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When we think of domestic abuse, our minds normally go to an image of violence between romantic partners. But abuse can exist within any family relationship, including one that can be especially difficult to imagine or talk about: a child abusing a parent.
When a parent raises, loves & nurtures a child, recognizing that this person may be dangerous creates an almost impossible emotional conflict. We’re talking about a human being they have loved from even before the moment they were born. Even after a child becomes an adult, the instinct to protect, forgive or believe that they can change doesn’t simply disappear.
Sadly, the abuser can take advantage of this kind of unconditional love.
Apologies likely follow outbursts with promises that it’ll never happen again in between periods of calm when things seem to be improving. A parent might provide a place to stay & offer financial support which translates to enablement. Shutting the door completely might feel like abandoning the person they so desperately want to save.
In 2019, although 67-year-old Margaret Sumney was very well aware that her adult son David was absolutely capable of violence, he remained a part of her life. Not only was he capable, but he had been accused of assaulting both of his parents by this point; assaults that caused a great deal of physical & mental harm.
When the police were contacted by family members in early September 2019 to do a welfare check, they entered Margaret’s home & discovered a truly horrific scene. Investigators soon learned that the person responsible for harming Margaret was the very person she had spent much of her life loving, helping & forgiving.
Even more disturbing, authorities didn’t need to try & reconstruct the actions that led to her death since David had documented portions of it himself.
Margaret Sumney was born Margaret Ann Shade on June 28, 1952 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Since her family owned a local dance studio, Shade Sisters Dance Studio, music & performance was always a central part of her identity. As she got older, she began dancing, teaching & eventually choreographing entire productions. During the holiday season, her annual Christmas performance was something that brought the community together.
Margaret was a woman who exuded warmth, class & a radiant energy. She always dressed with care & wherever she went, she left a lasting impression behind.
In her early adult years, she met & married a man named John Teary, but because he was emotionally distant, often leaving her to both parent & provide for their family of four on her own, the marriage ended. Although she was left to raise & financially support their two daughters, Ellen & Peggy, alone, through it all, she managed it all with quiet strength.
In 1986, Margaret met a successful dentist named David Sumney who had a degree from Harvard. He was everything that John hadn’t been: successful, charming & attentive. After they married, they settled into a comfortable life in Pennsylvania. Three years later, their son, David Lee Sumney Jr. was born. Not only was David Sr. an attentive father to their son, but he also stepped in as a father figure to Ellen & Peggy, treating them as if they were his own.
Things may have seemed wonderful from an outsider’s perspective, but unfortunately, cracks in the foundation began forming. Since David Jr. had been raised with zero boundaries or accountability, having everything he ever wanted immediately fulfilled, he learned early on that the more demanding he was, the quicker he got what he wanted. With age, his tactics became more & more manipulative, turning every situation to his advantage while gratitude & accountability were foreign concepts in his world.
His actions became more concerning when Margaret saw her son intentionally kill a bird in their backyard. She was startled by the cold look in his eyes, but to mask her concern, she joked with relatives that he acted like a future criminal. It was very clear that her son lacked empathy & with time, things only continued to get worse.
In 2001, Margaret’s marriage to David Sr. was over & although the divorce was amicable, it shook the family’s stability both emotionally & financially. Margaret’s beloved dance studio, which had played a role throughout her life, was forced to close its doors for good, forcing her to take a retail job in order to make ends meet.
Regardless of the financial downturn, David Jr. expected everything to remain the same, that he would continue to receive anything & everything he wanted as he always had. Hoping to continue their fragile connection, David Sr. fully supported him, thus enabling his behavior.
Even though they were living separately, both Maragaret & David Sr. were locked in a toxic cycle with their son, fulfilling his wishes however possible in an attempt to keep the peace.
As he got older, unsurprisingly his manipulation continued & now with his parents no longer together, he bounced between their homes, using affection as currency & rage as a weapon. His emotions & mood changes became an expected part of their lives rather than something they addressed & managed.
When David Jr. enrolled at George Washington University to study math in 2008, although the expenses that came along with it were crushing, Margaret & David Sr. were hoping it would be a turning point in the right direction.
When Margaret took an impromptu trip to visit her son in 2010, what followed has remained shrouded in confusion as well as concern. During her time in Washington D.C., when she was hospitalized for reportedly falling & injuring her head, she told her daughter Ellen that David Jr. had tried to harm himself with a knife. However, Ellen wasn’t able to ever get a full picture of what actually happened since her mom remained very evasive & vague.
