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Today we’re be stepping back to a tragic case from 2010 that involves a trusting, kind, happy 30-year-old woman who lived in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. Despite her developmental disability, Jennifer Daugherty tried to maintain as much independence as she possibly could & because of her kind, trusting nature, she was lured into a nightmare of betrayal & violence. Jennifer was tortured over the course of more than two days at the hands of six monsters, some who she’d grown to trust.
Jennifer Daugherty was born on Thursday, November 8, 1979 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania to parents Richard Daugherty & Denise Murphy; her step-father, Bobby Murphy also played a large role in her life. She had two sisters, Joy & Jaime & a stepbrother, Dave. She also had two nieces, Breanne & Bailey & a nephew, Dylan.
Despite being 30-years-old, Jennifer had the mental abilities of a 12-14-year-old. She was someone who had a pure, kind heart & believed that everyone she met was good. Because she was such a precious, gentle soul, she never imagined someone would ever hurt her. Despite her disability, she tried to be as independent as she possibly could & even discussed getting her own place soon. When she had doctor’s appointments, she often took a bus by herself, traveling ten miles from her home in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania to Greensburg.
The family had originally lived in Mesquite, Texas, but ultimately relocated to Mount Pleasant about two years earlier in order to be closer to Denise’s mother-in-law who was in poor health.
Jennifer was an incredibly social girl who always wanted to be surrounded by others & she considered everyone a friend. Sadly, her sweet, trusting nature made Jennifer highly vulnerable. She had been visiting a community center in Greensburg that allowed her to meet other people & when she spoke of these people to her family, she called them her friends.
On Monday, February 8, 2010, Bobby took his stepdaughter to get on the bus bound for Greensburg for an appointment. As the day wore on, Jennifer called home & told her parents that she was planning on staying at her friend, Peggy’s house & she would come back home the following day, but this was the last time they ever heard from her.
Because a snow storm was expected to pass through Greensburg, residents of the county were asked to move their vehicles off the streets to allow snow plows to safely come through. Those that lacked a driveway or garage space were instructed to park their cars in local parking lots.
A man named Daniel Grant ended up parking his truck at Greensburg-Salem Middle School & came back to retrieve it on Thursday morning, February 11. As he came upon his car, he found that a garbage can was wedged underneath that would need to be pulled away in order to avoid damaging his truck. As he pulled the can from under his car, he was horrified to see that a woman’s body was inside so he immediately contacted the police.
As investigators arrived, they saw that the woman had been placed head first into the garbage can & then partially covered with plastic bags. Christmas lights were wrapped around her neck & wrists while white Christmas garland bound her ankles.
An investigation began immediately & the middle school was utilized as a command center since classes were cancelled for the rest of the week due to the severity of the snow storm. Police wanted to determine where the garbage can had originated from & shut down a portion of North Main Street.
The victim’s identity was unknown at this time & investigators determined that she was approximately 5’9” & weighed about 140#. She wore jeans & a dark hooded shirt. This information was released to the media in hopes someone would come forward to identify the unnamed woman.
Meanwhile, Jennifer’s family hadn’t seen nor heard from her since Monday & since that time, they’d been desperately trying to contact her to no avail. When they saw information on the news about a deceased female, they immediately contacted authorities & were given the tragic news that the victim was Jennifer.
Dr. Cyril Wecht conducted Jennifer’s autopsy & at the time he received her remains, they were still in the garbage can just as she had been found. She’d suffered multiple stab wounds, abrasions & contusions & her toxicology report determined that several prescription drugs were in her system at the time of her death.
Jennifer’s cause of death was a result of combined injuries, primarily from stab wounds to the chest which penetrated her left lung & entered her heart. It was likely that these wounds were inflicted shortly before her death as a way to cause Jennifer pain & suffering. She would have been conscious when the wounds were initially inflicted which caused her to bleed until she lost consciousness & died within four to six minutes.
When her family last spoke with her on Monday, Jennifer indicated that she planned to stay with her new friends at their house on Pennsylvania Avenue in Greensburg. They told investigators that they believed the girl’s name was Peggy, but when investigators looked into the address they’d given, the address belonged to a man named Ricky Smyrnes.
