Arrest made in coed’s slaying
PHILADELPHIA » A former Temple University student was charged Sunday with murder in the death of a current student whose remains were found over the weekend on property linked to the suspect.
Jenna Burleigh, 22, of Lower Salford, was reported missing by her family Thursday night. She was last seen on surveillance video leaving a bar near the school campus in north Philadelphia early that morning in the company of a man police have identified as Joshua Hupperterz, 29.
Authorities say Burleigh went missing around 2 a.m. Thursday near Temple’s campus. They say ex-Temple student Joshua Hupperterz, last seen with Burleigh, was taken into custody Saturday in Paupack Township in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Hupperterz was taken into custody Friday in Paupack Township and a body was found Saturday on lake front property belonging to his grandmother. Philadelphia police said Sunday that the body had been confirmed as that of the victim.
Besides the murder charge, Hupperterz faces
charges of possession of an instrument of crime, evidence-tampering and abuse of a corpse. Court documents don’t list an attorney for him and a message left at a number listed in his name wasn’t immediately returned.
Authorities believe Burleigh was killed in Philadelphia and taken to the Wayne County township property, about 25 miles east of Scranton.
Philadelphia police said Hupperterz, who once attended Temple, told university police investigators on Friday that he “had been so drunk when he left the bar he had no recollection of who he had been with.”
Capt. John Ryan, commander of the Philadelphia police homicide unit, said investigators found evidence relevant to the case at a Philadelphia apartment and a residence in Jenkintown before the body was found and Hupperterz was charged.
“We still don’t even know the cause of death,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said. “We still have a lot of work to do, to include trying to figure out who else may have been involved, if there’s anyone else at all.”
Temple University President Richard Englert said Burleigh started at the
school this semester as a junior transfer student from Montgomery County Community College, majoring in film and media arts.
“Our deepest sympathies go out to Jenna’s family and her classmates, both here at Temple and at Montgomery County Community College,” he said.
Burleigh was a Souderton Area High School graduate.
In a 2016 post on Medium.com from Jenna Burleigh, she wrote about her interest in the communications field. “While I went to Souderton, RedAlert, our TV show, was my baby. I was in the class for 3 years, the last two being a producer. I loved it so much and still miss spending hours in the control room by myself watching xfactor auditions.”
“Those that knew Jenna described ‘big-hearted,’ ‘hilarious’ ‘fiercely feminist,’ ‘unapologetically herself,’ and a ‘an incredibly woke young woman,’” according to a statement from Temple’s Student Government. “She spent much of her time combatting racism and sexism, as well as defending rights for the LGBTQIA+ community, which are issues that we as a TSG administration hold close to our hearts,” the statement continues.
Burleigh’s father, Edward, posted on Facebook Saturday evening that “Our Beautiful Angel Jenna is now in Heaven.”
“Now I know for sure that you can have a ‘broken heart’ RIP honey,” he said in the post.