LOYD W. GROVES

LOCK HAVEN — A state Superior Court panel has affirmed the third-degree murder conviction and sentence in a 1991 Clinton County cold case in which the body never has been found.

There was overwhelmingly circumstantial evidence for a jury to find Loyd W. Groves killed Katherine Dolan Heckel, 40, on July 15, 1991, the opinion written by president Judge Jack A. Panella states.

“I’m very pleased,” Heckel’s mother Margaret Dolan said Wednesday. “I try not to think about him [Groves] too much.”

Groves, who worked at the former International Paper Co. mill in Lock Haven, as did Heckel, was sentenced in January 2019 to 10 to 20 years in state prison, the maximum for third-degree murder when the crime was committed.

Groves, who has maintained his innocence, argued in his appeal that Lycoming County Senior Judge Kenneth D. Brown erred in:

— Not suppressing evidence from searches of his van, in which a speck of blood containing Heckel’s DNA was found, and his desk at work, from which a .25-caliber pistol was recovered.

— Allowing Dennis Taylor, with whom Heckel also was having an affair, to testify about her wanting to end her relationship with Groves.

–Permitting Gayle Taylor, with whom Groves worked in Ohio, to testify he told her in 1994 or 1995 he could show her how to bury a body so it would never be found.

Groves also contended Brown abused his discretion in sentencing him to the maximum and the evidence did not support conviction for third-degree murder.

The appeals court panel noted Groves previously had consented to a search of his van and the paper mill’s human relations director at the request of police searched his desk and found the gun. Hammermill had a no gun policy.

The jury could reasonably infer Groves had a motive to kill after hearing Dennis Taylor testify Heckel told him shortly before her disappearance her lover was upset because she broke off their relationship, Panella wrote.

Gayle Taylor describing what Groves told her while they working together in the Portage County Health Department in Ohio was relevant, the panel ruled.

She testified she after finding drugs in the room of her 14-year-old son she commented in Groves’ presence, “if the drugs don’t get him, I will.”

Taylor said Groves responded: “I can show you how to get rid of a body so it can never be found.”

Heckel, 40, was last seen leaving for lunch on July 15, 1991, from the Hammermill plant in Lock Haven where she worked in the human relations office and Groves was an industrial hygienist.

There was trial testimony the two had a heated argument at work that morning, him going home in the early afternoon to change his shirt and later telling state police he did not remember where he ate lunch that day.

Heckel’s husband John, to whom she had been married 19 years, was engaged in field exercise training with the National Guard at Fort Drum, N.Y., that day and Dennis Taylor played golf.

Groves has been in jail since January 2015 when he was arrested in Beaver where he was living.

Attempts to reach defense attorney David Lindsay were unsuccessful. He has the option to try to get the full Superior Court or the state Supreme Court to accept an appeal.