The brutal murder of a beloved Germantown grandmother shocked the community, and now police say a member of that neighborhood is responsible.
68-year-old Ellen Walton wasn't home on Jan. 8 when neighbor Corey Conaway broke into her Magnolia Street house to steal jewelry and electronics, police said. But that all changed just as the teen was about to leave.
"As he was preparing to leave the property, Ms. Walton was coming into the property," said Philadelphia Police Capt. James Clark. "She has known him his whole life…he picked up a frying pan and he knocked her down to the ground."
Walton was still conscious after the first blow, so Conaway chose to repeatedly beat the woman until her body was lifeless, police said.
Conaway, 18, then allegedly loaded the woman's Toyota RAV-4 up with her stolen goods and sped off.
Walton's body wasn't found until 10 days later after police discovered her crashed car a few blocks away.
The teen was spotted by neighbors joyriding after the murder, investigators said.
"We know he went and saw a couple friends, uh, I believe he even went to school one day," Clark said.
Walton's mother says she thought all along that someone from the neighborhood was responsible.
"We just didn't have evidence to say that, you know, it was someone in the neighborhood," Mamie Lewis said. "Some of my family, they thought the same thing."
Conaway is charged with murder. The teen's arrest brought some closure to Walton's family.
"I hope and pray that they do something to him like he did to my daughter because she didn’t ever bother nobody," said Lewis.
