Boyfriend accused of stabbing Peters teen to death in SUV
Suspect’s mother charged with helping him dispose of body, discard knife
The teen accused of stabbing his 18-year-old girlfriend to death Wednesday night told state police a “demon” urged him to kill her as he went into his North Strabane house to retrieve a kitchen knife and then plunged it into her chest as they sat together in her SUV.
Karoline Heintz had just left her family’s home in Peters Township about 9:30 p.m. and planned to head back to PennWest University in California where she was an incoming freshman when she stopped at Royce Moser’s home at 229 William Drive on the way, state police said.
The two sat in her SUV and they talked for a while when Moser claimed he had a “demon take over” telling him to harm Heintz after something she said made him angry, according to court documents. Moser then told Heintz that he had “something” for her, prompting him to leave the SUV and go into his house where he retrieved a chef’s kitchen knife, investigators said.
When Moser returned to the vehicle, he stabbed Heintz in the chest and she fell out of the driver’s side of the SUV, court documents allege. Police said Moser then dragged Heintz around the SUV and placed her into the rear cargo area before driving to California Borough where the SUV and her body were discovered shortly after midnight Thursday.
Moser, 18, was arrested less than 12 hours later and charged with homicide and other related counts in connection with Heintz’s killing.
His mother, 56-year-old Rachel Moser of Beallsville, was also arrested and is accused of helping her son dispose of Heintz’s body, discarding the knife and then cleaning his blood-stained clothing.
Investigators said Royce Moser called his mother shortly after the stabbing and told her “demons” made him do it and he didn’t know whether Heintz was “dead or alive.” He initially drove to her Beallsville home asking her for assistance, and then she followed her son in her own vehicle as he drove Heintz’s SUV to California, where surveillance video showed both of them wearing blue latex gloves on their hands, according to court documents.
The mother then drove her son back to her home at 2857 Main St., and she then told him to strip down from his bloody clothing so he could bathe and she could wash the clothes, police said. She then tossed the knife in the garbage so it could be placed for trash pickup outside her residence, investigators said.
During this time, Heintz’s family became concerned because she had not returned to her dormitory at PennWest as she prepared to start her freshman year Monday. Relatives checked her phone’s location and noticed she stopped at Moser’s house in North Strabane for about 30 minutes before continuing to Route 40, where the tracking ended halfway between Scenery Hill and Beallsville.
After relatives were unable to reach Heintz, her family used an Apple AirTag tracking device in the vehicle that showed the SUV was parked near the California Area Public Library at 100 Wood St. in the borough, police said. Relatives contacted authorities, and California Borough police officers were dispatched to the library parking lot, where they located Heintz’s SUV and noticed blood throughout the vehicle before discovering her body in the cargo area with a stab wound to her chest.
State police were contacted and led the investigation by conducting searches of Royce Moser’s home in North Strabane, where he was living with his father at the time, and Rachel Moser’s home in Beallsville, where they found the knife allegedly used in the killing discarded in the trash. Both the mother and son were interrogated at the state police barracks near Eighty Four and gave accounts about what occurred, according to court documents.
In addition to homicide, Royce Moser faces misdemeanor charges of abuse of a corpse, evidence tampering and obstruction of justice. Rachel Moser is charged with hindering apprehension, abuse of a corpse, evidence tampering and obstruction of justice.
Both were arraigned Thursday night by District Judge Charles Tenny and sent to the Washington County jail without bond while they await their preliminary hearings tentatively scheduled for Aug. 31 at 2:30 p.m. No attorneys were listed for either one of the defendants in online court documents.