TEEN HOME INVADER HAD PRIORS IN DELCO
Media youth charged in horrific Chesco case had been busted for two burglaries in Delco
This is the entrance to a dark, dank storage room in a Chester County home where the 72-year-old woman who owns the home was left for four days until being discovered by family members. A 17-year-old from Media has been charged in the attack.
WEST CHESTER >> The 17-yearold Media youth who is accused in the brutal home invasion robbery of a 72-year-old woman in East Brandywine has two prior arrests for burglaries in Delaware County. The teen, who police say bound and gagged the elderly victim before leaving her in a dark storage room, where she remained for four days, made his first appearance in Chester County Court Friday morning and will continue to be held in detention ahead of a scheduled hearing on the case next week.
The youth, who appeared before Juvenile Court Special Master Gregory Marshall Friday at a required hearing on his placement, did not speak at the brief proceeding, which was attended by members of the elderly victim’s family. His attorney did not oppose the request of the prosecutor and Juvenile Probation officer to keep him at the Chester County Youth Center in Pocopson.
Known by the initials K.F., the defendant was dressed in a blue and black plaid flannel shirt and black jeans. He is charged with attempted homicide, robbery, burglary, aggravated assault, strangulation, and related charged. Assistant District Attorney Christine Abatemarco told Marshall her office will move to have the case certified to have the juvenile tried as an adult.
A preliminary hearing on the case will be held Friday before Common Pleas Judge John Hall, who supervises the county’s Juvenile Court.
Police say the juvenile attacked the woman outside her home on Creek Road Wednesday evening and then left her, bound hand and foot, tied up in a storage room, without food or water or light, for four days, from Wednesday night until Sunday morning.
“He does present a danger to the community and he does pose a flight risk,” Abatemarco told Marshall in asking that he continued to be detained. She said he had two previous adjudications for burglaries in Delaware County, and had previously escaped from Glen Mills School before being transferred to the Devereux Brandywine campus, where he was living when he allegedly committed the robbery. He is a native of Thailand.
Members of the victim’s family declined to comment when leaving the Chester County Justice Center following the detention hearing. A family friend, who identified himself as Paul Murphy, said of the police work that led to the suspect’s arrest, “Nice work by them.”
In making his decision to continue detention, Marshall indicated that he found the nature of the case disturbing. “I am constrained from offering any comment, although I would like to offer many,” he said at the conclusion of the hearing.
Defendants in juvenile prosecutions are entitled to hearings within 72 hours of their arrest if they are held in detention. In this case, both Abatemarco and Juvenile Probation Officer Joseph Hartzell recommended that he remain in the detention center because of the serious nature of his alleged offense and the poor record he had in he juvenile system to date.
According to Hartzell, K.F., a resident of Media, was adjudicated delinquent on two burglary counts in Delaware County on Oct. 18. He was ordered placed in Glen Mills School and on the Delaware County GPS system, but absconded from those programs Oct. 30. He was taken into custody by Delaware State Police after he was spotted walking down I-95 near the Delaware-Maryland border. Police said he was found with drug paraphernalia in his possession, as well as items from a previous burglary.
He underwent six evaluations while at the Delaware County Juvenile Detention Center in Lima, and was ordered to a residential treatment center. On Dec. 12, he was sent to Devereux’s campus off Route 282 in Wallace. He fled from that facility Feb. 22, the date of the East Brandywine home invasion, returning on Feb. 24. He was then returned to Lima, where he was arrested on Wednesday.
Hartzell recommended that in addition to continued detention, he be evaluated by forensic and psychiatric professionals.
K.F’s attorney, Michael Raffaele of Media, did not object to the continued detention. He asked, however, that K.F.’s evaluators be familiar with “reactive detachment disorder,” defined as a persistent failure to initiate or respond to most social interactions, including those with parents and caregivers. He declined to discuss his previous contact with K.F., although he acknowledge being involved with the Delaware County cases.
In announcing his arrest Thursday, Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan said K.F. “engaged in a brutal attack on the victim, then showed a callous disregard for her life. The charged juvenile is lucky that the victim did not die. If the victim had not been found by her family, the defendant would be facing murder charges.”
East Brandywine Police Chief Mark Kocsi said the victim, whose name has not been released, continues to improve but remains in Paoli Hospital, where she was taken after being discovered by a family member in her home Sunday.
According to the D.A.’s Office, on Feb. 22 the woman was at home in the morning and left the house from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. When she returned home, she discovered that someone had burglarized her home, stealing credit cards. She then left for her regularly scheduled work day.
The victim returned from work at approximately 7:30 p.m. As she walked back into her home, she was grabbed and struck. During the assault, the attacker told her, “You’ll be with Jesus soon.” She was strangled until she lost consciousness.
The attacker then covered the victim’s head with a shopping bag, secured around her neck with duct tape. Her arms were tied in back of her with zip ties, duct tape, and cloth. Her knees and ankles were bound together with duct tape. Before leaving, the attacker stuffed the victim in a small, unlit storage area underneath a set of stairs in the house, police said.
The attacker stole the victim’s credit cards, her 2013 silver Fiat 500, a phone, and other items. When the victim did not telephone anyone for several days, her family grew worried and checked up on her. A family member entered the residence at about 10 a.m. on Sunday, and found her badly dehydrated, malnourished, and injured from the assault, but still alive. She was rushed to Paoli Hospital where she received emergency treatment.
East Brandywine police and Chester County detectives discovered that a juvenile had fled from the nearby Devereux facility the same say as the attack, something reported by staff there.
The police traced the use of the victim’s stolen credit cards. They discovered that one of her credit cards was used in Maryland Feb. 22, the same day as the attack. The police recovered video from the store where the credit card was used. The juvenile who had escaped from Devereux is clearly identifiable in the video, both emerging from the victim’s stolen car and using the victim’s credit card.