Ferman

Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua died of natural causes, not for any reason related to the looming conspiracy and sex-abuse trial of one of his former top aides, the Montgomery County coroner said Thursday. Ending weeks of speculation, Coroner Walter I. Hofman blamed the 88-year-old cardinal's Jan. 31 death on routine factors: heart disease, prostate cancer, and old age. "This is a natural death," Hofman told reporters at his Norristown office. "Elderly people with preexisting disease often die quite suddenly.

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman asked the county coroner to examine the body of Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua two weeks ago because the timing of the 88-year-old prelate's death struck her as "peculiar," she said Friday. Ferman acknowledged that she enlisted County Coroner Walter I. Hofman because the cardinal died one day after a Philadelphia judge said Bevilacqua could be called to testify at the child sex-abuse and endangerment trial of three current and former priests.

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman asked the county coroner to examine the body of Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua last week because the timing of the 88-year-old prelate's death struck her as "peculiar," she said Friday. Ferman acknowledged that she enlisted county Coroner Walter I. Hofman because the cardinal died one day after a Philadelphia judge said Bevilacqua could be called to testify at the child sex-abuse and endangerment trial of three current and former priests.

Authorities in Montgomery County have arrested a former Florida man in connection with the strangling death of a 40-year-old woman in her Wyndmoor, Springfield Township, home. This morning District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman and Springfield Township Police Chief Randall D. Hummel announced the arrest of Johnny Fossett, 31, for the murder of Lori Jefferson. Fossett is charged with first- and second-degree murder and related offenses. Fossett strangled Jefferson, gagged her and then bound her hands and feet together behind her back, Ferman said.

A teacher at a Montgomery County middle school has been charged with indecent assault in connection with alleged inappropriate touching of students. William Schellinger, 42, a Spanish teacher at Colonial Middle School in Plymouth Township, was initially accused of improper behavior in October and placed on paid leave. According to the Montgomery County District Attorney, Shellinger "initiated inappropriate contact" with five boys ranging in age from 15 to 18. The boys were tutored or mentored by Schellinger when the contact occurred, said D.A. Risa Vetri Ferman.

A Montgomery County police officer fatally shot his 17-year-old son when the teen attacked him with a hunting knife Wednesday afternoon, authorities said. Stephen Schmitz, who attended North Penn Senior High School, was shot in his Towamencin Township home by his father, Eric B. Schmitz, 56, a lieutenant with the Hatfield Township Police Department, authorities said. Authorities did not identify the teen, but friends confirmed it was Stephen Schmitz. Before officials even acknowledged his death, a Facebook memorial page had been created for the teen.

Investigators in Montgomery County are looking into allegations made at a public meeting Wednesday that a Lower Merion police officer stalked and "sexually assaulted" a township woman in 2010. District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman termed the accusations the 25-year-old woman made at a Board of Commissioners meeting "a very serious matter. " By Thursday afternoon, at Ferman's direction, a county detective was dispatched to the woman's home to begin gathering information. As shocked commissioners looked on Wednesday night, the woman told how the officer had stalked her for a month, sitting in a patrol car in a parking lot beneath her window.

Despite what appears to be a straight shot to a second term in office, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman hasn't eased up on her fund-raising. That has led some political watchers to ask, what office is she running for, anyway? Since January, the 46-year-old prosecutor from Abington has collected more than $237,000 in contributions, according to her latest campaign filings, despite facing neither a GOP primary challenger nor a Democratic opponent in the fall.

THREE WEEKS to the day before her death Monday night, 9-year-old Skyler Kauffman stood terrified in her killer's bathroom, police said, surrounded by pictures of naked women hanging from the walls. The man who allegedly would go on to take her innocence and her life, James Troutman, had invited Skyler and her friend to use his bathroom at Souderton Gardens Apartments, where they all lived, on April 18, according to court documents. The girls went willingly, but when they saw the pictures, when Troutman offered to show them his "bird," and when they realized that he had locked the apartment door behind them, they ran away and told their parents, according to court documents.