LOCK HAVEN, Pa. (AP) - Jury selection is scheduled to start Monday in a homicide trial in the disappearance of a central Pennsylvania woman a quarter-century ago whose body has never been found.
Sixty-eight-year-old Loyd Groves is charged in the death of 40-year-old Katherine Heckel, who was last seen in July 1991 leaving the former International Paper Co. mill in Lock Haven for lunch.
Authorities said Groves was a suspect immediately because of an extramarital affair he was having with Heckel, but he wasn’t arrested until January 2015 in Beaver.
Heckel was declared legally dead in 1998. Prosecutors allege that she told Groves she wanted to end their brief relationship.
Defense attorney George Lepley says he believes the prosecution will have a difficult time proving that Heckel is dead and that Groves killed her.
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