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Rodney Heaton faces 750 new charges

Police: $12,151 in transactions made with dead woman’s cards

LOCK HAVEN — Rodney L. Heaton stole just over $12,150 from a woman whose death he concealed for 17 months, city police allege.

Heaton illegally used Teresa Hannah Hill’s medical access and bank cards dozens of times to pay her rent, buy food and other items for himself between Aug. 1, 2015, and this past Dec. 22, while keeping Hill’s mysterious death a secret, according to court documents.

As a result, 750 criminal counts have been filed against Heaton, two of them felonies, in connection with the unauthorized transactions.

A lengthy list of the transactions with times and places where Hill’s Access card and bank card were used by Heaton, along with the list of charges, are included in the latest criminal complaint filed by Lock Haven City Police last week.

Heaton, 53, was arraigned Friday on the charges before District Judge Frank Mills, who set bail at $100,000.

Heaton remains incarcerated in the Centre County Prison and was scheduled for a first appearance on the new charges today at 8:30 a.m. in Clinton County Central Court.

The case erupted on Dec. 22, when a woman’s badly decomposed body – later identified as Hill – was rolled up in a carpet behind an apartment at 5 Corning St. downtown.

It wasn’t long before police arrested Heaton, who had lived in that apartment with Hill, who was reported to be age 59 when she died.

But Heaton told police he found Hill dead in July 2015 and admitted he used her state-issued Access Card and Santander Bank card ever since, according to police documents.

Heaton told police he used the Access card to buy food and used the bank card to make withdrawals, knowing that Hill received money at the beginning of every month from her Social Security benefits deposited into her Santander account. He admitted to forging Hill’s signature on a renewal form for Hill’s Department of Human Services benefits and mailing in a form so Hill’s Access card account would continue to have money in it, police said.

The list of charges include one felony count of forgery, one felony count of identity theft, 187 counts of access device fraud, 187 counts of theft by unlawful taking, 187 counts of theft by deception and 187 counts of receiving stolen property.

Through a search warrant, police obtained records of Teresa Hill’s Access card use from Aug. 1, 2015 through Dec. 22, 2016. The Access card was used for the following transactions:

r At Walmart, 167 Hogan Boulevard, Mill Hall, on Oct. 16, 2016 for $243.31.

r At Walmart, 167 Hogan Boulevard, Mill Hall, on Nov. 14, 2016 for $109.94.

r At Weis Market, 313 W. Bald Eagle St., Lock Haven, 66 transactions during that period of time totalling $1,973.13.

r At Family Dollar, 300 Bellefonte Ave., Lock Haven, 47 transactions during that time totalling $405.40.

r At Dollar General, 16 E. Main St., Lock Haven, 18 transactions during that time totalling $53.55.

r At Lucky Seven Meats, 7 S. Pine St., Lock Haven, three transactions totalling $67.59.

r At Save-A-Lot, 120 E. Walnut St., Lock Haven, four transactions totalling $58.01.

r At Dollar Tree, 212 Hogan Boulevard, Mill Hall, seven transactions totalling $60.

r At Weis Marketss, 6 Millbrook Plaza, Mill Hall, two transactions totalling $5.99.

Through a search warrant, police obtained the records for Teresa Hill’s Santander Bank card use for the dates of Aug. 1, 2015 through Dec. 22, 2016. The bank card was used for the following transactions.

r At an ATM at 17 Corning St., Lock Haven, 25 transactions for $302.50 and one transaction for $202.50, for a total of $7,765.

r At an ATM at 17 Corning St., Lock Haven, 12 transactions totalling $1,410.

Heaton maintains that he found Hill dead in the Corning Street apartment. He said he wrapped her body inside an air matress, duct-taped it shut, tied cord around it, rolled it in a carpet and placed her body on the back porch of the second-floor apartment.

The carpet was tossed off the back porch on Dec. 22 by workers cleaning out the apartment. When they picked the rug up off the ground to move it onto a trailer, they discovered the body and notified police, according to court documents.

District Attorney Dave Strouse told The Express he is still waiting for toxicoloy and anatomical test results to try to determine how Hill died.

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