Man Allegedly Murders Mother In Her South Fayette Home
SOUTH FAYETTE, Pa. (KDKA) - Shock waves ran through the South Fayette community as the sad news spread. Many had heard a woman had been killed, but few realized it was their neighbor, 67-year-old Margaret Sumney who had been killed inside her townhouse.
"I am in shock, I didn't know," said a woman who lives across the street, but did not want to give her name.
She told KDKA's Brenda Waters that Sumney was the first to welcome her to the neighborhood two years ago.
"She gave us, me and my baby, she was only a couple of months old, she gave us goodies."
It was Sept. 2 when Allegheny County Police went to the house on Olde Orchard Drive to do a welfare check. They had been contacted by Sumney's daughters, who lived out of town.
They found her dead in the second-floor bathroom tub. The cause of death: blunt force injuries to her head, neck and torso.
Investigators found blood spattered throughout the house and several bloody items.
A neighbor two doors up told police he heard an argument between a male and female on Aug. 29.
Police say that male was Sumney's son, 30-year-old David Sumney.
According to the criminal complaint, Sumney checked into Hotel Indigo in East Liberty on Sept. 2. He paid for three nights and stayed in room 421.
In the room, police found several items that belonged to the victim: a revolver, several expensive handbags and jewelry. The hotel manager told police Sumney gave her a set of pearls, when she resisted, she says he insisted, saying "from a special lady to a special lady."
Pictures of the murder scene were found on Sumney's iPhone -- gruesome photos of his mother holding a bloody cloth to her face and his mother on the floor of the house with her hair matted, possibly with blood.
Sumney was arrested over the weekend and charged with the murder of his mother, robbery and theft.
The criminal complaint also details how Sumney had been arrested several times before, dating back to 2014 for assaulting both his mother and father.
His mother lived alone in South Fayette.