Murder, arson trial opens in strangulation slaying, fire
April 12, 2021
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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) A prosecutor says a woman who was strangled to death in her Pennsylvania home before the structure was set afire almost two years ago was able to give authorities the proof they needed to identify her killer.
Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo told jurors Monday that DNA from Calvin Purdie Jr. was found under the fingernails of the one hand of Charlotte Chaplin that wasn t incinerated. Authorities also accuse him of setting the fire to try to cover up the May 2019 crime in Hershey.
“She scratched him on the face and on the arm, putting his DNA under her fingernails…marking the person who had killed her,” Chardo said in his opening argument. “She gave us the tools to achieve justice in this case.”