Suspect In Gruesome Ohio Murder Grew Up In Woodland

WOODLAND (CBS13) - A gruesome murder that happened more than 2,000 miles away in Ohio involves some suspects who spent time in Woodland.

From an Ohio jailhouse former Woodland resident Matthew Puccio admits to not only stabbing and suffocating his girlfriend Jessica Sacco, but also to chopping her up.

"Why did you kill her?" he is asked in a jail interview. "I honestly don't know," he says.

"Why cut up her body?" Puccio is asked.

"I was scared."

Detectives say Puccio needed help after the murder, and four people are accused of helping to ditch the body parts.

Among them, Puccio's friend and Woodland native Andrew Forney, who was living with the couple in Ohio.

CBS13 talked to a man in Woodland on Monday who identified himself as Puccio's uncle.

"How often would you say you talk to him?" we asked him. "Oh man, I haven't, we haven't had anything to talk about."

"Honestly, my prayers go out to the family first of that poor girl, and then to the family closest connected to the situation."

Meanwhile a woman over at Andrew Forney's childhood home refused to answer the door. Childhood friends tell us off camera that Puccio attended Woodland Christian School before moving and Forney was very active at Woodland Bible Church.

Now he's accused of abusing a corpse all to help a childhood friend get away with a gruesome crime he's now confessed to.

"We have no right to take someone else's life no matter what the scenario is," Puccio says in the jail interview.

"But you did."

"I know. And I have to live with that."

Puccio says he plans to plead guilty during his arraignment hearing in the coming days.