Kevin Mengel doesn't send texts; Wife & lover charged with his murder

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Stephen Shappell / Morgan Mengel

A Chester County woman and her young lover have been charged with homicide in connection with the apparent beating death of the woman's husband, who was reported missing on Father's Day.

The body of Kevin Mengel Jr., 33, was found Saturday in woods behind Marple Newtown High School in Newtown Township, Delaware County.

His wife, Morgan Marie Mengel, 34, was arraigned late Friday on homicide and other charges. A homicide arrest warrant also was issued for Stephen Michael Shappell, 21, who had not been apprehended.

Shappell was an employee of Kevin Mengel's landscaping business, MKB Property Maintenance, and was having an affair with Morgan Mengel, police said.
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A coroner's preliminary report determined that the death was a homicide and that Mengel had suffered blunt trauma, Carroll said. A final determination of the cause of death will not be made until toxicology results are received.
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Morgan Mengel at first said that her husband - the father of their three children - had left and did not want to be bothered. The evidence pointed in a different direction, Carroll said.
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http://www.philly.com/philly/news/lo...d_s_death.html

Chester County detectives say the crime took place on June 17th behind a garage door, which is now roped off with police tape.
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According to investigators, Mengel went missing last Sunday, a fact his mother reported to police after she started getting text messages from her son. The thing was, her son usually did not send texts.

"[She was] receiving some text messages purported to be from him, which were completely out of character for him and that alerted her that there may be something wrong," West Goshen Township Police Chief Michael Carroll said.

Police say the text messages were sent from Mengle's 34-year-old wife, Morgan, to avoid suspicion.

After repeated interviews with Mrs. Mengel, police say she finally broke down and admitted an affair with 22-year-old Stephen Shappell, with whom she hatched a plan to kill her husband.

First, she told police, the pair tried drugging Mengel.

When that didn't work, she says, Shappell hit him in the head with a shovel. Then, she admitted, they buried his body in a deep grave behind Marple Newtown High School.

The grave was so deep it took police more than 24 hours and a cadaver dog to find it.
[...]

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?se...ime&id=7522488

[Tundratot]

See, now this is just senseless. I don't understand why a spouse would find it preferable to kill their partner rather than pursue the much more legal option of divorce. It may seem like a divorce will be messy and drawn out, and it can be. But the fact is, a scott free murder is much harder to do than people think. Covering up the crime scene, disposing of the body, keeping the relatives, coworkers, and friends from missing the victim, moving money and closing accounts, all of it . . . well there's a lot to do and a lot to consider, and every bit of it creates a trail that will lead the perp to prison eventually.

[62julietandvoid]

I want to know what the husband looks like since THAT is what she choose. He looks like a muppet

[Aena]

Takes a special kind of cunt to kill a daddy on father's day. Hope she rots in prison along with her dumbass "young lover".

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A 22-year-old Marple man wanted for the murder of Chester County business owner Kevin Mengel Jr. was arrested around 6:10 p.m. Sunday in Denver, Colo., according to police reports.
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Wanted for conspiring with the victim’s wife, Morgan Mengel, Stephen Michael Shappell allegedly poisoned lemon Snapple, which Morgan Mengel then placed where she knew her husband would drink it, according to police reports.

Shappell then allegedly bludgeoned Mengel to death with a shovel, and buried him and the murder weapon just 150 yards from Marple Newtown High School, where Shappell attended just a few years ago.

When exactly Shappell returns to Pennsylvania to face charges depends on Colorado law and whether Shappell fights extradition, Sgt. Carroll said.

“But eventually we’ll get him back,” he said.
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According to court documents, Mengel, 35, was reported missing on Father’s Day, June 20, by his mother, Kathleen Barton.
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On June 22, Barton told police Morgan Mengel was having an affair with someone named “Steve.” The following day, an officer went to the landscaping business Morgan and Kevin Mengel owned — M.K.B. Property Management LLC — where an employee told him that “Steve” was Stephen Shappell, 22, and that he was also an employee.

On June 23, Barton called to tell police that her son’s Facebook page had been updated — but with an uncharacteristic style of vocabulary and grammar.

About 1 p.m. Thursday, June 24, Detective David S. Maurer went to the Mengels’ home. According to court documents, Morgan Mengel told Maurer that her husband had moved out of the house the previous Friday; however, the detective reported that he observed Kevin Mengel’s toothbrush still in the bathroom, and that all of his clothing appeared to be in the bedroom. Around 2 p.m., Shappell arrived at the apartment. At 3 p.m., Maurer reported, he re-interviewed Morgan Mengel, who then admitted that she and Shappell were having an affair.

“Morgan Mengel was adamant that Kevin Mengel packed up his belongings and left their home on the evening of Friday June 18, 2010,” Maurer reported.

Maurer went to M.K.B. Landscaping about 6 a.m. Friday to interview other employees. Shortly after, Shappell and Morgan arrived together, and Maurer asked to look around inside the business. Morgan Mengel agreed, and as she and Maurer went inside, Shappell got into Morgan Mengel’s white pickup truck and drove away.