When Ellen arrived, she found that both her mom & her brother were each admitted to the hospital in different rooms. Not only did the medical staff offer little clarity, but no formal investigation followed & the incident was basically just brushed under the rug like so many of David Jr’s actions had been over the years. This left Margaret’s daughters living in fear, uncertainty as well as carrying resentment.
Shortly after this concerning event in Washington D.C., David was kicked out of George Washington University for various repeated infractions. This included skipping classes, engaging in volatile altercations & consistently violating campus rules. After years of financial strain & sacrifice on Margaret & David Sr’s end, David Jr. left Washington D.C. with absolutely nothing to show for his time there.
Now back in Pennsylvania, he was once again bouncing between his parents’ homes. By July 2015 when David was 26-years-old, he was unemployed, completely disconnected from reality & entirely dependent on them for everything.
During that summer, when David Sr. refused to fund an upcoming trip that David Jr. had planned, he erupted in a fit of anger & violence. The outburst was so loud & shocking that neighbors were able to hear it from the street which prompted them to contact the police at 9:20 am on Sunday, July 12, 2015.
When they arrived, although they could hear a man inside, no one answered the door. After an officer went around to the back of the house, shouting commands, he saw David Jr. standing at the door while his dad lay bloodied on the floor.
An officer attended to 71-year-old David Sr. until the paramedics arrived, holding pressure to control the bleeding from his head. Blood was smeared on the inside of the front door, the floor as well as on an overturned chair.
A dozen beer cans were strewn around the kitchen & David Jr. was clearly intoxicated as he told officers that he had also drank vodka in addition to the beers.
Officers were familiar with the home as only one week earlier, they had been dispatched there after David Jr. reportedly cut his wrists with swords. They found several toy guns in the home at the time that looked very much real.
The beating was so severe that David Sr. suffered permanent injuries, including spinal injuries, facial fractures & groin injuries that required him to be transferred to a long-term care facility after his hospitalization.
Despite the horrifically violent attack, although David Jr. was immediately arrested & charged with aggravated assault, he was released after posting bond.
Sometime after this point, David Jr. began telling people that he had joined the U.S. Navy. Although she was skeptical, Margaret hoped that her son was telling the truth, believing he would benefit from the structure & discipline.
Over the following months, David became dedicated to a fitness routine that included extreme body building. At nearly six-and-a-half feet tall with a very large, muscular build, he was an imposing figure who towered over his petite mother.
As his physical strength increased, as did his aggression. He controlled those around him with fear, voicing both subtle & overt threats that became part of their daily lives. By this point Margaret was exhausted & worn down, beaten down by the years of turmoil, but still holding on to the son that she once knew, who was becoming more & more unrecognizable.
In between November 19 & 20 of 2016, Margaret was at home, in bed & asleep when David came into her bedroom, drunk & fueled with rage. According to her written report to police, he tried to kill her, describing him as a Navy Seal. She said that he punched her face & body, choked her, pulled her arm hard across her body & threatened, I’ll get you next time!
Margaret fled from her home, running to her neighbor’s house where she called 911. She went on to write that he had done something similar three years ago & was on probation for the incident.
Officers found Margaret bruised with visible marks around her neck & ribs while David was asleep in her home in a drunken stupor. He was arrested & charged with domestic violence, but sadly Margaret intervened once again to save her son.
Fearing that felony charges could destroy a future he might have, she pleaded with prosecutors to lessen the charges, arguing that he hadn’t been in the right frame of mind as he had been intoxicated. She cited his involvement in the military as evidence for his potential to reform.
After the court agreed to her appeal, the felony charge was reduced. However, throughout the time, an official background check was done which proved that David Jr. had never served in any branch of the military. Regardless, Margaret remained hopeful that he could still change.
After he was sentenced to sixteen months, David placed the full blame of his actions on his addiction rather than his violence & rage as the root of his issues. He indicated that he was battling inner demons that were fueled by alcohol, rather than someone who had lived his life using manipulation & cruelty to control others.
His strategy was effective as a social worker began advocating for rehabilitation over incarceration, convinced that treatment was the answer. Once again, David avoided prison time & was instead transferred to a recovery center in Pennsylvania.
Margaret felt hopeful that this would be the thing that would put her son on the right path going forward. While he attended individualized & group therapy sessions under structured supervision, Margaret remained a constant figure in his life, bringing him any supplies he might need & offering encouragement & support.
After he completed the program, David was transferred to a halfway house & soon after, he began working. According to reports from the facility, he was cooperative, compliant & seemed to be someone who was turning his life around.
