Man strangles off-duty officer cousin at cabin gathering in Pennsylvania

Paden Frey, 25, of Cogan Station, is charged with murdering his cousin's husband, a 12-year police veteran, at a hunting cabin in July. An autopsy confirmed death by forearm strangulation.

Cogan Station man charged with murder of off-duty Middlesex Township officer

A family gathering at a hunting cabin near Waterville turned fatal on 11 July when Paden Edward Frey, 25, of Cogan Station, allegedly strangled an off-duty police officer, according to sungazette.com.

The victim, Michael Robert McGeehan, 44, was a 12-year veteran of the Middlesex Township Police Department in Cumberland County. He died at the scene at 7190 Dam Run Road in Cummings Township, where emergency personnel were called at around 2:40 a.m. after a report of an unresponsive male.

According to an affidavit prepared by Detective Jordan Mahosky of the Lycoming Regional Police, one of McGeehan's sons — who was present in the cabin — called 911 to report that those present "had put him to sleep because he was so drunk." The son told the dispatcher: "We had to choke him out. I think they choked him out. I think that's how they did it."

When emergency medical personnel arrived, McGeehan was found lying on his back on the front porch. He "was beyond life-saving efforts and pronounced dead at the scene," Mahosky stated in the affidavit.

According to the court document, McGeehan had become aggressive while on the porch after expressing a desire to go swimming or ride a four-wheeler. Those present said they were "trying to keep him safe" because he was "extremely intoxicated." Frey and another male began "holding him down," the affidavit stated.

Frey is a cousin to McGeehan's wife, Nicole, not a blood relative of McGeehan himself, police clarified.

Investigators were told that Frey "held his forearm against McGeehan's middle neck until he passed out." Before losing consciousness, McGeehan "was trying to fight this and was struggling to breathe," a struggle described as lasting "10 minutes or so." A second family member was simultaneously "holding down his arm so that he couldn't get up," the document stated.

Nicole McGeehan, who was also present in the cabin, told police she witnessed most of what occurred in the moments before her husband's death. She said Frey yelled at her to step back while he was on top of McGeehan, warning he was "going to put him to sleep" if he did not stop. "Nicole stated she begged Frey to get off him, but he wouldn't," Mahosky wrote. She then moved to the far side of the porch, out of sight of what was happening.

Frey, for his part, told investigators that he and another family member "had been fighting with McGeehan, trying to get him to go to sleep," and that McGeehan had eventually "laid down on the porch and fell asleep," according to the affidavit.

The Lycoming County Coroner's Office took custody of the body at the cabin. An autopsy conducted on 13 July at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown determined that McGeehan died of "manual strangulation by forearm compression of the neck." The death was officially ruled a homicide.

The information was made public after Frey was arrested on Wednesday afternoon at his home on Pleasant Valley Road in Cogan Station. He was arraigned before District Judge Denise Dieter on charges of third-degree murder, strangulation, involuntary manslaughter and recklessly endangering another person. Frey was committed to Lycoming County Prison on no bail.

Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)