Man admits killing woman, burying her in yard
A Frankford man pleaded guilty Wednesday to third-degree murder in the death of a woman found buried in the yard behind his apartment.
A Frankford man pleaded guilty Wednesday to third-degree murder in the death of a woman found buried in the yard behind his apartment.
Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner immediately sentenced Jeffrey Bowen, 31, to an agreed-upon 35 to 70 years in prison in the stabbing death of Kelly Hepfl, 39.
Police found Hepfl's body March 24, after the resident manager of Bowen's apartment on the 4700 block of Frankford Avenue reported an area of disturbed earth that appeared soon after Bowen asked to borrow a shovel. Officers soon encountered Hepfl's body, wrapped in plastic trash bags and buried in a shallow grave.
Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore said Hepfl was stabbed more than 40 times with a knife that had a blade 11 inches long and 3 inches wide.
DNA tests showed both Hepfl's and Bowen's blood in the apartment and on doors and walls leading to the fire escape, and down to the rear yard where her body was buried.
Bowen made a brief apology Wednesday for killing Hepfl but gave no reason for the slaying or explanation of what led to it.
Pescatore said no one saw Bowen and Hepfl together before she was killed.
At Bowen's preliminary hearing in June, a woman who lived in the apartment next to him testified that on the evening of March 20, she heard a woman screaming for help and then a "thud."
A few minutes later, the witness said, Bowen, spattered in blood, knocked on her door and asked to borrow a condom. She said he told her that he and his girlfriend had fought and "wanted to have makeup sex."
The woman testified that she did not call police then because "I wanted to mind my own business."
Authorities believe Hepfl was killed that night.
Court records show that Hepfl, who lived nearby in Holmesburg, was arrested two days before she was killed on prostitution charges, and court records show arrests for drugs and prostitution beginning in 2001.
Defense lawyer Geoffrey Kilroy, who handled the case with Thurgood M. Matthews, said after the hearing that Bowen, who has a long history of drug use and mental illness, was remorseful.
Court records show Bowen has a history of arrests in Southeastern Pennsylvania dating to 2004 for drunken driving, drugs, assault, and theft and gun crimes, including a four- to 10-year prison term for drawing a weapon on Philadelphia police during a 2010 drug arrest.
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