UPDATE: All four have waived their formal arraignments today and will move on to the next phase of the court process, which has yet to be scheduled.
WHAT WE FIRST REPORTED:
The four people accused of abusing a corpse last year in Cherryhill Township will each face a formal arraignment this afternoon.
25-year-old Brittany Trausi of Coral; and 29-year-old Ronald Eiselman Jr., 26-year-old Robert Pardee and 33-year-old Bryan Harper, all of Indiana, will face a judge today for their arraignment in the County Court of Common Pleas. They all face charges connected with the death of 22-year-old Tyler Eckenroad of Commodore, who was found lying along the side of Wissinger Hill Road in late April of 2016.
According to an affidavit of probable cause, Trausi and Eiselman met at Sheetz to buy some heroin after drinking at some Indiana establishments, while Pardee, Harper and Eckenroad went to a six-pack shop to buy beers. The five met up at Trausi and Eiselman’s home where Eckenroad, Trausi and Eiselman consumed the drugs and the others drank. The four found Eckenroad had died while they were sleeping, and they wrapped him in a blanket and put him in the trunk of Trausi’s vehicle. They drove to Wissinger Hill Road near the Two Lick reservoir where they dumped Eceknroad’s body. Trausi then threw Eckenroad’s ID in a sewer near Chevy Chase and his wallet was thrown in the dam at Blue Spruce park. Indiana County Coroner Jerry Overman Jr. determined that Eckenroad died of a drug overdose.
All four face charges of abuse of a corpse, reckless endangerment, and tampering with or fabricating evidence in connection with this case.
Trausi will also have two other preliminary hearings today on a charge of retail theft in a case from August 6th of this year, and charges of attempted escape, resisting an officer, disorderly conduct-fighting, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, attempted theft and attempted obstruction of justice from an incident four days later.
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