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Subscribe to RSSMANHEIM, Pa. -- A central Pennsylvania man suffocated his 17-year-old girlfriend by sitting on her head after he intentionally drove into a guardrail at about 100 miles per hour in the middle of the night, authorities said.
Police filed homicide and other charges Friday against Benjamin Daniel Klinger, 19, for the Dec. 4 death of Sammi Heller on an interstate near Manheim. Klinger is accused of crashing on purpose, then killing Heller by sitting on her until she asphyxiated.
"At first glance, this appeared to be simply another tragic vehicle accident," Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman told the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era. "However, the police worked hand-in-hand with our forensic experts and saw this was far more complicated, sinister and certainly criminal."
A man who answered the telephone at Klinger's Elizabethtown home Thursday said Klinger did not have a lawyer and declined to comment.
Heller, a senior at J.P. McCaskey High School, was described in her obituary as athletic and a lover of motorcycles and horses.
She allegedly told a friend that Klinger previously tried to scare her while driving and that he had threatened to kill them both in a crash. Another witness told detectives that Heller said that Klinger would push Heller into walls and once pushed her down a set of stairs, police alleged.
Heller may have been pregnant, and police fielded conflicting reports about whether Klinger was the father.
A truck driver who came upon the 2 a.m. crash heard Heller screaming and was told by 911 operators not to move the crash victims. When police arrived, Klinger was sitting on top of Heller's head and torso, according to the arrest affidavit.
"Klinger was observed by the officers to be what appeared as 'slipping in and out of consciousness' because he would close his eyes for several seconds, moan, and then reopen his eyes while continuing to be positioned on top of the victim's head and torso while the victim was face down," police wrote.
Based on medical records, investigators later concluded Klinger was feigning being unconscious.
Detectives recovered marijuana, cash, a digital scale, a pipe, pills and a black air pistol from the wreckage.
Klinger was also charged with aggravated assault, drug offenses and driving violations.
Separately, he faces a charge of simple assault for allegedly running over Heller's foot in May and two counts of disseminating explicit sexual materials to a minor for allegedly sending out photos and video of Heller.
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What a creep. The signs were all there. She should have stayed a million miles from him. Poor foolish girl.
What ever happened to: "I want to break up"? That is easier than killing someone. He obviously was mental.
Well that's the new thing these days. "I want to break up", "I want a divorce", "I'm leaving you", it all translates into, "Kill me. Kill me now. Kill our children, set the house on fire, and then kill yourself. Ruin the lives of our families, your parents, my parents, our siblings, our nieces and nephews, who will forever ask each other, blame each other, the anger, the unspeakable sadness and the ever-present, bottomless grief, that accompanies a reaction to murder, the murder of us both and our children, the loss that can never be repaired. Your mother will die of a heart attack, my father's cancer will return. Our brothers and sisters will drink too much, take tranquilizers and pain pills, and their own lives and marriages will be forever changed. All because I said, "I want to break up", or "I want a divorce", or "I'm leaving you"."
It's not just the two people in the relationship - it's everyone around them: neighbors, friends, extended family, the co-workers. The ripple of loss just goes on and on and on.
I know this from personal experience. In 1987 my handsome, sweet, beloved step-brother was beaten to death in morning traffic over a road-rage incident. He died from his injuries four days later. My step-sisters' lives have never been the same, and their mother had a heart attack over it all.
Rage. A killing rage. A killing rage is sweeping this nation and it threatens us all.
We have GOT to stop this. We've got to find a way.
This "case" would never have happened in, say, the 1940's. Mostly because in the 1940's, forensic evidence would have concluded "Yep, she's dead", and that's pretty much the end of it. Strange accident with a bad ending, that's all.
