By PATRICK BUCHNOWSKI
The adopted son of Anna Phillips, whose body was found Sunday in a wooded area in Westmoreland County, is being held in West Virginia, charged with the strangulation death of his mother.
Frederick O. Phillips Jr., 51, of Johnstown, fled the area, was involved in a DUI crash in West Virginia and is recovering in a hospital there, police said Tuesday.
He is charged with criminal homicide, murder and aggravated assault.
Cambria County District Attorney Patrick Kiniry gave details of the murder investigation Tuesday during a news conference at the Upper Yoder Police Department.
The body of the 85-year-old township woman was found off state Route 271 on state game lands in Fairfield Township just west of the Cambria County border.
Her body was covered with leaves.
“Based on the state of decomposition, it appeared she had been dead for at least several days,” Kiniry said.
Authorities think Mrs. Phillips died sometime between Oct. 4 and 16.
On Saturday, she was reported missing by a relative and a neighbor.
When township police entered the woman’s Menoher Boulevard home, they found part of her dentures and three money bags with loose change on the bed. The also found a small dog that had been left alone in the house.
That’s when the search for Frederick Phillips began. He had been living with his mother since June, when he was released from state prison.
Investigators located Phillips at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va., where he was recovering from a DUI crash, Kiniry said. The crash happened at 2:13 a.m. Oct. 16 in Buckhannon.
“He allegedly ran off the road, and the truck in which he was driving rolled over,” Kiniry said.
Phillips is under guard and was expected to be released Tuesday night or today.
Phillips faces DUI and a gun charge in West Virginia, Kiniry said.
Authorities there found a loaded .22-caliber pistol and about $15,000 cash in the 1994 Chevrolet pickup Phillips had been driving.
Kiniry said he doesn’t believe the gun was used in the murder. Phillips is expected to be extradited to Cambria County.
In a hospital interview, Phillips told Cambria County Detective Gary Eisenhuth he strangled his mother at the bottom of the steps and told her: “I want you to be with Dad.”
Upper Yoder Township police found a handwritten note left on the kitchen table of the woman’s Menoher Boulevard home. The note references a woman with whom Phillips has had a relationship, according to court papers.
It read: “All I ever wanted to do was love Joann Long. She’s my soul mate, and now I blew it all. I loved her so much I think I lose my mind.”
Kiniry would not comment on the note or Phillips statement.
Phillips also told authorities where to find his mother’s body.
He said he wrapped the body in a towel and drove to the to the top of state Route 271, Laurel Mountain.
Phillips instructed police to “make a right on the gas line and take a second dirt road to the left. Her body will be on the right side about 1,000 yards from the road.”
Township police, a state police mobile crime unit, and Cambria County Coroner Dennis Kwiatkowski made an intense search of the wooded area.
With the aid of Cambria County Emergency Services and a GPS, Kwiatkowski was able to determined the body was 800 feet into Westmoreland County, Kiniry said.
A man walking the area had earlier reported finding part of a set of dentures, an article of clothing and a small pool of blood, Kiniry said.
Westmoreland authorities took Mrs. Phillips’ body to Carlow University in Pittsburgh, where an autopsy determined she had been strangled.
Phillips has a criminal past. His criminal record in Cambria County dates to 1978 and was sentenced on numerous theft charges, county court records show.
State Department of Corrections records show a more violent history.
Phillips was released June 25 after completing a six- to 12-year sentence for the brutal 1983 assault of a Cambria County woman.
Anna Phillips’ nephew, Charles Hunt of the Johnstown area, said he would see his aunt as he drove past her house.
“I’ve been seeing her all summer sitting out on the porch, her and Freddie,” Hunt said. “I would drive past, but I wouldn’t stop because I didn’t want to be involved with Freddie.”
Upper Yoder police Chief Walter Howell said it had been a difficult investigation because Anna Phillips was well known to the department. Her husband, Fred Phillips Sr., had been a constable in the area, he said.
“Our whole department knew Anna Phillips,” Howell said. “She sort of adopted us and we adopted her. She was a very good person.”
A funeral mass will be held at 11:30 a.m. Friday at St. Clement Catholic Church in Johnstown. Visiting hours are from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday at Picking-Treece-Bennett Mortuary Inc., 921 Menoher Blvd.
