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Ebersole arrested in Gates murder■ ■~ Continued from Page 1“.’in the arrest warrant, police said Qates was naked and bound at the neck when she was found — circumstances similar to a story Eber-,syle had claimed Gates told him gbout having been the victim of a rape. Her family told police they had no knowledge of any such mine,r 'Police said Ebersole told a friendI ■of Gates that the victim was found| 1tied in the yard. He also claimed he had heard this from Gates’ sister, Recording to the arrest affidavit. No conversation had occurred between Ebersole and the sister regarding this information, police said.The seven-page affidavit to secure the arrest warrant thlough ihe office of District Justice Erika ,McVieker provides some initial information secured at the scene, background information, and a section tilled information received from Cordell (Ebersole) that con-’fftcts witli others.”j * i___The crime scene information .states that Ebersole knew that ^Gates had a key-pad lock and alarm dt her home and had seen her use it. .But, she also had a hidden a key fl§ the basement door and Ebersole iWas aware of that key and its loca-.i'.tion, police said.There was no forced entry and the doors were locked; nothing was missing or disturbed in the house; and the offender apparently brought the weapon and restraints used in the crime, police.said.Gates did not have a key to the house on her key ring, police said, and the hidden key was found outside the house with Gates’ blood on it. The key was not close to where the victim was attacked or traveled during the attack, police said.While Gates had a long-termrelationship with 31-year-old Bur-ket, they had apparently parted for a short period in fall 1999, and this is when Gates met Ebersole.Police said interviews with Gates’ friends and family “provided information that the relationship between Gates and Ebersole consisted of meeting at the bar (Glenn’s Place, where Gates reportedly played darts), and Ebersole would occasionally return home with Gates to watch TV.“Gates told a number of persons she did not want a relationship withEbersole. She stated that she did not like Ebersole because he was ‘too young, not mature, and Cordell liked Cordell.’ Alice Gates, Dana’smother, stated that Ebersole wanted a relationship with Dana, and he often commented that Dana was pretty and expressed his desire tohave a relationship with her,” the police affidavit said.Those interviews yielded information that Ebersole “started showing up at locations where he expected Dana to be, including Sunday family dinners, and Dana was upset by this, stating that she wished he would go away.”Regarding meeting at Glenn’sPlace, police said Ebersole hadreferred to Gates as “a barfly,” and “a real bad flirt.” In later interviews, he denied he had said those things.Ebersole said he had stayed at Gates’ house two or three times a week, but others said that was unlikely, including the victim’s mother who lived there at the time Ebersole said this happened.Police said they asked Ebersole what he felt had b ippened, and he had said “someone from the bar got mad over something that had been going on for some time. Dana could piss someone off easily.” He was also quoted, “When you live that life style, this is what happens.”Gates was employed as anadministrative assistant with Allegheny Lutheran Social Min-istries/Headstart in Bedford for several years, and some of those interviewed said Ebersole would call or send flowers and she did not like this. A co-worker said Gates told Ebersole on the phone that she was happy with her renewed relationship with Burket. “Just leave me alone. I don’t want this,” Gates was quoted as saying.He denied that she told him to stop calling her at work, but then said she had because of a change in the phone system. Police said that system change occurred before they met.The affidavit tells of Ebersole showing up at other locations and calling her into mid-2001.“She told both her mother and sister about Cordell being at the house, waiting for her to return home from darts. She was upset about this for some time,” police said in the affidavit, which also states that Ebersole has denied this occurred.In January 2001, Gates apparently called a friend about 2:30 a.m. and told that person that Ebersole was in her residence when she returned from a dart tournament.She told him to leave or she would call police. He did, but later returned. She told him not to have any other contact with her or her family because she was going to renew her relationship with Burket. Ebersole, the friend said, threatened to beat up Burket.