Man charged in woman’s desert killing
A Maryland man accused of kidnapping and killing a Bethel Park woman after leaving her tied to a signpost in the Nevada desert has been charged federally with kidnapping resulting in death.
John Matthew Chapman, 39, was named in an FBI complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court and will appear before a judge next month.
Chapman is accused of kidnapping and murdering Jaime Feden, 33, with whom he had a tumultuous relationship.
After the killing, the FBI said, he lived at her house and posed as her on Facebook Messenger to thwart attempts by her friends and relatives to find out what happened to her.
One friend contacted Bethel Park police Nov. 14 for a welfare check at Ms. Feden’s house because no one had seen her since Sept. 15.
Ms. Feden was not answering calls on her cellphone. She did, however, apparently respond to messages on Facebook Messenger, but her cousin said she didn’t believe it was Ms. Feden because the speaking style was different from hers.
Neighbors also said they had seen Chapman coming and going at the house as recently as Nov. 13. Officers searched the home and found Ms. Feden’s cellphone next to a fake CIA identification in Chapman’s name, the FBI said, as well as a backpack containing duct tape and zip ties.
Ms. Feden’s cousin told police about the Facebook Messenger posts and relayed that one message had indicated that Ms. Feden had received a new cellphone number. Ms. Feden’s friend then set a trap, sending a fake text indicating that “Uncle Ralph” had died. The person responding said “I’m sorry. When did he die?” After being told “yesterday” and that “gram” had been calling, the responder said “I’m sorry to be distant but the way everyone has treated me I don’t feel like part of the family anymore.”
Police determined that the new phone number purportedly belonging to Ms. Feden was masking another number that belonged to Chapman.
Chapman later called the friend from his own cellphone and threatened to file harassment charges against her because the police kept calling him, the FBI complaint said.
Chapman then called Bethel Park police and said he had been in contact with Ms. Feden and had urged her to contact her family, the complaint said. Police asked him to have her call them, and he said he would and hung up. The next day he called again and gave “false and conflicting information” about Ms. Feden’s status, police said.
Later that day, officers arrested him and he gave a statement.
According to the complaint, Chapman told police that he lied to Ms. Feden by telling her that a trip to Las Vegas in September was a vacation with the possibility of buying a house there.
But, according to the FBI, he had planned to kill her even before they left Pennsylvania and had a “kill kit” ready.
They arrived in Las Vegas on Sept. 23 and two days later Chapman convinced Ms. Feden to drive into the desert on the pretext of engaging in a bondage-themed photo shoot. In Lincoln County, Nev., he bound her hands and feet with zip ties and tied her to a signpost, according to the complaint. He covered her mouth and nose with duct tape until she couldn’t breathe.
“He then watched [her] die from asphyxiation,” the FBI complaint said.
After she was dead, he removed her from the post, untied her, took her clothes off and left her in the desert. He drove across the country and back to Bethel Park, discarding articles of her clothing along the way.
The sheriff’s office in Lincoln County told police the body of a woman had been found in the desert Oct. 5 and dental records confirmed it was Ms. Feden, the FBI said.
A search of Chapman’s phone also contained a picture of Ms. Feden under a “Vegas” sign Sept. 24 and another image of her tied to the signpost Sept. 25.
Police said Chapman continued to live at Ms. Feden’s house after her death and used it as his own, claiming to a girlfriend that it belonged to an uncle who had recently died. He also told the girlfriend that he was a guard at the Allegheny County Jail, the FBI said.
Chapman is being held in the Allegheny County Jail on numerous state charges related to the kidnapping. He is set to appear in federal court March 2 for an initial hearing on the new federal charges before U.S. Magistrate Judge Maureen Kelly.
He had previously been prosecuted in federal court in Pittsburgh for wire fraud and was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2014.