By the evening of Thursday, February 11, investigators announced that six people were being charged with Jennifer’s murder: Amber Meidinger, Melvin Knight, Ricky Smyrnes, Angela Marinucci, Robert Masters Jr & Peggy Miller.
20-year-old Amber Meidinger was the girlfriend of 20-year-old Melvin Knight. His father was in prison during the early years of his life & after he’d fallen out of a moving truck at age 5, he hit his head & as a result, suffered lifelong learning & social problems. Only one month earlier in January, Amber & Melvin met at a homeless shelter in Washington & before they settled in Greensburg, they moved around to various places. At the time of Jennifer’s murder, Amber was pregnant with Melvin’s child.
Melvin knew 23-year-old Ricky Smyrnes from their time in prison together. Throughout Ricky’s childhood he was in & out of foster care & treated for mental health issues beginning at 4-years-old. Both his father & uncle sexually & physically abused him & by as young as 6-years-old he’d been exposed to beer, cocaine, heroin & marijuana. At 8 he was diagnosed with PTSD as well as having seven different personalities & fifteen different psychiatric issues.
When Audrey Smyrnes adopted Raul Colon, who came to be known as Ricky Smyrnes, she knew it was going to be a long road of patience & love, but sadly, he was constantly troubled. He set things on fire, couldn’t be trusted, he was unable to finish school, hold down a job or maintain a relationship. Audrey was forced to file a protective order against her son in 2008 after she went to his apartment to retrieve the items he’d stolen from her.
Ricky had a history of violence & a previous girlfriend filed a restraining order against him after he broke a water pitcher over her head & attempted to rape her. He’d only been released from prison one month before Jennifer’s murder & at the time, he was married with two children & was dating one of the perpetrators who was also arrested in this case, Angela Marinucci.
17-year-old Angela Marinucci was hit by a truck at age 15 & suffered a head injury. Moving forward, her behavior was said to be significantly altered.
Also involved in Jennifer’s murder was 36-year-old Robert Masters & 27-year-old Peggy Miller.
On the night of Monday, February 8, 2010, Melvin & Amber met up with Ricky at a hotel where they’d been staying in Greensburg. Since Ricky & Melvin were buddies from prison, Ricky invited them to stay at his apartment. Amber was familiar with Jennifer from the facility they both attended that treated mental disorders & disabilities.
At some point, Amber & Jennifer were talking when Jennifer allegedly made a comment that she was going to marry Ricky. Amber noticed that Angela Marinucci had gotten angry after she overheard Jennifer make this comment about Ricky, who she was dating.
Angela had previously confided in Amber that she was in a relationship with a married man, Ricky Smyrnes & she later overheard a phone call between Angela & Ricky & she could hear Angela tell him, You better not be with that b-tch.
The group of six were gathered at Ricky’s apartment when he called Jennifer & invited her to stay over. With this invitation, Jennifer called her parents & asked them if she could stay at her friend Peggy’s house, likely not wanting to tell them she would actually be staying at a man’s place.
While they were all hanging out, Jennifer allegedly tried to make advancements toward Ricky in hopes they could be intimate, but he responded in anger. The following day, Jennifer decided not to go to her scheduled doctor’s appointment to get her medication & while she was occupied in the shower, Ricky called Angela & told her that Jennifer had made a pass at him the night before. Despite the fact that Ricky was a married man, Angela responded, nobody is having sex with my man.
As they wrapped up their conversation, Angela told Ricky not to let Jennifer leave his apartment.
As the group gathered back at Ricky’s, they started harassing Jennifer by taking items out of her purse & pouring mouthwash over her belongings. This escalated to physical violence as they began to strike her repeatedly with empty soda bottles. Melvin grabbed Jennifer, knocked her into a wall & began choking her until she fell to the floor in hysterics.
Sometime later, Angela arrived, still angry about Jennifer’s sexual advances toward Ricky so she & Amber began attacking Jennifer in the bathroom. Angela pushed her into a metal towel rack three times, striking her in the head & chest. When Jennifer tried to tell her that she wasn’t interested in Ricky, Amber shoved her into the towel rack three more times, causing her to strike her head.
Melvin dragged Jennifer into the living room & he & Ricky began pouring spices & oatmeal over her head after Angela doused her in water.
