Police: Mass. man killed girlfriend as children watched

Then he allegedly tried to kill himself with shot to head

A Massachusetts man killed his girlfriend in front of her children earlier this month, Bucks County prosecutors said Tuesday, ignoring one of the girls’ cries for him to stop.

Thadius McGrath, 35, then attempted to kill himself, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest, shooting himself once in the head. McGrath survived, and is now charged with murder in the death of Samantha Rementer inside her home in Northampton Township.

McGrath, in an interview with county detectives Monday, admitted that he beat and strangled Rementer, 31, with the cord from a floor lamp as her children watched, the affidavit said. He said he attacked her because she had upset him.

Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub, in announcing the arrest, denounced both the crime and McGrath’s attempt to avoid prosecution by shooting himself.

“I cannot think of two more cowardly acts,” Weintraub said. “He will now be made to pay an exacting price for his crimes.”

McGrath remained in custody, denied bail. There was no indication he had hired an attorney.

Police were called to Rementer’s home in Northampton on June 8 by McGrath’s mother, who had received a suicidal call from him hours earlier, the affidavit said. When the officers arrived, they were greeted by Rementer’s 4-year-old daughter, who told them “[Daddy] killed Mommy because she was annoying him and then [Daddy] shot himself accidentally.”

Inside the home, officers found Rementer’s 1-year-old daughter still strapped in her high chair in the dining room. They found Rementer, unresponsive, on the floor of a bedroom with the cord from a floor lamp still wrapped around her neck. She had sustained bluntforce trauma to her face, and was pronounced dead at the scene by medics.

In another bedroom, the officers found McGrath lying on the floor, covered in blood, with a 9mm pistol beside him. He was taken to St. Mary Medical Center, where doctors discovered he had suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his face.

McGrath’s father later told police that his son had called him earlier that day and admitted that he killed Rementer during an argument.