I do watch a bit of what used to be called "CourtTV", and if that has taught me anything, it's that it's going to be difficult to convict this guy of anything other than the driving and drug offenses. There is no real way to prove he WASN'T going "into and out of consciousness", as described by the witness, and it's thus improbable they can prove he could have moved off of her head...as weird as it sounds to say that. The truck driver was told not to do much of anything, but if he had moved the guy off the girl, who knows, she may have lived. I don't think there is much question about what really happened here, but proving it beyond a reasonable doubt in court is going to be problematic, at best.
it's obvious, he no respect for females, so sad the victim did not see this coming or the parents knowing of their relationship.i hope other young women understand the situations out there.condolences to her family, i feel,had they known they would done something about them......
drugs are bad mmkay. not but in all seriousness... he could have just said, i am not that into you. or i don't have time to date... or heck if it was that hard to break up with her, just tell her he cheated on her... but really?!? If I was her father, I would go end his life immediately.
If she was so smart as stated by her friends and family it sure wasn't in the relationship department. What a stupid girl, to have to pay with her life. She already expressed that the guy was abusive. Why stay with someone like that? Not for the kids sake! They didn't have that excuse.
another fine upstanding young man! wtf i have two boys in their early twenties they both know if they ever hurt a woman they would never make it to trial never mind taking someones life! what the hell is wrong with these people that kill their wife or girlfreind if they think they are getting even they only end up in jail. then she gets ya again dumbazz.
Whatever......just another way to kill whilest driving....
that boy couldn't man up...what a wuss...
My heart goes out to that poor girl. What happened here? Someone at school,her friends,or her parents should have noticed something. Was 911 right in what they told the truck driver?I would have to think that if the truck driver would have looked he would have seen the guy sitting on her head.I hate like all hell to use this but i hope senator Fienstein reads this.
It wasn't the witness' final word. The article said that, "Based on medical records, investigators later concluded Klinger was feigning being unconscious."
What a fine up-standing young man. Please let me take him into an unobserved room to council him. PLEASE!
I promise I won't hurt him. REALLY!!
I'm so confused, officers observed him while he was faking slipping in and out of consciousness while repositioning himself on top of her head and torso? In other words police watched and did nothing as she may have been taking her last breaths....? I know it's best to leave crash victims alone for the paramedics to move, but this is like seeing someone drowning in one foot of water and deciding to wait for the paramedics.
Cops don't get paid for saving lives. They get paid for showing up. That's all that was required, so that's all they did. Case closed.
Besides, it's not like the cops were the ones sitting on the girl's head.
Er, at least, that's what the City Attorney would say, if he cared enough to comment.
I think I would have pulled him off her despite what the dispatcher told me, in this case it would be a judgment call, she is screaming and he is sitting on her obviously impeding her breathing. Its not like he was laying on her out cold.
Then we'd be reading about YOU getting in the way at the scene of the accident, "hindering" emergency personnel at the scene of a fatal crash, keeping them from their duties, you there, with your pesky ideas about "saving people", whaddaya think this is, a chance for you to be some kinda hero or sumpin?!? GET OUTTA DA WAY, Civillian! This is a job for...... knuckleheads like this who stand around while young women suffocate from their ex-boyfriend's a$$ in their face.....
Nothing in the article says that police just stood there and watched. A hundred mile an hour crash would probably be a lot of twisted mangled car to get around in getting people out.
If you are observing someone slipping in and out of consciousness multiple times, you may not be standing there but you are watching. The article also doesn't say if the car was too mangled to access, it couldn't have been too mangled if the driver was able to move around inside the vehicle and position himself on top of the passenger.
@Liza Null
No there is a time frame that you would be waiting for rescue to get there, I would not get in the way if rescue was there. I don't know about in NY but in Florida there is a good samaritan law that would protect me. This would be a time sensitive situation, without being there to asses the situation it would be hard to make a definitive call. I have some first aid training and have family in the medical field so I am well aware of the risks, but if he is sitting on her and moving she is in serious danger of things ending as they did. As Riverboy21 stated "it couldn't have been too mangled if the driver was able to move around inside the vehicle and position himself on top of the passenger." Engage your brain(if possible) before engaging your keyboard, but if it was you being sat on maybe I would just watch you die, one less idiot on the planet.
