Richland man accused of ditching woman’s body after overdose
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A Richland man was charged with abusing a corpse after police said he left a woman in her vehicle in front of her house after she died of a drug overdose while they were together.
Patrick William McCurry, 43, faces a Sept. 28 preliminary hearing on the misdemeanor charge before District Judge William Wagner.
McCandless police said a woman contacted them on June 21 to report that she discovered her mother dead inside her SUV, which was parked outside the home they share in the 9000 block of Harmony Drive, according to a criminal complaint.
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner ruled the woman died of fentanyl toxicity and that her death was an accident.
The woman told police her mother informed her on the evening of June 19 that she was going to see McCurry, according to a criminal complaint. It was the last time she said she spoke with her mother.
Investigators said the deceased woman was found reclined in the front passenger seat and there were no obvious signs of trauma to her body or drug paraphernalia in the vehicle, which was found unlocked with the sunroof open.
The deceased woman’s former boyfriend, who arrived on the scene during the initial investigation, was able to track the various places her telephone was between June 19 and June 21 because they still had a cellphone location sharing service together, the complaint said. The man told police that they broke up on June 19.
Before being identified as a suspect, the man told investigators that he believed McCurry was involved in the woman’s death because they were together in the past when she relapsed, according to the complaint.
The man’s location service was able to show that the cellphone left the woman’s home in McCandless at 4:53 a.m. on June 19 and was at McCurry’s home between 5:14 a.m. and 8:42 p.m. that day, the complaint said.
The telephone then traveled to the Lowe’s store off Route 8 in Richland for about 15 minutes before being detected at a home on Dellrose Street in Pittsburgh’s North Side, where it remained for about 90 minutes.
The final location for the telephone was at the GetGo station along East Carson Street on the South Side for about 20 minutes, the complaint said.
McCandless police said they contacted an officer with the Northern Regional Police Department who told them they were familiar with McCurry because he was being investigated for an accident in which they said he crashed a vehicle into a utility pole. He then fled the scene, police said.
The woman’s daughter initially told police that her mother’s SUV did not move from the house, but later said it was possible it could have been driven and returned unbeknownst to her.
A review of license plate readers in the area found one at the intersection of Route 8 and Grandview Drive that was unable to read plates because it was pointing downward as the result of an unrelated vehicle crash in which the pole was damaged, police said.
That camera, however, was able to capture the woman’s Nissan from above as it passed by in the curb lane, the complaint said.
Video pulled from the camera also shows the inside of the SUV because the sunroof was open, police said.
Police said the woman’s body and clothing were in the same position as they were when her daughter found her parked outside.
The driver of the SUV could not seen in the video because of glare from the sun, police said.
McCandless police and Allegheny County detectives interviewed McCurry at the Northern Regional Police station after he went in to meet with officers there about the vehicle into a pole accident.
McCurry told investigators that the deceased woman called him on June 19 to say that she wanted to get high because she was upset over the breakup with her boyfriend. He said he drove his son’s blue Honda to her house and left it there.
The pair then returned to his house in her Nissan, the complaint said.
McCurry said the woman then drove to the North Side without him to buy heroin and returned to his house where she overdosed, according to the complaint.
He told police he administered a dose of naloxone that she had in her purse and then “thought it was best to get her back to her house,” according to the complaint.
MCurry said he helped the woman get into her vehicle, drove to her house and parked and then returned home in the Honda, which was identified as the same vehicle involved in the crash into the pole.
McCurry told police he did not call the woman’s daughter to inform her that she was outside in the car because he didn’t have her telephone number.
He told police he did not knock on the door or try to notify someone else that the woman was outside in her vehicle.
Police told McCurry that they suspected the woman was already dead when he drove her back to her house.