James Clark

As husband and wife for more than 50 years, Louis and Judith Hartdegen were said to be inseparable. But something went very wrong early Monday, a domestic argument that turned deadly, according to police. Louis Hartdegen killed his wife and tried to pin the crime on a neighbor, they said. Louis Hartdegen, 75, had scratches and bruises to his face, and his 74-year-old wife lay unresponsive in bed, when police arrived at their apartment in the 6700 block of Castor Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia.

NEIGHBORS SAID they were inseparable in life. But after 53 years of marriage, Louis Hartdegen separated himself from wife Judith in the most vicious and devious of ways Monday morning when he beat and suffocated her in bed - and then called 9-1-1 to falsely report that a neighbor broke in to rape and kill her, homicide Capt. James Clark said yesterday. Louis Hartdegen, 75, confessed his crime after detectives discovered "discrepancies" in his account of the supposed home invasion, Clark said.

BEFORE sunrise Thursday, Don Ly emerged from his family's South Philadelphia home - just as he had day in and day out for nearly two decades - to prepare his fruit cart for work. But Ly didn't make it to his post at 34th and Walnut streets in University City on Thursday. A predator was lurking on the 68-year-old vendor's quiet block of Vollmer Street near 4th, and minutes after Ly stepped outside about 5 a.m., he was savagely attacked, his assailant plunging a knife seven times into his chest and neck, according to police.

POLICE ARRESTED a New York City man yesterday on murder charges for allegedly gunning down three men in West Philadelphia in December, killing two of them. Marco Joaquin, 18, was charged with two counts of murder in the Dec. 22 deaths of Anthony Fletcher, 33, and Dwayne Page, 29, said Officer Tanya Little, a police spokeswoman. Joaquin had been listed as one of the Police Department's "most-wanted fugitives. " Police found the three victims inside Fletcher's apartment on Chester Avenue near 46th Street about 10:30 p.m. that night.

A 75-year-old man has been charged with the murder of his wife after claiming she was killed early Monday by an intruder who broke into their Northeast Philadelphia apartment, police said. Louis Hartdegen was awaiting a bail hearing Tuesday morning on murder and related charges in the beating and suffocation death of Judith Hartdegen, 74. Police have not disclosed a motive, but the couple had filed for bankruptcy in February, citing more than $42,000 in credit card debts, according to court papers.

Police were searching Wednesday for the boyfriend of a 27-year-old woman shot and killed Tuesday night in their North Philadelphia apartment while two children slept in another room. Dominique Haynes, 33, was named by police Wednesday as a person of interest in the killing of Rasheedah Blunt about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday on the 3500 block of Old York Road. Neighbors reported hearing a loud argument between Blunt and a man in the second-floor apartment before the shooting, Homicide Unit Capt.

Philadelphia police were questioning a man Thursday in the slaying of a 27-year-old woman who was shot in her North Philadelphia apartment. Dominique Hayes, 33, was apprehended Thursday by Philadelphia police and members of the U.S. Marshals Service in the death of his girlfriend, Rasheedah Blunt. Blunt was shot and killed Tuesday in their apartment in the 3500 block of Old York Road as two children slept in another room. Neighbors reported a loud argument between Blunt and a man in the second-floor apartment before the shooting, Homicide Unit Capt.

Homicide detectives were interviewing a possible suspect last night in the slaying of a city man shot at a hotel near Philadelphia International Airport. The victim, Tyre West, 28, of Hunting Park, had been at the Residence Inn by Marriott on Wednesday with his girlfriend and another man, said Capt. James Clark of the homicide unit. "We believe all three of the individuals had some type of liaison with each other, they knew each other in some way," Clark said. "What brought them there, I'm not prepared to say quite yet. " Sometime during the night, he said, the man tried to rob West's 28-year-old girlfriend at gunpoint.

Police have charged four men in the death of a 25-year-old woman killed in a shootout outside a Nicetown bar last week, but were still searching for the fifth suspect Tuesday, they said. Johnika Tiggett was shot in the head early Nov. 23, police said, as she and friends tried to escape a fight that began inside Buffy's, a bar on the 2000 block of Dennie Street. "As a result of the reckless actions of five individuals, she's no longer with us," said Philadelphia Capt. James Clark, who described Tiggett as an innocent bystander.

I T'S THE MOST GRUESOME CRIME of the young year, and what's nearly as disturbing about the details of the horrifying murder of a young pediatrician is that police have no idea who did it. The savage who bound, strangled and burned Melissa Ketunuti in her Center City home Monday afternoon remains on the loose, and after a second day investigating, police said Tuesday that they had no leads in the gut-wrenching case. "Right now, it's an open investigation," Homicide Unit Capt. James Clark said.

