West Main
Street where the victim, Crystal Carlson, lived with her parents and two older
brothers.
McPherson was charged with murder, weapons offenses and endangering the welfare
of a child and is being held at Salem County Jail under $500,000 bail, said
State Police spokesman Sgt. Al Della Fave.
Autopsy results released Sunday showed that Crystal, a fourth-grader at
Elizabeth Remster Elementary School, had been stabbed ``multiple times'' and
strangled. Della Fave declined to say how many times she was stabbed, but said
the autopsy determined the cause of death to be strangulation.
Preliminary results of the autopsy, performed by Dr. Paul Hoyer, forensic
pathologist for Salem County, showed no indication of sexual assault,
authorities said.
The girl was last seen alive as she left school around 2:30 p.m. Friday, Della
Fave said. Her mother reported her missing around 6:30 p.m.
McPherson apparently encountered the girl as she was walking home from the
neighborhood school, Della Fave said.
Details after that point are sketchy.
Investigators believe the body was dumped sometime after 3 a.m. Saturday, Della
Fave said.
The body was found about 8:30 a.m. Saturday on the grassy shoulder of two-lane
Timberman Road by a farmer out inspecting his fields, authorities said. The
site is about two miles from the girl's home in the village.
Della Fave could not say whether McPherson, who lives with his mother and
stepfather, knew the girl, and refused to speculate on a motive.
He would not say specifically what led investigators to McPherson, saying only
that detectives had interviewed neighbors and followed leads they provided.
According to Paul Villegas, the senior child care worker at Ranch Hope for Boys
in Alloway, McPherson enrolled in the facility's day program after being kicked
out of the Elizabeth Remster school several years ago.
Villegas, who has worked at the juvenile facility since 1989, had few details
about why McPherson enrolled but said boys are generally referred by the courts
or the state Division of Youth and Family Services.
``He (McPherson) did a lot of things for attention when all he really wanted
was for someone to be there for him,'' Villegas said. ``It's a small percentage
of kids who leave here and make it. They usually wind up in jail.''
He said McPherson eventually left and enrolled in Woodstown High School.
Carrie McKelzey, 17, who went to high school with McPherson, said the suspect
seemed to court trouble.
Eric Klein, 23, who also knows McPherson, described the suspect as tall and
heavyset and said he was picked on as a kid because of his size.
The missing person report Friday triggered a massive search that evening around
the crossroads village in the heart of a rural township of 2,700 people in
southwest New Jersey, about 30 miles south of Philadelphia.
At mid-afternoon Sunday, police were searching a house on Cedar Street in the
village. Police blocked the street with yellow crime-scene tape to keep media
and bystanders at a distance. A blue Ford was removed from the property on a
flat-bed truck.
At the spot where the body was found, a makeshift memorial stood: a wooden
cross festooned with pink ribbons and branches of lilac and a sign reading,
``Crystal, don't worry. God has you.'' From time to time, a car drove slowly
down the road, stopping to drop off flowers.
Paula Pistoia, 29, said she watched from her driveway 200 feet down the road as
police covered the little girl's body with a white sheet Saturday morning.
Mrs. Pistoia, who has a young son, said the killing has left residents deeply
shaken.
``I was ready to put the `For Sale' sign up on my house yesterday. I used to
love it out here, but I don't any more,'' she said.
``I went into town last night, and there wasn't one kid without an adult.''
Alloway Township Mayor Lester Sutton said school officials met with counselors
Sunday to plan a special program for children at the school tomorrow to help
them cope with the tragedy.
------------------- In taberna mori
Ut sint vina proxima
Morientis ori.
-- The Archpoet, 12th Century