Oh and learn to spell, your halfa$$ spelling is not "cool" "sumpin?!? GET OUTTA DA WAY" sumpinhead, or would that be pumpkinhead or maybe just pumpkin mush for a brain.
Now get of your parents computer, adults are having a conversation.
+1 for Antistupidity. Even if there are states without the good samaritan law, anybody should be willing to risk a slap on the wrist to save a life(or in this case two since Klinger will now be facing life in prison).
How can anyone determine that a person is faking a "blackout". Thats bull. They don't know.
On the scene you cant, but in the hospital they can get a ton of info that you would not be aware of, if they gave him a cat scan or MRI and found no bruising or indication of brain injury such as a concussion along with no damage in certain locations it could be forensically determined. Specially if there have been prior charges and allegations and the police did there jobs as it appears they did, with proper crime scene investigations, no skid marks, and certain blood tests etc.
Antistupidity must have read the article because he's right, and it appears as though Seewhat I mean188 didn't or missed part of it. The article states they performed medical tests on him and that investigators were able to determine he didn't suffer that type of trauma.
Liza: English as a second language?
This makes me sad. No woman should put up with a fraction of what this clearly disturbed youth inflicted on her. The relationship never should have lasted long enough for this tragedy to conclude. :-\
The thought of Benjamin Daniel Klinger, face-down on his bunk, with a dirty sock shoved in his mouth to stifle his screams, while his dirty hairy stinky Bubba of a cell-mate, stands behind him, and pounds away......
is a thought that will lull me to a peaceful sleep tonight.........
Tie him to a post above a massive hill of fire ants in the dead of summer. Believe me, he will die painfully and it will take a long time...plus, the fire ants will have a good source of protein for many weeks....it's a win win.
We need to outlaw butts. They kill over 20 people a year by suffocation. We need more butt control. Please pass laws to save us!
let's start with yo' FA!
.
Nice use of tennage girl's horrific death at the hands of the person she loved to advance your political views Ken, class act.
Teenage*
Who said she loved him? She is dead now. She made statements that he was abusive though.
There's obviously a big crack in this case.
How dare-you-air that kind of humor. The police got to the bottom of it rather quickly, I think, even if they were acting on a haunch. You must be the product of bad rearing to be such a fanny of innuendo.
So sad. Parents please teach your daughters that this is not how someone who loves you treats you.
Apparently you don't have a teenage daughter. You cannot tell them anything. Besides that, in matters of the heart, you cannot talk anyone into not wanting someone, they just have to live and learn for themselves.
Don't ever laugh as the hearse goes by, for you may be the next to die.
They wrap you in a big white sheet, from your head down to your feet.
The put you in a big wood box, and cover you up with dirt and rocks.
All goes well for about a week, then your coffin begins to leak.
The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out.....the worms play pinochle on your snout.
A big green worm comes on by, crawls in your stomach and out your eye.
Your stomach turns a slimy green and puss pours out like whipping cream.
You spread it on a slice of bread and that's what you eat when you are dead.
Ben
You're a Bastard and I hope you ROT in HELL. Why in the world would someone do this to anyone is SO beyond me. It is SICKENING!!!!!
He is or was some sort of psycho, maybe caused by drug use,maybe naturally, anyway, he was what SHE liked to ride with. She chose to make herself available for abuse at his hands.
She apparently was not his "girlfriend". She was his victim. She probably stayed with him because she was afraid of what he'd do to her if she didn't. Where were her parents while this was going on?
If she'd been my daughter, after the first incident he'd been told to stay away from her. If he didn't I'd have put him in intensive care.
Why do women stay with pieces of trash like this?
Simple. This poor girl was not a woman. She was not mature enough to realize that this was not how she deserved to be treated. So many girls (and even some women) are so desperate to have a boyfriend that they will put up with this crap just to be with someone. And plenty of men are willing to put up with crap to be with someone as well. It is sad what humans do to each other.
Oh spare me. Women and girls today seem to be attracted to the "bad boy" image, then bit*h when they're treated like sh*t!!!