As husband and wife for more than 50 years, Louis and Judith Hartdegen were said to be inseparable. But something went very wrong early Monday, a domestic argument that turned deadly, according to police. Louis Hartdegen killed his wife and tried to pin the crime on a neighbor, they said. Louis Hartdegen, 75, had scratches and bruises to his face, and his 74-year-old wife lay unresponsive in bed, when police arrived at their apartment in the 6700 block of Castor Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia.

A 75-year-old man has been charged with the murder of his wife after claiming she was killed early Monday by an intruder who broke into their Northeast Philadelphia apartment, police said. Louis Hartdegen was awaiting a bail hearing Tuesday morning on murder and related charges in the beating and suffocation death of Judith Hartdegen, 74. Police have not disclosed a motive, but the couple had filed for bankruptcy in February, citing more than $42,000 in credit card debts, according to court papers.

NEIGHBORS SAID they were inseparable in life. But after 53 years of marriage, Louis Hartdegen separated himself from wife Judith in the most vicious and devious of ways Monday morning when he beat and suffocated her in bed - and then called 9-1-1 to falsely report that a neighbor broke in to rape and kill her, homicide Capt. James Clark said yesterday. Louis Hartdegen, 75, confessed his crime after detectives discovered "discrepancies" in his account of the supposed home invasion, Clark said.

POLICE ARRESTED a New York City man yesterday on murder charges for allegedly gunning down three men in West Philadelphia in December, killing two of them. Marco Joaquin, 18, was charged with two counts of murder in the Dec. 22 deaths of Anthony Fletcher, 33, and Dwayne Page, 29, said Officer Tanya Little, a police spokeswoman. Joaquin had been listed as one of the Police Department's "most-wanted fugitives. " Police found the three victims inside Fletcher's apartment on Chester Avenue near 46th Street about 10:30 p.m. that night.

THEY MAY not have been related by blood, but Thomas Gorman spilled his own Tuesday night when he sacrificed his life to save his girlfriend's 11-year-old son from a gun-toting madman, police said. Now, the boy will grow up with the horrific memory of seeing both Gorman and his mother shot to death. Meanwhile, the gunman who tried to kill the child still roams the streets. About 11:20 p.m. Tuesday, Carmen Medina, 31, took Gorman, 39, her son and a female friend in her gray SUV to Gurney Street near A in Kensington to meet someone, said Homicide Capt.

On a block of good South Philly neighbors, Don Ly was the best. He would distribute platters of fruit on holidays, and fill children's hands with bunches of bananas from the family fruit cart that he, his wife, and their daughter would drive each day to 34th and Walnut Streets, where they worked as vendors. It was the cart that Ly, 69, a Vietnamese immigrant, used to grow his family in America, where all four of his children graduated from college. And it was at the cart early Thursday where Ly was killed, stabbed by an assailant for reasons neither his family nor police could fathom.

BEFORE sunrise Thursday, Don Ly emerged from his family's South Philadelphia home - just as he had day in and day out for nearly two decades - to prepare his fruit cart for work. But Ly didn't make it to his post at 34th and Walnut streets in University City on Thursday. A predator was lurking on the 68-year-old vendor's quiet block of Vollmer Street near 4th, and minutes after Ly stepped outside about 5 a.m., he was savagely attacked, his assailant plunging a knife seven times into his chest and neck, according to police.

Amanda Martinez was standing on a girlfriend's stoop in Kensington on Tuesday afternoon when the fighting started on Somerset Street. Martinez was on Water Street, a narrow one-way that runs into Somerset. She walked toward the commotion. "Leave it alone," a friend told her. "Don't go over there. " But Martinez wanted to take a look. There were about 20 to 30 people fighting on Somerset, police said, a melee that began between two women, then escalated to include men. According to witnesses and police, a man in the brawl fired a gun in the air, then another man fired into the crowd.

POLICE ARE asking the public for help to identify the gunman who opened fire during a street fight in Kensington on Tuesday night, killing a woman and injuring three men. The four victims were "totally innocent bystanders," homicide Capt. James Clark said. The incident started just before 6 p.m., when two women began fighting on Somerset Street near Lee, Clark said. About 20 to 30 other people joined the battle, leading one man to pull out a gun and begin blasting. One bullet hit Amanda Martinez, 20, of Luray Street near Front in Feltonville, in the chest, Clark said.

Amanda Martinez stood on a girlfriend's stoop Tuesday afternoon, one of dozens watching the fighting on East Somerset Street. There were 20 to 30 people brawling in the narrow street just before 6 p.m., police said, a melee that began between two women, then escalated to both men and women. Then, someone pulled a gun, "firing recklessly into the crowd," said Capt. James Clark of the Homicide Unit. Martinez, 20, who lived around the corner on Lauray Street, fell with a bullet in her chest, and three other men were shot and wounded.