“According to this friend, Dana was physically afraid of Cordell. She was afraid that he would show up and no one would know. Dana colled Cordell a stalker, relating that he follower her around and was calling her,” the affidavit said.A person described as an ex-girlfriend of Ebersole’s said he visited her at work one morning and told her he was upset with Gates because she was seeing someone else, that he felt Gates and Burket would get back together and that Gates was “using him (Ebersole) to make Lorin jealous because he would not set a wedding date.”Ebersole apparently learned in August 2001 that Gates and Burket were engaged, and in October or November 2001, that Alice Gateshad moved out of the Kimmel Township house, which is a family owned home, and that Burket had movedin.Ebersole himself had startedanother relationship in early 2001, and married a former Everett resident in August 2002.Police said Ebersole contended that he had not called or visited Gates after February 2001, but police found his phone number on her caller ID and on his phone billas late as October 2001. He said he didn’t remember if or why he had called her.Police said Ebersole said his relationship with Gates had ended in March 2000. But police said they found records of 392 calls between the two after that date.The affidavit, signed by state police Cpl. Roger Smith and Craig Grassmyer, also stated that Ebersole said “Dana liked to play head games and she drug him through the dirt a lot. After awhile he had enough, stating ‘this is it.’ It was really hard emotionally and mentally. But he dealt with it and was glad he got over it.”Police said in the affidavit., “Dana’s friends attempted to talk her into getting some type of court order or PFA (protection fromabuse) against Cordell. Dana was reluctant to pursue this advice, stating that she could handle the situation.”j*State police, DA say evidence in Gates case warrants arresttogether.Police said they do not have the murder weapon, but there are other physical ties — DNA, for example — between Ebersole and the crime scene. Investigators Sgt. Daniel Krauss, Cpl. Roger Smith and Tpr. Craig Grassmyer had no comment on motive or whether the Nov. 30, 2001, attacks were a crime of passion. Krauss said police would not comment on “certain items of evidence.”They would not comment on whether the attacker was in the house when Gates and Burket returned home or if that person entered after they were inside. A key missing from a hiding place at the house was one piece of evidence found with Gates’ blood on it.The investigators and Diehl conferred last week and agreed they had “all we were going to get. It was time to move one way or the other,” Smith said. The charges were filed at the office of District Justice Erika McVicker on Valen-’tine’s' Day, and' police apparently set up surveillance on Ebersole to be sure they could locate him for the arrest. The weekend snowstorm reportedly intervened in plans to make the arrest Monday.Ebersole was arrested in one of the two vehicles he owned that police had searched with warrants shortly after the crimes; they also removed items from his residence for testing.Because of the former relationship between Gates and Ebersole, police had focused on him early in the investigation. Blair County District Attorney David Gorman had called him a prime suspect at one time, but police declined to identify him as a suspect. His name became known when an edited portion of a search warrant was released by the Bedford County Court in mid-2002, but only one regional newspaper printed the name since there had been noarrest.Smith said the relationship between Gates and Ebersole “was only one thing we looked at. It was one point to start to gather information.”Grassmyer said DNA samples had been obtained, by warrant, for various hair, fiber and other samples from three persons.The DNA was one piece of evidence police would not comment on, nor would they be more specificabout the almost 400 phone calls they say were made between Gates and Ebersole after she broke off their relationship. They did say the calls “went both ways.” Grassmyer said the last of several interviews they had with Ebersole occurred last June 24.Krauss said the repeatedrequests to seal the warrants in the case “are a rarity ... only done where they might contain evidence known only to the suspect and the investigators.”He would not confirm if that was true in this case, but the arrest affidavit did contain references to the Ebersole having told a friend of Gates the morning after the crime about the victim being “found tied.” Police said this was part of one of Ebersole’s conflicting statements. y Police said Tuesday that they did not believe the Gates case was connected to any other crime.Officers said the arrest was. a team effort involving a number of investigators and lab personnel. Diehl said he felt police had done an excellent job.Smart Property Protectionfor your home or businessEMERGENCY AUTOMATIC STANDBY GENERATORS 7000-40000 Watt mmBSSSSgM• ADDS VALUE TO YOUR HOME• 24 HOUR BLACKOUT PRQTECTIO• CAN PAY FOR ITSELF IN JUST ONE POWER OUTAGENight or day, home or away, you'll feel at ease knowing that your GUARDIAN generator is watching your utility power around the clock.