{"id":281468,"date":"2026-09-08T13:50:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T13:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/281468\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T13:50:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T13:50:31","slug":"pennsylvania-teen-and-his-mother-charged-in-stabbing-death-of-sons-girlfriend-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/281468\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania teen and his mother charged in stabbing death of son’s girlfriend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania teen and his mother are charged in the stabbing death of the son’s girlfriend<\/p>\n

\"MarcieWASHINGTON COUNTY, Pa. \u2014<\/p>\n

Authorities released police body camera footage Thursday showing the discovery of a Pennsylvania college student\u2019s body that led to the arrest of her boyfriend, who said in court documents that a \u201cdemon\u201d told him to stab her.<\/p>\n

The boyfriend’s mother, meanwhile, is accused of helping him cover up the crime, according to state police.<\/p>\n

Royce Moser, 18, of North Strabane Township, faces a homicide charge in the death of Karoline Heintz, a student at PennWest California University whose body was found Aug. 20 after she failed to return to the southwestern Pennsylvania college, according to a criminal complaint.<\/p>\n

Moser said he became angry with Heintz during a conversation in her vehicle in Moser\u2019s driveway and that he had a \u201cdemon take over\u201d and tell him to stab her, according to the police affidavit. A preliminary hearing was held Tuesday for Moser and his mother, Rachel Moser, in Heintz\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Video below: Police bodycam footage shows the discovery of a Pennsylvania college student\u2019s body<\/p>\n

Royce Moser was charged with criminal homicide, and his mother, Rachel Moser, was charged with hindering apprehension, tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse, and obstruction, Trooper Rocco Gagliardi said at a news conference following the homicide. <\/p>\n

New evidence presented in court <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, prosecutors presented testimony from six witnesses and introduced more than 32 pieces of evidence, alleging that Royce Moser coerced Heintz to visit his home, stabbed her twice after she refused his hug and kiss, and then left her body in the back of her Jeep. <\/p>\n

Surveillance footage and phone mapping were shown in court, reportedly tracking Royce and his mother to the location where Heintz\u2019s body was abandoned. <\/p>\n

Investigators also revealed Moser\u2019s Google searches shortly after the crime, which included: “What removes fingerprints from objects?” “How long do Ring Cameras store video?” “What does God say about murder?” “What if a demon controlled you and murdered someone?” and “Can an 18-year-old get the death penalty?” <\/p>\n

District Attorney Jason Walsh shared his thoughts on the family\u2019s grief following the hearing, saying, “I mean, I think, I mean, they’re heartbroken, obviously, and they’re grieving. So, that’s all I can say, and I couldn’t imagine what they’re going through. As I said, our hearts go out to them.”<\/p>\n

The judge upheld all charges against Royce Moser and added a new charge for Rachel Moser: criminal use of a communication device.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania teen and his mother are charged in the stabbing death of the son’s girlfriend WASHINGTON COUNTY, Pa.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1335,454,449,13808,785,111,11288,3231,40286,113650,5866,113576,14119,117424,3408,28,117425,30,29,59395,60940,14676,73,8623,1401,113690,113689,20699,16950,108,437],"class_list":["post-281468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-body","tag-charge","tag-court","tag-court-document","tag-criminal-homicide","tag-death","tag-demon","tag-evidence","tag-girlfriend","tag-karoline-heintz","tag-location","tag-moser","tag-mother","tag-new-evidence","tag-news-conference","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-college-student","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-pennsylvania-teen","tag-pennwest-california","tag-peters-township","tag-pittsburgh","tag-preliminary-hearing","tag-prosecutor","tag-rachel-moser","tag-royce-moser","tag-shnd","tag-son","tag-tuesday","tag-washington-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}