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Man arrested in connection with dissappearance of 12 yr old ATV girl

sao123

sao123

Lifer
Original Article - Volunteers scour forest for missing 12-year-old girl

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06170/699429-85.stm">Farmhand charged in death of missing girl
Body of 12-year-old found near her Greene County home
</a>


6/22 Update:
Police say a farmhand charged with strangling a 12-year-old girl told them he did so because the girl said she planned to tell her parents that he molested her.

Farmhand Charged With 12-Year-Old's Death Denied Bail
Martin To Stand Trial In Girl's Death

POSTED: 5:44 pm EDT June 20, 2006
UPDATED: 5:49 pm EDT June 21, 2006

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GREENE COUNTY, Pa. -- Police say a farmhand charged with strangling a 12-year-old girl told them he did so because the girl said she planned to tell her parents that he molested her.

Jeffrey R. Martin was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on criminal homicide and related counts in the death of Gabrielle M. Bechen. The girl vanished June 13 when she left her rural home to ride her all-terrain vehicle to a farm where she often visited the horses and where Martin worked as a farmhand.

During Martin's preliminary hearing, prosecutors played a recording of what they said was a conversation between Martin and police.

"She just came out of the blue and said, 'I'm going to tell my mom and dad that you molested me,"' he said. "And I just panicked."


Martin, a 48-year-old man with a record of petty crimes, did not confess to molesting the girl, authorities said.

On the recording, police said Martin told state troopers the girl jumped off her four-wheeler and ran down the farm's driveway after confronting him. He said he chased after her and, when she fell on loose gravel, jumped on top of her.

"I'm still scared, panicked, and I started choking her," the recording stated.

Martin told the troopers it was a "good while" before the girl stopped moving, according to the recording.

Bechen's body was found in a shallow grave beneath some rocks on the farm. Authorities said Martin strangled her and then used farm equipment to move her body to the field where he buried her. He then buried her ATV, helmet and shoes in separate locations elsewhere on the farm, police said.

"I didn't throw her in the hole," Martin told state police. The recording stated he placed the girl's body as carefully as he could before covering it with two bags of lime and refilling the hole.

Martin told police that after he buried the girl and her belongings, he went back to work, cleaning the barn and gathering a load of horse manure, which filled the hole where he hid the girl's ATV, the recording said.

Martin, of New Geneva, also will stand trial on an aggravated assault charge and four counts of tampering with physical evidence.

Public Defender Harry Cancelmi did not directly contradict the charges against Martin, but after the hearing attempted to explain why his client had trouble holding jobs and had a criminal record.

Martin was badly injured in an accident when he was about 12 and spent two years in a body cast. He fell behind in school and the episode may have affected him mentally, Cancelmi said.

Cancelmi argued unsuccessfully for a postponement because Dr. Cyril Wecht, the former Allegheny County coroner, was not available to testify about the autopsy he performed on Bechen. Instead, the district judge allowed Greene County Deputy Coroner Mary Ann Lewis to read Wecht's finding that Bechen was strangled by hand.

About 30 people attended the hearing, including Bechen's parents, Christopher and Blanche Bechen, who wept quietly as Martin's confession was played. They declined to comment.

Donations for Bechen's family are being accepted. They can be dropped off at any Community Bank in Greene County.
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Man held for trial in girl's death
Man held for trial in girl's death
By Chuck Brittain
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, June 22, 2006


WAYNESBURG - The parents of a 12-year-old girl found buried on a Greene County farm wept Wednesday as they listened to the taped confession of a handyman saying that he panicked and strangled the girl after she threatened to tell them she had been molested.
Jeffrey Robert Martin, 48, of New Geneva, Fayette County, was ordered to stand trial after a preliminary hearing on homicide and related charges in the death of Gabrielle Miranda Bechen, of Dunkard.

Bechen's body was found Saturday in a shallow grave on the farm, four days after she was last seen leaving her nearby home on an all-terrain vehicle. Authorities believe she died shortly after leaving home.

Services for Bechen will be held today at the Richard R. Herod Funeral Home in Point Marion, Fayette County.





Her parents, Christopher and Blanche Bierer Bechen, will have their daughter's body cremated and will keep the remains, according to a funeral director.

The couple wore buttons bearing her picture as they and several other relatives listened to Martin's taped confession during the two-hour hearing in the Greene County Courthouse.

"She said, 'I'll tell (her parents) you molested me,'" Martin quoted the girl as saying when she stopped to visit the horses on the farm where Martin worked as a handyman. Bechen was riding the ATV when she and Martin had words, he said in the confession.

"I panicked. It was a 12-year-old saying that about (me)," Martin told police. "I grabbed her by the arm. I told her, 'Why would you say that?' She jumped off the four-wheeler and ran down a driveway."

Martin said he gave chase, quickly catching the girl.

"She fell. I jumped on top of her," he said. "I started choking her."

Police asked how long he choked her, and Martin said, "It was a good while. She stopped moving."

Martin detailed how he buried Bechen's body in a makeshift grave, then spread lime on it, placed the empty lime bags on top, and covered it with horse manure. He buried the girl's helmet and shoes at different locations, he said, then buried the ATV in a manure pit.

"I didn't know what to do," he said. "I covered (her) over, then went back to work."

After a volunteer searcher found Bechen's ATV buried in manure Saturday afternoon, police questioned Martin, who led them to her body.

Martin has not been charged with molesting the girl, and there was no evidence presented yesterday that indicated she had been.

Police did not press the matter during the taped interrogation.

Martin, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, handcuffs and shackles, showed no emotion during the hearing. When it concluded, he was returned to the Greene County Jail to await trial.

Chuck Brittain can be reached at cbrittain@tribweb.com or 724-834-1151
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the mind has chemicals it releases when then body is going thru trauma or pain. we need to suppress these chemicals and the ability to pass out while we skin him alive.
 
everyone at work has one of two theories....

1)he raped the girl, buried her and her atv and should have been shot on the spot when the cops found him.

2)he was having sex with the sheep, she saw him, and he killed her and buried her atv to cover it up, and still should have been shot on the spot when the cops found him.


I guess we all agree, some time we should just save the legal system 2 months and some legal fees...some people just deserve to die.
 
that story gives us absolutely no type of reason or motivation, or even evidence, as to why they arrested Mr. Martin for the murder.

was it just because the body was found on his farmland I am guessing?
 
Originally posted by: purbeast0
that story gives us absolutely no type of reason or motivation, or even evidence, as to why they arrested Mr. Martin for the murder.

was it just because the body was found on his farmland I am guessing?
Click to expand...

Mr. Martin got upset and grabbed Gabrielle's arm; she broke free, ran down a driveway and fell on cinders, the document states. Then Mr. Martin jumped on top of her and wrapped his hands around her throat, continuing to apply pressure until she stopped moving, it says.

Mr. Martin told police he used farm equipment for the burials.

 
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