Sadly, underneath these exterior changes, nothing had changed within David Jr. He still hadn’t ever expressed remorse for any of his actions, including the attack on his father or mother or the pain he’d caused in their lives.
Although the exterior was cracking by 2018, it wasn’t fractured enough to sound alarm bells. That August, David Sumney Sr. died in a Pennsylvania nursing home at 74-years-old with an official cause of death listed as age-related complications. However, those who were close to the family knew the real truth.
Despite the fact that his son had never faced legal repercussions, David Sr. hadn’t been the same since his son’s assault against him three years earlier in 2015. The whispers among relatives were peppered around his funeral while Margaret maintained her composure, never speaking poorly about David Jr.
In 2019, David met a woman on a dating app, presenting himself as a charming, charismatic, attentive boyfriend. However, very early on, the facade began to fade as his controlling behavior emerged. He started tracking her whereabouts, enforcing strict rules & monitoring her communication. Although there was no paperwork to prove it, David told her that he was managing his mother’s finances due to her alleged mental health issues. When he was confronted about it, he blamed it on delays in paperwork.
In July 2019, David’s ex-girlfriend accused him of torturing her for three days in a hotel in Atlantic City. She said she was strangled & waterboarded during that time. When David left the hotel, he believed that he had killed her. After he fled, a hotel employee came to her rescue after she failed to check out.
A warrant was issued for David Jr’s arrest on July 16, 2019, but tragically, it was never entered into the federal database. This allowed him to fly to Denver from New Jersey before returning to Pennsylvania where he freely moved about.
One month later, he was arrested for attacking a Lyft driver, but because there was no documentation of the assault against his girlfriend, he was only charged with simple assault, harrassment & physical strike while his outstanding warrant went unnoticed.
Only days later on Monday, September 2, 2019, Margaret’s family had been trying to get a hold of her over the past two days to let her know that her brother John Shade had passed away. When Ellen called her mom repeatedly, oftentimes, David answered, saying that their mom was sleeping or that she was already aware of her brother’s death.
Feeling a sense of dread after several days of not reaching her, Margaret’s younger daughter Peggy contacted the South Fayette Police Department at 11 am for a welfare check, explaining that her 30-year-old brother was staying with her mom who had a history of elder abuse.
When officers arrived at 67-year-old Margaret’s townhome on Olde Orchard Drive in South Fayette just outside of Pittsburgh, the blinds were drawn & there was no answer at the door. After multiple attempts at making contact with Margaret or anyone else in the house, two officers forced entry into the home at 11:45 pm that night.
They immediately saw that the home was in disarray with blood visible in multiple rooms with drag marks, spatter & smearing on the walls & furniture while shattered glass littered the floor. As they made their way upstairs, they were met with a gruesome scene when they found Margaret’s body lying in the bathtub of the main bathroom with extensive injuries.
A revolver that Margaret owned was missing while only an empty ammunition box remained. They could see that the house was in various stages of clean-up while evidence had been specifically placed. Because there seemed to be a lack of panic, suggested premeditation.
The next day, the Allegheny County medical examiner indicated that Margaret’s injuries were similar to that of a fatal car crash. Lacerations covered her entire scalp while her face & body were covered in contusions. She had multiple rib fractures on both sides of the ribcage that would have prevented her from breathing. Her spine was also fractured in a way that would have left her paralyzed from the waist down had she survived. She had died from blunt-force trauma to the head, neck & torso.
It was clear that David Jr. was responsible for his mother’s death, but investigators still needed to find him. They turned to Margaret’s daughter Ellen, who reluctantly agreed to set a trap by inviting David to attend their uncle’s funeral.
When David Jr. showed up, he was arrested days after his mom’s murder on September 4, 2019. He claimed to have nothing to do with her death while officers found that he was in possession of Margaret’s bracelet, necklace, debit card & three checks.
Investigators learned that after killing his mom, he’d purchased a hotel room at Hotel Indigo in Philadelphia. They found Margaret’s guns & purses in his room. They also learned that he’d given the hotel manager a set of pearls, telling her they were from a special lady, to a special lady.
A forensic download of David’s cell phone depicted 277 images that would haunt investigators forever. The photos began at 4:50 am on Friday, August 30, 2019, three days before Margaret’s body was found, that depicted her injured & in distress.
As the photos progressed, Margaret was increasingly injured until the last photos that were time-stamped five hours later at 9:58 am. In these photos, Margaret was either unconscious or deceased.
In between these photos, David had taken selfies with his mom’s body with his face smeared with blood. In one, he gave a thumbs up.