--jv •Generators available in Air-cooled or Liquid-cooled.Knisely Sons, Inc.Bedford, PA814-623-9086GUARDIAN'iMMTMWith rates this good, you’ll want a CD or IRAASAEthe preliminary or the Court of Common Pleas to set bail.The district attorney must notify the defense prior to the time of the preliminary hearing if he will seek the death penalty. Diehl refused to say Tuesday if this decision has been made.At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, police said they picked up Ebersole on a warrant while he was plowing snow at a Blair County store. Officers said he commented, “You’re kidding. You can’t be serious.”Ebersole operates a construction company, Cordell Construction, and police said he has no prior record. His attorney, Robert Lape Jr. of Roaring Spring, did not return a call Tuesday for comment on the case.He did not give police a statement Tuesday, the investigators said.Police have contended through14 1/2 months of investigation that they were following any leads they got and reviewing evidence repeatedly. The length of the investigation, the lack of substantive information and courtroom conflicts with media over documents, had been an issue.“Hundreds of interviews were conducted and over 400 pieces of evidence have been reviewed. Each lead was investigated to a final conclusion. After collecting the facts and evidence in this case, investigators were able to focus on a specific suspect. In this case, the facts and evidence identified Cordell Ebersole as the sole perpetrator of this crime.”Diehl said at the news conference that portions of the case are circumstantial. “It’s going to be a difficult case to present. You have to tell the story. You have to lay it out precisely to the jury and put every piece of testimonyBy Sharyn Maust Gazette Associate EditorPennsylvania State Police and Bedford County District Attorney Dwight Diehl decided last week that the accumulated, evidence in the murder of Dana Gates justified the arrest of her ex-boyfriend, Cordell Paul Ebersole, at this time.Ebersole, 26, of Martinsburg was picked up without incident Tuesday morning, arraigned and jailedfor criminal homicide and other ■charges relating to Gates’ death and the assault on Lorin Burket.Ebersole faces a preliminary hearing on Feb. 26, although that could be delayed. Criminal homicide is a comprehensive chargethat includes first-degree murder, as well as second-degree and third-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter. Ebersole was jailed without bond, and his lawyer must ask either the district justice atrA»/vA • VS-^Gazette photo/Elizabeth CoyleDana Gates* Kimmel Township home is coated in white more than a year after her Nov. 30,2001 murder.Neighbors relieved by Ebersole arrestCLAYSBURG — Several people living near the area where Dana Gates was murdered and Lorin Burket severely beaten had two reactions Tuesday: They were glad an arrest had been made and they felt it took a long time to make that arrest.Larry and Roberta Barnes live two doors from the scene of the crime. Roberta said 'Tuesday, “It makes me feel a little bit safer to know they’ve been caught.” Her husband said, “I’m glad they found him. .It took long enough.”Allen Knisely, who lives on Beaver Dam Road not far from its intersection with Schellsburg Roadwhere the crimes occurred in Kimmel Township, said the crimes had shaken up the small community.“Here, nobody locked their door. The doors were locked after that. My reaction was it took them too long to arrest him. They must have some pretty good evidence toward it,” Knisely said.A Queen resident who declined to be identified said he was glad of the arrest. “I hope they make it stick,” he said.District Attorney Dwight Diehl said he was “happy for the family especially, and that the public now has cause to breathe a little easier,»State police said during a news conference in Bedford Tuesday that they had made additional patrols in the crime scene area during their investigation, “There have been concerns about the whole family,” said Tpr. Craig Grassmyer.Police said they were also concerned about the safety — “nothing we can go into” — of Burket, who survived the attack but apparently remembers nothing about what happened. Police have not said where he is. He apparently underwent rehabilitation after lengthy treatment of head injuries.60-Month CD or IRA.50%Annual Percentage Yield*18-Month CD or IRA
Newspaper Details
Bedford Gazette
Bedford, Pennsylvania, US
Wed, Feb 19, 2003
Page 13
Full Page
Clipped by
Amy B.
USA 07 Aug 2020
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