Tony, you are a loser of the lowest type! NO ONE wants to be abused contrary to what your sick mind is telling you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
JG:
You are either naive or stupid! Girls today are attracted to the bad boys of society and shy away from decent guys. You're just too stupid or naive to realize this. This guy wa arrested in the past for drug, assault, etc, and likely got this guy pregnant. If this is not the bad boy girls are attracted to then what is he...an altar boy, moron?
Tony and GWH are correct. Women - particularly younger ones - love the bad boys.
Money? Drugs? Excitement? Danger? Chris Brown?
They love it!
I have to agree with you Tony, a lot of women are attracted to bad boys for whatever reason (low self-esteem maybe?). I was like them until one day I took a look around and said "screw this crap". I have since met and married a handsome good guy that treats me like a queen and I never want for anything.
Great white & Delaney: I heart nerds.
...
Theres always a motive, he could be crazy but also maybe he didn't want a baby and this was his solution. Because he is so smart apparently...no worries, when he gets sentenced I am adding 5 cartons of cigs to 'Big Bubba's account at the prison---
How do they know he crashed the car on purpose? She couldve been grabbing at the steering wheel. No one one knows what happened in that car but the two of them. Now only one knows the truth.
Why was he sitting on her head? A UFO could have zapped the car. Why was he sitting on her head, with her face down? Just fell out the car and froze in that position?
Seewhat I mean188
Two of them knows; only one can continue to speak of it.
I wonder if her parents knew what was happening in the relationship. Her friends knew, but many girls/young women won't share this info with parents!?!
When are young girls going to realize that no idiot has a right to treat them like this? Never accept a date with losers and if anyone ever mistreats them, have your parents take him to court. This guy was an abuser and very, very sick in the head!!!
The guy had an arrest record for drugs and assault! What the hell is a 17 yo girl doing with him? And where the hell were the girls parents?
I would only be a police officer for a VERY short period of time! I'm of the old school - train of thought, you know - "Police! Freeze, or I'll shoot!" & then, he would've FOR REAL been unconscious. I can't believe grown men stood around, and let another man - sit on a young woman's face & smother her, to death. What has become of our society? I tend to agree with the Mayans - the world has came to an end - at least. as I once knew it.
Americans have become so desensitized to violence and violent acts; many have no conscience whatsoever. That's how some can stand around for 22 seconds and watch a man get killed by a transit and then stand around and take pics of the resuscitation attempts. What a sorry nation we are!
She got an "ass" whoopin'. I wonder if she got "te-bagged" after. So now what, we gonna ban ass?
This story is not believable, or i want to buy the car. The cops are complicit and are accesories or showed extreme negligence,. Are they sure he intentionally drove into the guardrail? Maybe she caused him to lose control of the vehicle and he was apprehending her for the police, and their ignorant asses just watched.
Yep! Just the kind of guy you want your daughter to go out with. Why women get the reputation for being stupid!
Where did the truck driver go after he called 911 and was told not to touch the victims?
That makes me sad knowing that they possibly could have saved her life, while standing there watching him kill her. They watched a murder take place. Sorry to even have to read that these things are happening.
When you work for a union the most common phrase is.. " it's not my job"
staywhite
When you work for a union the most common phrase is.. " it's not my job"
Thank god you can say that .......before unions you would be saying how high massa and thank you for the 18 hour days and low pay cause you didn't have to hire me. Stay white can stay ignorant too
That's the kinda trailerpark I would want to live in, one with guardrails in front. He was trying to get her in by the mandated parental curfew.
Ban cars.
Wow..what a prince. Hope he was looking forward to waking up to striped sunlight every day for the next 3 decades or so.
This kid's future could be to replace Ted Kennedy. Who needs to drown a pregnant secretary when you can sit on their face and suffocate them while faking injury.
Ted Kennedy would be so proud of this kid. He probably would have been a Ted Kennedy intern.
POS, this kid and Ted Kennedy, two pieces of crap in a pod
Its so sad when a woman stays with a SOB, POS like this one. She should of got out of this relationship a long time ago. Too bad the truck driver couldn't intervene...