Longtime Friend, Business Partner Testifies Against Triple Murder Suspect
WESTMORELAND Co. (KDKA) -- Kevin Murphy was arrested four years ago today for the murders of his mother, sister and aunt.
It was four years ago on this same day that the women were found dead inside Ferguson Glass Company in Loyalhanna Township.
That's when 69-year-old Doris Murphy, 43-year-old Kris Murphy and 81-year-old Edith Tietge were all shot in the head in the garage area of the shop.
Jurors today saw gruesome photos of the women's bodies bloody and lifeless on the floor.
Investigators say the scene was so gruesome, they initially thought it was a robbery gone bad.
Jurors for the first time saw the murder weapon. They also saw a photo of where the weapon was found- hidden in a wash basin below a belt sander in the back of the garage where the women were killed.
Donald Shondelmyer, who has known Kevin Murphy since high school and worked with him at Ferguson Glass Company for about 20 years, testified for the prosecution.
He says there had never been a gun kept at the shop until a few days before the murder. That's when he saw Kris Murphy carry the weapon into the shop saying that her brother was going to use it to kill a raccoon that was stuck in a trap on the family farm across the street.
Shondelmyer will be back on the stand tomorrow morning.
Defense attorneys maintain Murphy was not the one who killed the three women.
Kevin Murphy paid close attention to the testimony, but showed no emotion.
Prosecutors say he killed the women because they didn't approve of his relationship with a married woman.
He could face the death penalty if convicted.
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