More than four years after the torture and slaying of Jennifer Daugherty, Greensburg Detective Jerry Vernail still cringes when he talks about the horrific details of the case.
Six roommates held the 30-year-old mentally challenged woman captive in an apartment they shared on North Pennsylvania Avenue before killing her.
The Daugherty murder case, among Western Pennsylvania's most notorious murders in recent memory, will be the topic of a free presentation on Wednesday at Westmoreland County Community College.
The program from noon to 2 p.m. is part of the school's Criminal Justice Week activities, according to Randy Slagle, assistant professor of criminology.
“When we started the investigation after Jennifer was found, we had nothing to go on and set up our command post in an office at the middle school,” Vernail said. “We didn't know the details at first and just worked through to find what happened ... .”
For more than two days, the group beat, humiliated and tortured Daugherty. Prosecutors said she was raped and stabbed in the heart, then tied up with Christmas lights and garland. They stuffed her body into a garbage can and dragged it to a parking lot at Greensburg Salem Middle School.
“We didn't even know her name when we started, but within 12 hours, we had all six (in custody) and had a pretty good idea what had happened,” Vernail recalled.
Slagle said the forum will give a glimpse into the details of the investigation.
“A lot of people have heard about the case and may have followed it but don't know the intricacies. This is a chance to hear some of that,” he said.
Slagle said the program will feature numerous speakers, including Vernail, who are intimately familiar with the Feb. 11, 2010 murder.
Among the presenters will be Joy Daugherty Burkholder, Daugherty's sister; Amy Garris, Westmoreland County Victim Witness Services; Autumn Maloy, community college assistant professor of biology; and Susan McClure, community college assistant professor of psychology.
It took four years for the six suspects to work their way through the court system. The final two were sentenced last week to decades in prison.
Peggy Miller, 31, was ordered to serve 35 to 74 years; Robert Masters, 40, will serve 30 to 70 years.
According to testimony, the group turned on her when Angela Marinucci, 21, became jealous because she feared Daugherty threatened Marinucci's relationship with Ricky Smyrnes, 28.
Masters and Miller did not intervene as the violence escalated against Daugherty when Smyrnes, the ringleader, and Melvin Knight, 24, were out of the apartment, according to testimony from Amber Meidinger, 23, the prosecution's key witness.
Smyrnes and Knight are now on death row. Meidinger received a 40-to-80-year sentence. Marinucci received a life sentence.
Paul Peirce is a staff writer for Trib Total Media.