Once she was coated in the mixture, Ricky forced Jennifer to shower. When she was done, she was taken from the bathroom, forced to strip out of her clothes which were then thrown out the window.
With Ricky’s assistance, Melvin cut Jennifer’s hair, made her clean it up, took her into the living room, forced a sock into her mouth & then Melvin raped her.
After Angela decided to spend the night at Ricky’s apartment, Melvin, Amber & Ricky went with her to her house to get her prescription medications.
While they were gone, Ricky instructed Robert & Peggy to supervise Jennifer to make sure she didn’t leave. As the group of four were on their way back, Peggy called to tell them that Jennifer was trying to leave. Once back, they began to beat her, they forced her to take Angela’s medication & left her in the living room while they went to bed.
The following morning, an argument began over soda that escalated to Angela shoving Jennifer to the floor & striking her. In her defense, Jennifer kneed Angela in the stomach & despite the fact that she wasn’t even pregnant, Angela told Ricky that Jennifer killed their baby.
Ricky stormed into the room & shouted, If you want to kill my kid, why should I let you live? Angela gave Ricky an ultimatum & told him that he had to choose between her or Jennifer so he called a family meeting to ask the others what kind of mother Jennifer would be. By this point, Jennifer was very much out of it after having been beaten, raped & drugged.
After a second family meeting. Melvin brought Jennifer into the bathroom while Amber struck her in the head with a towel rack & forced her to drink Angela’s urine from a cup. Jennifer began gagging into the toilet while Amber mixed up an even more horrific mixture of feces & urine. She forced Jennifer to consume the mixture, striking her in the head with the towel rack until she obeyed. Jennifer was choking & gagging as Amber & Melvin made a third mixture, this time with powdered detergent, water & some of Amber’s prescription medication. Amber continued striking Jennifer until she choked the mixture down which she vomited back up.
The torture continued on as Jennifer was pulled into the living room where Melvin & Ricky bound her feet with Christmas lights. Ricky, Melvin & Amber tied her ankles & wrists with strings of lights & wrapped garland around her ankles. The lights were plugged in & Angela became angry when they didn’t blink as she expected they would since she wanted Jennifer to look like a Christmas tree.
Peggy’s nail polish was painted on Jennifer’s face as Ricky called a third family meeting to determine if they should kill Jennifer. Ricky told the group they would make her death look like a suicide so they wouldn’t be implicated for murder & forced Jennifer to write a suicide note.
Jennifer wrote that she wasn’t happy for a long time, but she loved her mom & stepdad no matter what. She wrote that she would always love the rest of her family & her niece & nephew would be lucky to have a better aunt than her. She ended the note with, I am done with life. Goodbye, Jennifer.
Melvin took a knife from Ricky & he & Amber led Jennifer into the bathroom, forcing her to her knees. They turned the light off & shut the door while Melvin asked Amber if she was ready & she said that she was.
They placed something in her mouth to keep her quiet & Melvin asked Jennifer if she was ready to die. He began stabbing her in the chest & neck & sliced her neck & while Jennifer was still clinging to life, Angela said that she wanted her out of here & ordered her to be killed. Ricky took the knife from Melvin, sliced Jennifer’s wrists & choked her with the Christmas lights.
When it was clear that Jennifer was dead, Ricky called yet another meeting, this time to determine what they should do with her body. They ultimately decided to place her remains into a plastic bag & then into a garbage can which Ricky & Melvin removed from the apartment & placed it under a truck in the middle school parking lot. When they returned to the apartment, the group then headed to bed.
Later that morning, Daniel Grant discovered Jennifer’s remains under his truck.
Because Jennifer believed that everyone in the world was good, she willingly went to Ricky’s apartment that was situated about 30 miles from Pittsburgh. Over the course of more than two days, she was raped, tortured, beaten with the towel rack, a vacuum cleaner hose as well as a crutch. She was force fed vegetable oil, spices, detergent, urine & feces until she was ultimately stabbed to death.
