Ex-boyfriend to be charged with murdering missing Bucks woman

Kenneth L. Patterson will be charged with murdering his missing ex-girlfriend, Bucks County District Attorney David W. Heckler said Wednesday, regardless of whether Diane Corado's body is ever found.

"That is our intention," Heckler said after Patterson, 48, of no known address, was arraigned on kidnapping, assault, and other charges in the Dec. 19 abduction of Corado from her Falls Township apartment. "I am satisfied that, this far into the investigation, there is ample circumstantial evidence to prove that Ms. Corado is dead and that the death penalty is warranted."

Police say Corado, 57, was beaten and kidnapped after Patterson forced his way into her apartment while she and another woman were sleeping. He soon released the second woman, who told police Patterson had beaten Corado with a pipe and told her he would kill her.

Corado's 2004 Pontiac Aztek was found abandoned in Trenton later that day, with blood in it. Police have also said Patterson stopped at an ATM in Cheltenham shortly after the abduction before he crossed into New Jersey.

Patterson was arrested that evening at a Maple Shade motel, his clothing apparently stained with blood. He has refused to speak to police about Corado's whereabouts, authorities have said.

On Wednesday, Patterson was returned from New Jersey to Pennsylvania, a day after waiving extradition.

Clothed in a green prison jumpsuit, Patterson said nothing to reporters as Falls Township police led him into a district courtroom. District Judge Jan Vislosky read the list of charges against him and asked whether Patterson had any questions.

"I don't have anything to say," he said. Vislosky set bail at $9 million, and Patterson was taken to the Bucks County prison.

First Assistant District Attorney Michelle Henry said that authorities were still searching for Corado, but that "the circumstances would indicate that she is not alive."

Henry said detectives had built "a strong circumstantial case, and finding her body is not required for us to bring that case against him."

She asked anyone with information about Corado to call county detectives at 215-348-6354.