Murphy Jewelers owner found dead
Police say woman killed prominent Schuylkill County businessman near French Quarter
New Orleans police are seeking a 25-year-old woman with multiple prostitution convictions in the slaying of Patrick Murphy, the owner of the Murphy Jewelers chain and one of the most prominent businessmen in Schuylkill County.
Murphy was found dead Thursday in a hotel room not far from the French Quarter, the central tourist district of New Orleans where thousands of visitors are preparing for the raucous festivities of Mardi Gras weekend.
The New Orleans coroner’s office said he died of “sharpforce injuries.” Police earlier called the death “homicide by cutting.”
Murphy, 62, who friends said was traveling with his wife, Kim, was found in a first-floor room of The Empress Hotel on the 1300 block of Ursulines Avenue shortly before noon. Police are seeking Megan Hall, who was seen on surveillance video entering the hotel with Murphy and leaving alone.
Homicide unit detectives have “positively identified Hall as the perpetrator,” the police department wrote in a Facebook post. She faces a seconddegree murder charge.
Gary Scheets, spokesman for the New Orleans Police Department, said Friday afternoon
that there remains “an open and active investigation.” He declined to discuss the homicide further.
James Brooks, whose mother owns the hotel, told the New Orleans Advocate that surveillance video shows Murphy checking in with Hall shortly after 2 a.m. Thursday and Hall leaving at 4 a.m. Brooks told television reporters that Hall registered for the room, and Murphy paid for it.
Court records show that Hall — who is from Mumford, Tenn., and sometimes spells her first name “Magen” — was convicted of prostitution in Memphis in February 2012 and sentenced to six days in jail.
In May 2012, she pleaded guilty to prostitution in New Orleans and was sentenced to 90 days of probation and a $500 fine. In that case, a police report says Hall solicited an undercover police officer for “indiscriminate sexual acts” for $250 on April 2, 2012. It was her first offense in the city, records said.
Police in Houston arrested Hall for prostitution twice — on May 7, 2015, and on the same date three years later. She was convicted in the first case and the second case appears to have been dismissed.
Murphy owned three jewelry stores, in Pottsville, Hamburg and the Promenade Shops in Upper Saucon Township. He was deeply rooted in Pottsville — his grandfather founded the city jewelry store in 1913 — and the circumstances of his death stand in stunning contrast to his hometown reputation.
“He was Mr. Pottsville,” said Robert Carl, president and chief executive officer of the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce, who has known Murphy for about 40 years.
“He was a good man, a good father, a good husband. It’s just such a tragedy. It’s hard to believe and hard to accept he’s gone.”
All three Murphy Jewelers were closed Friday. A security guard at the Promenade Shops said the store would be closed for at least Friday.
A handwritten sign on the door of the Hamburg store said it was closed because of a “family emergency.”
Carl said Murphy was with his wife but he didn’t know the details of their trip.
New Orleans is always full of tourists but especially crowded now as it gears up for Mardi Gras, several days of celebrations that culminate Tuesday and usher in the season of Lent.
The 36-room Empress bills itself as a “Euro-style economy hotel,” offering rates starting at $39 a night. It is in the Treme neighborhood, two blocks off the French Quarter, the city’s main tourist area.
The Travel Channel’s “Hotel Impossible” — in which hotelier Anthony Melchiorri tries to rescue troubled hotels — featured the Empress in an episode called “The Big Sleazy,” a play on New Orleans’ “Big Easy” nickname.
At the Murphy house in Pottsville, where the porch is still hung with a few Christmas decorations, no one answered the door Friday afternoon.
Sharon Lonergan, who lives across the street, said the Murphys were the first people to welcome her to the neighborhood when she moved in.
“They came right over,” she said.
JoAnne Russo-Justus, a tour guide at the D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc. brewery and gift shop, knew Murphy for about 15 years and said he always had a smile on his face.
“He was busy, but he always had time for the community,” Russo-Justus said. “He definitely will be missed. He’s on my mind. I’ve been aching all day.”
Murphy’s grandfather, Frank Murphy, was a clockmaker who traveled the countryside in a horse-and-buggy, repairing schoolhouse clocks, before settling down to open the first store.
According to the business’s website, Murphy decided early on to enter the family business and enrolled in Bowman’s Technical School, a watchmaking and jewelry institute in Lancaster.
He married Kim, his high school sweetheart. The couple had two children, daughter Mallory and son Sean, both of whom work for the company.
A 2013 story in the Pottsville Republican-Herald said Murphy traveled twice a year to Antwerp, Belgium, a center of the diamond industry, to hand-select diamonds for his stores. He also traveled to major East Coast cities in search of the latest jewelry fashions, the story said.
Murphy was busy in civic affairs and charitable efforts. Among other events, he sponsored the annual “Soup-er Bowl Sale” to benefit St. Patrick’s Soup Kitchen in Pottsville.
He also served for many years on the Pottsville Area School District Board of Directors.
Carl, the chamber president, said Murphy was the last jeweler in a city that once had more than 10. He stubbornly remained committed to the store on Market Street in downtown Pottsville even as the business district declined because of shopping malls and other suburban competition.
“When people would say downtowns are dead, Pat would have the torch burning for the city of Pottsville,” Carl said. “He was in a difficult location with difficult parking, but through his customer service and loyalty to his customer base, he was able to stay viable and then catapult to two more locations.”
Jack Botto, Murphy’s closest friend, said he had just arrived in Atlanta on Thursday when he learned of the homicide.
“My phone was lighting up like crazy last night,” he said.
He remembered Murphy as a man who loved his hometown, his family and his friends and had an irrepressible warmth and generosity.
Once, Botto, Murphy and another friend were dining at a bar. They settled the tab and left a tip.
“There was a dollar left over,” Botto said. “I have no idea why the dollar was left over. We said ‘Who gets the dollar?’”
They ripped the bill in three pieces. Each man took one and agreed that when they met for dinner again, they would tape the bill together and put it toward the tab.
“This was 20 years ago,” Botto said. “We’ve met since then but we never did that. I looked in my wallet today and I still have that piece of dollar bill. That just dropped me.”