© Matt Rourke / Associated Press
Homicide unit Capt. James Clark speaks during a news conference in Philadelphia.
Homicide unit Capt. James Clark speaks during a news conference in Philadelphia.
Dr. Melissa Ketunuti, 35, a second-year infectious disease fellow at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, was found Monday with her ankles and wrists bound and burned, police said.
Jason Smith, 36, was arrested Wednesday night at his home in Levittown, Pa., about 25 miles northeast of Philadelphia, homicide unit Capt. James Clark said at a televised news conference Thursday. Smith has been charged with murder, abuse of a corpse and other counts. There were no signs of sexual assault, he said.
Smith, an exterminator, had gone to Ketunuti's home on a service call where the two got into "some kind of argument," Clark told reporters.
"At her home they got into an argument. It went terribly wrong. He struck her, and knocked her to the ground," Clark said. "Immediately he jumped on top of her, started strangling her. She passed out, and then he set her body on fire."
The body was burned to hide evidence, Clark said.
The police said they used surveillance videos from nearby stores to identify the suspect. Smith was spotted on video getting out of the vehicle and following Ketunuti to her home. The man left her home after an hour and was seen on video circling her home, Clark said.
A Miracle! A Video used to SOLVE a violent crime!
(I gotta admit how hard it is not to make an EX-TERMINATOR joke, but I'll live from that.)
However, I'm still waiting- with bated breath - for those Sandy Hook videos.*
R.C.
* The other part of me that was holding my breath until
(1) I turned blue; or,
(2) The Pentagon released their 9/11 videos;
.... died from asphyxiation long, long, long ago.
RC