Pennsylvania

Soldier, Accused of Statutory Rape, Kills Pennsylvania Teen Girlfriend's Mother: Prosecutors

A solider based in Maryland has been charged with stabbing the mother of his teenage girlfriend to death and later burying her body in eastern Pennsylvania.

Twenty-year-old Caleb Barnes of Fort Meade, Maryland, is charged in Lehigh County with criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse and statutory sexual assault.

Authorities went to check out a suspicious vehicle parked near a wooded area along the 5700 block of Haasadahl Road in South Whitehall Township at about 4:15 a.m. Monday. Police said the car later disappeared, but officers noticed that dirt had been disturbed and found the body of a 54-year-old woman buried -- stab wounds to her neck.

NBC10 didn't identify the victim since her daughter was the victim of suspected statutory rape.

Investigators later found the car ditched in a pond off Applewood and Huckleberry roads -- a large pool of blood still inside. Prosecutors said that Barnes and the victim's daughter purchased alcohol and bleach in an attempt to clean up the blood prior to deciding to ditch the car.

Police questioned two men and the 14-year-old girl at the Upper Macungie Township home of the car's owner, and Barnes was arrested. Barnes is enlisted as an Army specialist out of Fort Meade.

Investigators determined that Barnes stabbed the woman in her driveway and ditched the car while with the 14-year-old girl. Prosecutors said Barnes had sexual relations with the girl on at least three occasions in recent weeks.

His attorney, public defender Richard Webster, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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