Pennsauken mother’s body could take months to find

The body of Felicia Mikels, the teenage mother who was slain and thrown in Pennsauken Creek over the weekend, could take months to retrieve, a police official warned today.

The underwater search entered its fourth day this morning, as troopers in wet suits scoured the icy creek in Cinnaminson, Burlington County.

Helicopters equipped with infrared cameras hovered over the Fork Landing Road bridge where Douglas Mandichak and Christopher Mikels have told police they threw 17-year-old Felicia Mikels' body.

A closed hearing was scheduled this afternoon to determine where to place Mikels' 5-week-old daughter, Miciana Ramos. The baby's stroller was found in the creek on Monday.

Mandichak, 25, led detectives to the Cinnaminson site on Monday and showed them where Mikels' body was thrown into the water. He was charged with murder and is being held on $1 million bail.

Christopher Mikels, 26, who is Felicia's uncle, has been charged with being an accessory to murder and is being held on $750,000 bail. Both remain at the Camden County jail.

State police had pairs of divers, wearing thick rubber suits and scuba tanks, in the water until noon today.

"There's absolutely zero visibility out there," said Sgt. Raymond Jacobs, the team's supervisor. The divers went down 18 feet to scour the creek bed by hand. They found only stumps, fallen trees, old bridge pilings and bricks, he said.

"It's all being done by feel," Jacobs said.

He said about 25 troopers are assisting in the search-and-recovery operation, and will remain involved until the body is found or the Camden County Prosecutor's Office calls off the search.

Helicopters equipped with infrared cameras hovered above the creek to see whether Mikels' body had washed up along the banks.

Jacobs said that the weather, the current, and tidal conditions, could determine when Mikels' body might be found. And, he said, it could take months.

Mikels was beaten at a garage where her uncle stored equipment for his cleaning business, prosecutors said.

Christopher Mikels lured her to a late-night meeting, then drove her to a Pennsauken industrial complex where he rents space.

Mandichak and Mikels, who told authorities he may be the father of Felicia's baby, appeared separately yesterday before State Superior Court Judge Thomas A. Brown Jr. in Camden and said little as prosecutors charged them with murder and related offenses.

"The facts in this case, Judge, are particularly hideous," said Mary Alison Albright, assistant Camden County prosecutor.

In court, Albright said that Mandichak had been convicted in 2003 of arson and sentenced to five years in prison. He was released on parole in May 2006 after serving three years, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Mandichak's grandmother, Helen Miller, said her grandson had never been in trouble before he was arrested with another Pennsauken man and charged with setting up to 30 fires in Burlington and Camden Counties.

"Doug was a good, sweet kid," Miller said. She said he had learning disabilities and had attended a special school. She declined to elaborate.

Mandichak and Christopher Mikels were best friends, she said. Mandichak worked for Chris' Demolition Co., a business owned by Mikels that cleaned out properties for real estate agents and landlords.

Felicia Mikels worked part time for the company, her father said.

"I always thought Doug had a crush on her," James Mikels said Monday in an interview outside his Pennsauken home, where Christopher and Felicia Mikels and other family members also lived.

Mandichak and Mikels told investigators they killed the teenager in a dispute over money, acting Camden County Prosecutor Joshua Ottenberg said Monday.

But prosecutors said yesterday that motive was now less clear.

The men lured Mikels to a bowling alley two blocks from her Pennsauken home Friday night with a series of text messages to her cell phone, Ottenberg said. Mikels took her baby with her to the Pinsetter Bar & Bowl on Maple Avenue.

Mandichak and Mikels drove the mother and child to a nearby industrial complex, where Mandichak pulled out the wood and beat Felicia Mikels to death, Ottenberg said. The men wrapped her body in a tarp and dumped it off the Fork Landing Road bridge.

Mandichak and Mikels argued about throwing the baby into the creek too, but instead left her on the front lawn of a Cherry Hill home, Ottenberg said.

Christopher Mikels persuaded Mandichak to let the baby live, Ottenberg said. DNA from both men was being tested to determine whether either is the baby's father, he said.

The baby was placed in temporary foster care immediately after she was examined at a hospital.