Inset left: Jamie Busch (YouTube/WROC). Inset right: Penny Busch (Facebook). Background: The home in Monroe County, N.Y., where Busch was killed (WHEC/YouTube).
A woman from upstate New York, found guilty of murdering her sister amid eviction threats, maintains her innocence, alleging that the crime was committed by her niece.
Jamie Busch received a 25-year-to-life prison sentence on Thursday for the October 2024 murder of her sister, 62-year-old Penny Busch. According to reports, Jamie was accused of strangling Penny at their shared residence in Honeoye Falls, a small village approximately 18 miles south of Rochester, New York. She subsequently disposed of her sister’s body in the Genesee River and discarded three of Penny’s cellphones in a trash bin behind a Dunkin’ Donuts.
At the time of the crime, Jamie Busch was 53 years old. She faced additional charges for tampering with evidence and was convicted in February.
Mary Shadders, a cousin, commented to local ABC affiliate WHAM, “This is not the first instance she has attempted to strangle a family member. We’re relieved the jury, despite not hearing her entire history, reached the right verdict.”
During sentencing, Judge Stephen Miller noted Jamie Busch showed “no remorse whatsoever,” as reported by WHAM. In a prepared statement, Jamie asserted she was “framed” and insisted the true perpetrator, whom she claimed was her sister’s daughter, remains at large. Prosecutors, however, confirmed the daughter was in South Carolina at the time of the incident.
The tragic events unfolded on October 8, 2024, at Penny Busch’s home on Ontario Street, just outside Honeoye Falls. The sisters reportedly engaged in a physical confrontation sometime after 4:49 p.m., during which Jamie Busch is accused of fatally strangling her sister, according to court documents obtained by local NBC affiliate WHEC.
Early the following day, the suspect took three of her sister’s cellphones and discarded them in a trash bin at the village’s Dunkin’ Donuts, the court document continues. At some point in the ensuing days, Jamie Busch reportedly transported Penny Busch’s body from her home and threw it in the Genesee River.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office was asked to do a welfare check on Penny Busch’s home, and on Oct. 11, 2024, deputies responded to her eight-acre residence. As they investigated, they “believed her disappearance was suspicious,” and a search, complete with K-9s, drones, and more, commenced.
Three days later, investigators “developed information focusing the search to an area of the Genesee River in the Town of Rush,” the sheriff’s office said.
A body was found, and it was later identified as Penny Busch.
