Katrice Lester picked up her pay on Jan. 18 and made plans to go to the nail salon before taking her children — ages 4 and 6 — to the show. But when she went to the salon, she met her former boyfriend, John Ford, who asked for a ride to his pickup truck a few blocks away. It was the last time she was seen alive. John H. Ford Jr., 25, whose last known address was Polk Street, Clairton, was charged with criminal homicide late Saturday, a few hours after Lester’s badly decomposed body was found under a pile of debris inside his father’s vacant 3-story home. The body of the 31-year-old Lester, who worked in the medical records office of UPMC Health System in Oakland, was identified through tattoos, clothing and other forensic evidence, according to Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril H. Wecht. An autopsy yesterday was inconclusive. However, a police affidavit indicates that Lester was stabbed or beaten to death. The document also states that Ford tearfully confided to a friend that he didn’t mean to do it. Lester’s mother, Eugenia Hawkins, said Sunday that she is turning to God for comfort and has found some solace in finally knowing what happened to her daughter. “It’s been a long eight months of not knowing anything,” Hawkins said. Hawkins said Lester and Ford had been involved in what she called “an abusive” relationship with Ford for about two years and lived with him in Clairton. On Dec. 29, 2001, Lester moved back to her mother’s home in the Hill District. Hawkins called city police the day after Lester’s disappearance to report her missing. Family members and coworkers said it was unusual for Lester to miss work and not to call her children — J’Vani, 4, and Tyler, 6. According to the police affidavit: When Ford was interviewed on Feb. 3, he admitted to detectives that he was in Oakland on Jan. 18 when he saw Lester at the nail salon about 3:30 p.m. He said he asked her to drive him to his truck parked a few blocks away, which she did. Lester did not arrive back at the salon for her 4:30 appointment. Ten days later, police in Versailles Borough found Lester’s car parked in the lot of an apartment complex. There were signs of a violent struggle inside the bloody interior of the car, including a knife. On Friday, a confidential informant told police that he had picked up Ford at 7 p.m. on Jan. 18 and drove him back to a halfway house in Westmoreland County. Ford began crying and told the informant he made a mistake. He repeatedly said he “didn’t mean to do it.” Ford told the informant he punched Lester and knocked her out. He also asked the informant to help him bury Lester’s body, but the informant refused. The informant also said he believed Lester’s body was buried in the back yard of Ford’s father’s house on St. Clair Avenue in Clairton because, when police went to the residence shortly after the woman disappeared, Ford saw them and fled. City, county and Clairton police met Saturday morning at the abandoned house with two dogs and their handlers from the Air Search and Rescue Team based in Harmar Township. The dogs, Blaze and Maggie, trained to detect human remains, searched the grounds around the building without results. After Clairton police received permission from Ford’s father to search the building, Maggie found Lester’s bloody purse in a third-floor closet in the back bedroom. There was money inside along with Lester’s driver’s license. Officers then went to a front bedroom where they found Lester’s body. Police last night said they did not know if the confidential informant would be eligible for the reward money that was offered by Lester’s family members and coworkers. Joshua Shelton, a clerk at a convenience store on Desiderio Avenue near Jack Ford’s home, said customers remembered Lester. “She was close to everyone around here,” Shelton said yesterday. “Everyone was in here last night talking about it.” Funeral services for Lester are scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at Morningstar Baptist Church in Clairton. Ford was arraigned before Deputy Coroner Jon Coleman and jailed without bond to await a hearing scheduled for Sept. 17.

---

Copyright ©2026— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---