Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Blair County Judge Jolene Kopriva yesterday sentenced 21-year-old Marie Louise Seilhamer to serve the remainder of her natural life behind bars for her involvement in the May 2001 killing of 20-year-old Hollidaysburg resident Shari lee Jackson.
Seilhamer is the last individual involved to be sentenced in the killing that occurred along the Janesville Pike. Seilhamer’s accomplice, Kristen Marie Edmundson, entered a guilty plea to first-degree murder charges in January and was recently sentenced to serve a life of imprisonment.
Two others, Scott Alan Custer, 24, and Amanda Speicher, 21, both of Boswell, were also recently sentenced on lesser charges.
Blair County District Attorney Dave Gorman had asked an out-of-county jury in April to convict Seilhamer on the first-degree murder charges levied against her and sentence her to death, but the jury, after convicting the Ashville woman, decided a life sentence was appropriate.
During the trial, testimony revealed the event centered around a relationship Jackson was having with Edmundson’s roommate. Gorman said Edmundson was jealous over Jackson’s motive and enlisted the help of Seilhamer to devise a plan to kill the woman, then carried it out.
The murder occurred on May 6, 2001.
Gorman claimed Edmundson and Seilhamer took up to a week to plan the killing, going so far as to map out the area and gather the tools and items necessary to carry it out.
On May 7, 2001, Jackson’s burnt body was found in a clearing just off state Route 453, more commonly known as the Janesville Pike, just north of Tyrone. Within hours, the girls were apprehended and brought in for questioning.
According to state police, the girls admitted to the killing. Police said the pair drove Jackson to a pull-off spot along SR 453 and once isolated, began arguing with her. Police said Edmundson was physically fighting with Jackson when she summoned Seilhamer to help her. Police said Seilhamer struck Jackson with a baseball bat, afterwhich Edmundson slit the victim’s throat with a box cutter-style knife.
Gorman claimed the plan to kill Jackson, dismember her body then burn the body parts, but the plan went a different way because Edmundson forgot to bring along a hatchet and the shovel handle broke in the tightly-packed earth.
Tyrone resident Nichole Zimmerman testified that Edmundson and Seilhamer arrived at her home in the morning of May 6. She told the jury that the pair had another girl along with them, but couldn’t identify her.
She said the trio left home, but returned two hours later without the unknown girl. She said Edmundson and Seilhamer were acting very strangely and Edmundson had blood on her arm. She said Edmundson claimed to have punched the girl in the nose.
The prosecution’s final witness, Dr. Sara Lee Funke, a forensic pathologist, testified the wounds that eventually killed Jackson came from a blow with the baseball bat. She testified that the slashing with the box cutter would have been enough to kill Jackson, but she was already near death when the slashing occurred.
Seilhamer’s defense attorney, Thomas Dickey of Altoona, claimed it was solely Edmundson who was responsible for the murder. He claimed his client didn’t know Edmundson was planning to kill Jackson and when it did happen, it sickened her.
Dickey’s most important witnesses to take the stand were Speicher and forensic pathologist Paul J. Hoyer of Philadelphia.
Speicher testified that Edmundson phoned her the evening of May 6 and was upset and contemplating suicide. Speicher said her and her boyfriend, Custer, drove to comfort Edmundson, but when they arrived, she loaded a can of gasoline and a shovel into the vehicle and said she wanted to go for a ride.
Speicher said when they reached the scene, she noticed a body covered with twigs, branches, leaves and other debris. She said Edmundson told her she only beat up Jackson, but when Speicher attempted to get a pulse from the body, she couldn’t find one.
This, she said, sickened her, and as she turned away, Edmundson and Custer set the body afire.
Speicher also told the jury that Edmundson said the blow from the baseball bat only knocked Jackson unconscious. She said Edmundson told her that when Jackson woke up, she slashed her throat then used a shovel to bludgeon the young girl to death.
Dickey said he did not agree with the jury’s decision and said he plans to appeal.

By Rick