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Estranged husband pleads guilty to suffocation death of womanBy Joseph GroceCalkins NewspapersA Philadelphia man has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the suffocation death of his estranged wife, a Bensalem woman whose daughter has been missing for more than two years.Paul E. Greenwald, 38, of 70 E. Willard St. signed a plea agreement with prosecutors as his murder trial was about to begin in Delaware Superior Court in Wilmington, prosecutors said.Greenwald was to be tried for murder in the death of Jean Louise Byrd. 36, whose body was found in October 1983 in a state forest near Smyrna, south of Wilmington.Byrd, who was living with friends in a Bensalem apartment when she disappeared Oct. 7,l»83. died of asphyxiation, according to an autopsy report. Heavy-duty tape had been wrapped around her mouth and face, authorities said.Prosecutors will seek the maximum 30-year prison term permitted under Delaware law for a manslaughter conviction, said Kathleen Jennings, a statedeputy attorney general handling the case. Manslaughter is defined as a reckless killing m Delaware.Sentencing will be imposed by Superior Court Judge Vincent Bifferato at a later date, she said. Jennings said her office alsowould ask the judge to forbid work release or furlough for Greenwald for 10 years.Byrd first attracted attention in March 19S3 when she reported to Bensalem police that her daughter, Tracy, then 14, had disappeared on her way to Bensalem High School.Tracy Byrd, who was last seen by Greenwald when he drove her to school one morning, has never been found.After Greenwald decided to plead guilty, prosecutors tried unsuccessfully to obtain information from him concerning Tracy’s disappearance, Jennings said.“\Ve were hoping we could get answers to a lot of questions,” Jennings said. He admitted to nothing.”Jennings said Greenwald did not disclose a motive for killing Byrd. At the time of her disappearance. friends said she hadseparated from him and grown fearful of him.Two years before the murder, Greenwald pleaded guilty in Bucks County Court to kidnapping and assaulting Byrd In an incident that began in a Middletown apartment, where she was staying with another man.Greenwald stabbed the man writh a knife, abducted Byrd and led police on a high-speed car chase into Trenton, where he was captured, according to police and courtrecords.Byrd, however, spoke in defense of Greenwald at his sentencing in that case, influencing President Judge Isaac S. Garb to sentence him to five years’ probation, said Robert Goldman, chief deputy district attorney, who handled the case.She spoke up to mitigate the facts,” Goldman said. She made excuses for his actions. We didn’t agree to probation. I’m sure the judge’s sentencing was based in part on what Jean Byrd said about Greenwald.r*Goldman said he saw the Byrd tragedy as a classic example of a battered woman syndrome.
Newspaper Details
Doylestown Intelligencer
Doylestown, Pennsylvania, US
Thu, Dec 19, 1985
Page 47
Full Page
Clipped by
Laura L.
MI, USA 13 Feb 2021
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