By the time authorities tracked the murderers down, who were later dubbed, The Greensburg 6, they found Jennifer’s belongings in Ricky’s building’s attic as well as items that had been used to clean up the blood. It was clear to investigators that Jennifer had stumbled into a horrific situation & had been in the wrong place with the wrong group of people. All six perpetrators were charged on Friday, February 12 & held without bond in the Westmoreland County prison.
Denise & Bobby had been aware that Jennifer made some new friends at the community center & they knew some of their names, but they didn’t personally know any of them.
A neighbor in a first-floor apartment within Ricky’s building recalled hearing a tussle upstairs followed by a heavy bam as though a body had fallen to the floor. This caused the ceiling to rattle until the apartment went quiet on Wednesday night, February 10.
Another resident on the first floor said that Ricky & two women came to their apartment afterward & the man asked them to turn their TV down. The neighbors indicated that people were often coming & going from Ricky’s apartment & police had been called with complaints about a half-dozen times. Sometimes it wasn’t even clear to the building’s residents who lived in the unit since people would come & go in droves, the noise, pounding, fighting & drinking unbearable to those within the building.
Investigators learned that the Christmas lights binding Jennifer’s body were taken from a neighbor’s porch while the garbage bin was taken from a neighbor several houses away.
Trials for the six perpetrators spanned over the course of twelve years between 2010 & 2022.
On April 12, 2012 Melvin Knight pleaded guilty to first-& second-degree murder, kidnapping & conspiracy to commit murder & kidnapping. After several hours of deliberation on August 30, 2012, he was found guilty & sentenced to death.
On December 4, 2013, Amber Meidinger was sentenced to 40-80 years in prison after pleading guilty to third-degree murder, kidnapping & conspiracy. She was spared from receiving the death penalty after she agreed to testify against the others.
Peggy Miller was sentenced to 35-74 years.
On February 28, 2013 Ricky Smyrnes, who investigators considered the ringleader of the group, was found guilty of first-degree murder & sentenced to death.
In December 2013 Robert Masters Jr was sentenced to 30-70 years after he pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder & conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
Angela Marinucci, the youngest of the group, had three trials. She was found guilty of first-degree murder & sentenced to life in prison. Since she was a juvenile at the time of the murder, the death penalty was off the table. The sentence was overturned after the state appeals court ruled that juveniles are ineligible for a mandatory life sentence. In 2017, she was given another life sentence, but again, it was overturned due to the lack of parole.
During Angela’s third trial, Westmoreland County DA John Peck told the jury that Angela was the prime instigator for the attack against Jennifer & had been present for much of the time that she had been tortured & murdered in the dirty, disgusting apartment. This time Angela was sentenced to 60 years to life in prison with credit for time served in May 2022 which would allow her to be eligible for parole at age 78.
After Jennifer’s murder, State Senator Kim Ward began discussing Jennifer’s Law, a bill that would make it illegal for someone to witness a violent crime & fail to report it to police.
Despite the fact that the medical examiner, Dr. Cyril Wecht, had performed & reviewed thousands of autopsies, he considered this one of the worst cases he has ever been faced with.
This was an especially barbaric case since Jennifer was a kind, innocent, defenseless woman who was up against six monsters who held her captive for days, torturing her & doing unthinkable things to her.
As Jennifer was beaten, she repeatedly asked the group of six why they were hurting her, something she never received an answer to. What drove six people to commit such a horrific act against someone who only wanted to be loved? Jennifer’s life was marked by kindness & trust, something that was stolen in an act of unimaginable cruelty. Through the darkness, however, Jennifer’s memory has sparked light & change thanks to Jennifer’s Law to ensure that no one else suffers as she did.
References:
- NBC News: Family: ‘Friends’ torture, kill disabled woman
- 11 News: Youngest member of ‘Greensburg 6’ sentenced for third time for role in 2010 murder
- In the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Eastern District: State v. Melvin Knight
- CBS News: Trial of “friend” in torture, slaying of mentally disabled woman begins
- CBS News: Jennifer’s Law
- Killer Queens: The murder of Jennifer Daugherty
- Trib Live: Roommate gives jurors gruesome details of 2010 torture-murder in Greensburg
- Wikipedia: Murder of Jennifer Daugherty
- Kepple Graft: Jennifer Daugherty
- YouTube: Defense rests following Ricky Smyrnes’ mother’s testimony
