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From left: Summer Heil and Terry and Ronda Parker are facing charges in the death of a man who was killed in Pennsylvania. The Parkers are accused of shooting the man, chopping up his body and burning it. Heil helped with the dismemberment, cops say. (WENY)
A Pennsylvania couple is behind bars for allegedly luring a man to a home and shooting him to death before chopping up his body and burning it.
At one point after the murder, 46-year-old Terry Parker and 48-year-old Ronda Parker allegedly drove around with the victim’s body in the trunk with kids in the car and stopped for ice cream, according to a probable cause arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime.
The Parkers, who were married but are apparently separated, face charges of conspiracy to commit homicide, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence in the death of Ronda Parker’s boyfriend, 40-year-old Michael Pruitt. Terry Parker’s girlfriend, Summer Heil, 36, is charged with tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse.
Pennsylvania State Police troopers responded around 7:20 a.m. Monday to Ronda Parker’s house in Springfield Township, in northeast Pennsylvania, after she sent her daughter disturbing text messages about a murder.
Troopers noted in the affidavit the fire pit was still smoldering when they arrived on the scene. Investigators confirmed human bones in the pit and identified them as belonging to Pruitt.
In an interview with troopers, Ronda Parker said that Terry Parker had “lured” Pruitt to the home on Friday night. When Pruitt walked into the kitchen, Terry Parker allegedly shot him. Pruitt ran to the bedroom where Ronda Parker was and tried to hide behind her. But Terry Parker “finished off” Pruitt in the doorway to the bedroom, according to the affidavit.
Terry Parker allegedly stuffed Pruitt’s body in a sleeping bag, wrapped it with a metal chain with a cinder block attached and put it in the trunk of a car. On Saturday, they drove around looking for watering holes to dump the body, the affidavit said. They ran several errands, picked up a shovel, chain saw, and garbage bags, and even stopped for ice cream with the kids in the car, cops said. When Terry Parker allegedly asked his former wife what she thought they should do with the body, she suggested burning it.
Ronda Parker said Terry Parker wanted Pruitt dead because he had been “sexually inappropriate with his daughters,” the affidavit said. Heil allegedly said in an interview with investigators her boyfriend told her that Pruitt had been masturbating in front of his underage children.
The Parkers and Heil allegedly spent most of Saturday hacking Pruitt’s body and burning it. Heil allegedly admitted to troopers that she held Pruitt’s arms and legs, and Terry Parker chopped them off. She also admitted to stabbing the victim after he was dead because she was “high on meth” and angry about what Pruitt allegedly did to the children, police said. Ronda Parker said she cleaned up the house and painted over the blood on the walls in the kitchen, court documents said.
Detectives obtained text messages exchanged between Terry and Ronda Parker. They allegedly said:
Ronda Parker: Terry clorox is not enough in here its everywhere
Terry Parker: We need clothes. In a hurry. We both smell like dead animal
Terry Parker: Already got more than half of him in the bags
Ronda Parker: Just found a tooth on my blankets that (a one-year-old child) has been on, would you like it as a souvenir? If that is in the blanket what’s in the baseboard cracks
Ronda Parker: I’d never rat you don’t be a f—— moron
Terry: Being too f—— paranoid. To the point of obsession. Of course s— needs to be cleaned. But you are taking it to a whole new level. And the s— in the fire can’t even be seen. Not even from a very close up look. It’s covered up with rims (of) garbage
Heil and the Parkers were arrested and taken to the Bradford County Jail, where they are being held without bond. Their preliminary hearing is set for March 27.