Morgan Mengel agreed to go to the police station, where, police said, she was told she was free to go at any time. Instead, according to court documents, during one of the interview sessions, she told them what had happened to Kevin Mengel.
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According to court documents, she also admitted to using his Facebook page and cell phone to send messages to make people think he was still alive.
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“It’s a very tragic case. The victim was the father of three children. Obviously the children have lost their father and with what has gone on so far they’re going to lose their mother for an extended period of time,” Carroll said.

http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2...3394492836.txt

[Ninja0980]

See, now this is just senseless. I don't understand why a spouse would find it preferable to kill their partner rather than pursue the much more legal option of divorce. It may seem like a divorce will be messy and drawn out, and it can be. But the fact is, a scott free murder is much harder to do than people think. Covering up the crime scene, disposing of the body, keeping the relatives, coworkers, and friends from missing the victim, moving money and closing accounts, all of it . . . well there's a lot to do and a lot to consider, and every bit of it creates a trail that will lead the perp to prison eventually.

Because these people are evil. They don't care about their spouses, their children or anything else. They want what they want sooner rather than later. A divorce takes too long, better just to kill the spouse. Then you can go on with your new life. Sick way of thinking...but sadly one we've seen over and over again.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Stupid boy:

When the 21-year-old landscaper suspected of killing his boss in a suburban love triangle went on the lam Friday, he allegedly packed his getaway truck with clothes and maps.

Unfortunately for him, he also brought along his cell phone.

Police acknowledged Monday that they used the phone's signal to pinpoint Stephen M. Shappell in Denver over the weekend. Officers nabbed him as he walked from a motel late Sunday afternoon.
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As Chester County authorities awaited Shappell's extradition from Colorado, more details emerged Monday about his troubled life.

Public records and interviews with people who know Shappell portrayed him as a quiet young man, a loner who endured a tumultuous home life.
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More: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20..._triangle.html

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Pre-trial hearing underway. This woman is whacked. I wonder if her "young lover" now realizes he was little more than a pawn?

West Goshen Detective David Maurer had a simple question for Morgan Mengel when he questioned her last summer about the disappearance of her husband, Kevin Mengel, some days before, he told a Common Pleas Court judge Wednesday.

“How would you describe your relationship, currently?” with her husband, the detective asked her during a tape-recorded statement, taken in the mid-morning hours of June 25, 2010 as she sat in an interview room at the township police station. Maurer had been assigned to help determine what had happened to Kevin Mengel, the father of three who had been reported missing five days before by his mother.

“Currently?” responded Mengel, who had already admitted the day before to having an affair with an employee at the couple’s property management company. “It’s a little tough to answer.”

What Morgan Mengel, 35, did not tell the detective at the time -- and what may have made her answer awkward -- was that she allegedly knew that her husband of 13 years at the time was lying dead in a shallow grave in Delaware County.
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Ryan said that evidence would include statements to a friend that Morgan Mengel had thought about hiring a hit man to kill her husband, but had ruled it out as too costly. In addition, a witness will be allowed to testify that Morgan Mengel said she wished her husband were dead so she could take the business and gain custody of their three children.

Also, the parties agreed that information about letters sent from Morgan Mengel to Shappell while the two were in prison will be admitted, the two sides agreed. In the letters, Morgan Mengel told Shappell she had given birth to his twin sons and that she needed him to insure she could be released from prison to care for them. The pregnancy and birth were fictitious.

The two sides have, however, left it up to Gavin to determine whether information about Morgan Mengel’s alleged past infidelities and attempts to poison her husband will be admitted at trial.
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http://delcotimes.com/articles/2011/...a825050963.txt

[nopatience]

There are some people who truly are too fucking stupid to commit a crime..... and yet they do. If she were my daughter, while I would be horrified at what she has done, I would be completely humiliated in how goddamn dumb she is.

[penelopejo]

She was fucking the gardener? lmfao. This sounds like a really, really bad soap opera.

On another note, kudos to his mother for knowing her son. If it wasn't for her, I don't think he would've ever been found.

[Whisper]

Mistrial in Chesco triangle murder case

Chester County Court Judge Thomas G. Gavin declared a mistrial this morning in the murder case against Morgan M. Mengel.

Gavin deliberated for about 15 minutes after hearing a half-hour of arguments before declaring the mistrial.

Mengel, 36, a West Goshen mother of three, is accused of conspiring with her 22-year-old lover, Stephen Shappell, to kill her husband.

The judge granted a defense motion that stemmed from testimony the prosecution elicited yesterday from West Goshen Township Sgt. Michael Carroll.

Responding to a question from Assistant District Attorney Deborah Ryan, the sergeant said the defendant's father "wanted me to know his daughter could be despicable."

Although the judge had instructed the jury to disregard the remark, defense attorney Matt Nelson argued the statement was so prejudicial his client could not receive a fair trial.

Gavin agreed that "a parent's condemnation of their own child is a damaging indictment." The judge said he regretted that the end of the case will be delayed for all the parties.

"Certainly a retrial is burdensome," the judge said. "But it's a small price to pay to ensure a fair trial."

Prosecutors say the couple attempted to poison Kevin Mengel Jr., 33, on June 17, 2010. They alleged that when the toxin failed to take immediate effect, Shappell fatally bludgeoned his employer with shovels from the landscaping business the Mengels owned.
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http://www.philly.com/philly/news/br...tml?hpt=ju_bn4