Granddaughter arrested in Ambler murder
AMBLER» The granddaughter of a woman found murdered in her home in the 100 block of South Chestnut Street early Monday morning has been charged with homicide.
Nicole R. Cadwalader, 30, who lived with her grandmother, Sharon Burke, has been arrested and charged with first- and third-degree murder, possession of an instrument of crime and re- sisting arrest. According to a criminal complaint and a news release from the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, Cadwalader went to the Ambler Borough Police Department at 6:04 a.m. June 4 and told officers she had killed her grandmother, hitting her with a bat and slitting her throat.
Police went to Burke’s home at 6:19 a.m. and found the 68-yearold woman dead on the bedroom floor. A bloody stea k knife was found on the kitchen counter and bloody baseball bat near the front door. A bloody pan was also recovered.
In an interview w ith police and county detectives, Cadwalader said she believed her grandmother was “a wretched, evil woman,” and she stabbed her in the neck, struck her in the head with a pan and baseball bat in the kitchen and, believing the woman was dead, went to a friend’s home. She later went back to the house and found her grandmother, who apparently was able to drag herself to the bedroom, lifeless on the floor. Cadwalader then walked to the police department, where she told police she had killed her grandmother.
The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office performed an autopsy and determined Burke’s cause of death was multiple stab wounds with a contributing cause of blunt impact to the head, the DA’s Office said. The manner of death was ruled homicide.
Cadwalader kicked a police officer during her arrest, leading to the resisting arrest charge.
She was arraigned before District Judge Patricia Zaffarano and is being held without bail at Montgomery County Prison. A pre- liminary hearing is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. June 14.
Court records show Cadwalader, who was accused of stealing a dog April 9 outside Weavers Way Coop, waived charges of theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, public drunkenness and disorderly conduct to county court during an April 24 preliminary hearing. In addition, she was cited for criminal mischief May 9, a summary charge that is still pending.