Jun 19, 2006 10:25 pm US/Eastern
Police: Farmhand Admitted Strangling Girl
DUNKARD TWP. (KDKA) ―
A farmhand strangled a 12-year-old girl and then buried her in a shallow grave after she accused him of "misconduct" on the day she disappeared last week, police said Monday.
The body of Gabrielle M. Bechen, who was reported missing June 13 after she left her rural home to ride her all-terrain vehicle, was found late Saturday night buried in a field on a farm where she liked to visit horses.
Jeffrey R. Martin, 48, was charged Sunday with criminal homicide, aggravated assault and four counts of tampering with physical evidence.
He allegedly told police he used farm equipment to move her body to the field across the road, where he buried her, her ATV, her helmet and her shoes in separate holes, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Police gave no details about what "misconduct" they were referring to in their affidavit, which they said was based on what Martin told investigators.
After she accused Martin of wrongdoing, he grabbed her arm, but she broke free and ran from him and stumbled on the farm's main driveway, according to the affidavit.
Martin told police he then jumped on top of her, wrapped his hands around her throat and "continued to apply pressure until the victim quit moving," according to the affidavit.
Martin, of New Geneva, was being held in the Greene County Jail without bail.
It was not clear if he had an attorney.
Bechen died from asphyxiation due to manual strangulation, said Mary Ann Lewis of the Greene County coroner's office.
Authorities are awaiting test results to determine whether the girl was sexually assaulted.
No one answered the door at Bechen's home Monday in the rural Greene County town of Dunkard Township.
Nestled in the Appalachian Mountains near West Virginia, the only traffic in town usually comes from semi trucks hauling coal mined from nearby hills.
Pete Jordan, 48, a mechanic from nearby Dilliner who helped search for Bechen, said he had looked just feet from where the girl's body was eventually found, a shallow grave in an area that appeared to be a dumping ground for dirt and rock.
"It makes you sick," Jordan said. "She went down there all the time to see the horses. ... She goes down there to do something she always liked to do, and then something like that happens."
Jordan said he had known Martin for about 10 years.
The two, while not friends, had sometimes worked odd jobs together, he said.
Vicky Porupski, 45, owner of Mark Anthony's Restaurant in Dunkard Township, said Martin sometimes ate lunch there.
"He really never had much to say," Porupski said.
She said she's been very upset about Bechen's death and said her thoughts and prayers were with the girl's family.
"You don't really think it would happen in a small, rural town like this. But now we know better," she said.
Robert Coger, 71, lives across the street from Bechen's family.
He said the girl was like a granddaughter to him and his wife, Joann, 70.
She often came over to their home if her parents had to work late or just to stop in and chat.
"She called us grandma and granddad," said Coger, who was wearing a baseball cap that read "Four Star Granddad." "She was like one of our grandkids."
Coger, holding back tears, said he would always remember the girl riding up and down the road on her small four-wheeler and how she loved animals and playing with the neighborhood dogs.
"We just all loved her in the community," he said. "I never dreamed what happened over there. How someone could do that to a kid."
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