According to his search history, on August 30 at 11:11 am, he asked, How long does it take before a body starts to decompose? At 3:50 pm, How to keep a decomposing body from smelling. Two days later, on Sunday, September 1 at 4:24 am, he searched, Do you drain a body before dismembering? Five minutes later he searched, Best way to drain a body.
After his mother was dead, David went to the local Giant Eagle store on Sunday, September 1, 2019 where he purchased a rotisserie chicken as well as various cleaning products, many of which detectives had found at the house. While making the purchase, he utilized his mom’s Giant Eagle Advantage Card.
Discovering this evidence on his phone, David was charged with criminal homicide, robbery, theft & abuse of a corpse.
After a psychiatric evaluation determined he was competent to stand trial, Davd accepted a plea deal three years after he murdered his mom, in August 2022. After prosecutors dropped charges for first-degree murder & abuse of a corpse, he admitted guilt to third-degree murder as there was concern that they might not be able to prove the specific intent required for first-degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt.
Prosecutors indicated that because David had a history of mental illness as well as alcoholism & the fact that he had no apparent motive to kill his mom, a conviction for first-degree murder was less likely. A doctor had testified that in addition to several prescribed psychotropic medications, David had been prescribed the highest dose of Adderall he had ever seen. He also learned that on top of the medication, David had consumed alcohol two days immediately prior & after the murder.
During the October 2022 hearing, Margaret’s family challenged the plea deal as a charge for third-degree murder carried a sentence of as little as 17 years while first-degree murder carried a sentence of life without parole.
Margaret’s daughter Ellen felt shocked & disgusted saying, I guess in this courtroom it’s okay in Pennsylvania to steal all of someone’s money, torture them for days, beat them to death & get it knocked down to third-degree murder.
On November 17, 2022 David Sumney Jr. was sentenced to 20-40 years in prison. With time served, he could be eligible for parole as early as 2039 when he’s about 50-years-old.
Margaret’s family felt that this lenient sentence was an absolute betrayal due to the sheer brutality of the crime, the photographic evidence & the manipulation that pointed to something far darker than third-degree murder.
Third-degree murder in Pennsylvania is a fatal act of violence where the perpetrator didn’t specifically intend to kill, but acted with a degree of malice & disregard for human life. Whereas, first-degree murder involves premeditation & intent.
During his sentencing, Margaret’s older sister Mary Ellen called her nephew less than a piece of trash, saying that she wanted him to receive the death penalty.
Ellen spoke of her disgust at the 277 photos her half-brother had taken saying, You only take pictures if you want to go back & see what you did. She gave you everything she had. And when she didn’t have anything else to give, you killed her. And I’m still upset you were not prosecuted to the fullest. This was first-degree murder. It’s her belief that David acted in violence after their mom told him to get a job.
In court, 33-year-old David offered a short apology, saying he didn’t understand how he could have done what he did. He expressed remorse & apologized to his family for the pain he caused.
Margaret hadn’t been killed in a sudden moment of madness. Her life ended after spending years dealing with the chaos that came with her son’s violence, addiction & instability. She saw all the warning signs & experienced the violence firsthand. Yet, like so many parents, she continued to be there for her son because at the end of the day, he was still her child. Sadly, loving someone doesn’t make them safe.
Margaret had been beaten over an extended period of time, suffering from injuries that were so severe that it left her looking as if she’d gotten into a horrific car accident. The photos David took during & after the murder made everything that much disturbing. He not only documented her injuries, but stood smiling with her blood smeared across his face, smiling, holding his hand in a thumbs-up position as if he was proud of himself for what he’d done.
Sweet Margaret lost her life trying to save someone who was long past saving, dying at the hands of the son she never stopped loving or protecting.
References:
- Latoison Law: Third degree murder in Pennsylvania
- Justia U.S. Law: Com. v. Sumney, D
- Spotlight PA: The second-degree sentencing deadline has passed. What happens now?
- Unreal True Crime: The murder of Margaret Sumney: A mother betrayed
- 11 News: Man accused of murdering mother inside home
- Observer-Reporter: South Fayette man pleads guilty to mother’s 2019 murder
- Observer-Reporter: N. Strabane man arrested in beating of elderly father
- Daily Mail: The chilling case of the Margaret Sumney murder
- Beinhauer Family Funeral Homes & Cremation Services: Margaret Ann Sumney
- People: Family outraged after Pa. man who killed his mother, took selfies with body is sentenced to 20 years minimum
- CBS News: Special hearing held over plea deal for man accused of killing his mother in South Fayette
