Report: Soldier charged with murdering teen girlfriend's mother
ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- A soldier stationed in Maryland man has been charged with stabbing a woman to death in her car and later burying her body in eastern Pennsylvania.
Twenty-year-old Caleb Barnes of Fort Meade, Md., is charged in Lehigh County with criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse and statutory sexual assault.
Authorities said police found a parked vehicle in South Whitehall Township with a large pool of blood inside 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 54-year-old Cheryl Silvonek buried.
The Allentown Morning Call reports that Barnes was dating Silvonek's 14-year-old daughter. The slaying occurred hours after the woman tried to end the relationship between her daughter and the 20-year-old soldier, police said, according to the paper.
Barnes was on weekend leave from Fort Meade to visit the girl when the murder happened, reports the paper. An argument broke out between the three before the woman was slain, Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin told the paper.
"I can only imagine that it was because of his age," Martin said. "We have a 20-year-old man and a 14-year-old."
The teen girl is reportedly accused of helping Barnes bury her mother's body along a rural road. She's charged as a juvenile with abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and hindering apprehension - prosecutors have 10 days to decide whether they'll charge her as an adult, reports the paper.
A family attorney, John Waldron, told the paper the girl is "devastated."
"She's just crying for her mom, saying she misses her mom," said Waldron."This is a child, who just turned 14. She's in shock."
Barnes' attorney, public defender Richard Webster, didn't' immediately return a call from the Associated Press seeking comment.