| Print Edition Highlights - August 21, 2014
Photo by Curt Werner.
Bryan Wayne Brackbill, Jr., 32, is escorted to a holding cell at the Carroll Township municipal building for his preliminary hearing in August 2013.
____ Bryan Brackbill Jr. insinuated himself into the life of Sandra Mulder, then used the woman's affection for him to alienate her from the people who loved her most, according to two family members.
____ Years later, when the 52-year-old Dillsburg-area woman finally stood up to the man known as "Big Country," he murdered her and stole her car.
____ Jurors took 80 minutes on Thursday morning to convict Brackbill, 34, of second-degree murder and theft.
____ Mulder's family and friends, who packed the prosecution side of Courtroom No. 5, briefly erupted in cheers and sobs of relief after the jury foreman read the verdict shortly before 11:30 a.m.
____ Life sentence: Jurors had the choice of convicting Brackbill of third-degree murder or manslaughter, but chose second-degree murder, which in Pennsylvania comes with an automatic life sentence and no possibility of parole.
____ Despite sentencing merely being a formality, York County judges almost always delay sentencing and ask the probation department to conduct a pre-sentence investigation.
____ But Brackbill was sentenced minutes after the verdict. His defense attorney, Rick Robinson, told the presiding judge that Brackbill didn't want to put it off.
____ Robinson later told The York Dispatch that Brackbill wants to be sent to state prison as soon as possible because the conditions are better there than at county prison.
____ Prior to Common Pleas Judge Michael E. Bortner imposing a life sentence, two of Mulder's family members spoke in court -- daughter Crystal Summers and brother Robert A. Smith.
____ 'Took advantage': "The defendant took advantage of our mother in every possible way," Summers said. "He separated her from her family. He separated her from her friends."
____ Mulder was a good mom, a grandmother to five girls and a loving person, according to her daughter.
____ "She (was) such a kindhearted woman who would take anyone in," Summers said. "He completely changed her. ... When he came into her life, it just totally started going downhill."
____ Smith told the judge he had a heavy heart, and not just because his sister was murdered. Smith said his heart was heavy months before the slaying, over concerns of how Brackbill took over Mulder's life.
____ "He killed her long before her actual death," Smith said. "She took this guy in when nobody else would."
____ He said he spoke to his sister many times about his concerns, to no avail.
____ 'Horrific crime': Chief deputy prosecutor David Sunday said he was thrilled the prosecution was able to get justice for "this absolutely horrific crime" and said he hopes the victim's lived ones will now be able to move on with their lives.
____ "There's nothing we can do to bring her back. We can't go back in time to fix what Bryan Brackbill broke," Sunday said.
____ "But we were able to hold him accountable for his actions and (protect) the community from anything he might do in the future."
____ Brackbill declined an opportunity to speak in court Thursday. Robinson said Brackbill will appeal.
____ The background: Brackbill lived in the basement of Mulder's home in the 200 block of Chestnut Grove Road in Carroll Township.
____ In the early-morning hours of June 1, 2013, he was angry because he'd been assaulted by his boss and thought his girlfriend -- who lived in Indiana -- was cheating on him, the prosecution told jurors.
____ Brackbill decided he was going to drive to Indiana to pick up the woman, but Mulder wouldn't give him her car, jurors determined.
____ He used duct tape to hog-tie her, Sunday has said. Mulder suffered from respiratory issues and died of positional asphyxia, trial testimony revealed.
-- Reach Liz Evans at levans@yorkdispatch.com.
http://www.yorkdispatch.com/breaking/ci_26335272/brackbill-found-guilty-murdering-dillsburg-area-woman
Sandra Mulder, 52, died at her home as the result of a homicide in 2013.
To read the past articles on the case of Sandra Mulder download
the following links:
June 6, 2013 PDF
August 1, 2013 PDF
See the August 21, 2014 edition of the Dillsburg Banner for details.
Photo by Curt Werner.
A round-about (traffic circle) is being considered at the intersection of Route 15 and Golf Course/Range End roads above.
____ The fourth annual WWII Tribute Day at Dill's Tavern and Plantation saw over 300 people marching in to browse the exhibits, hear the speakers and pay their respects to the veterans of that war.
____ Art and artifact displays were spread out over the Tavern. One room was set to depict what a typical home would have looked like in the 1940’s and one room was turned into a Red Cross Canteen, offering coffee and donuts, and showing what a soldier might have done with his leisure time.
____ Re-enactors from the 45th Infantry Division, the 82nd Air Borne, 302nd Engineers of the 77th Division and the 10th Mountain Division welcomed visitors into their camps between the scrimmages that took place in the yard.
____ The focal point of the event is always the Wall of Honor, which takes up over 60 feet and contains the photos and stories of many of the vets from Dillsburg and the surrounding area.
____ While honoring the vets of that war is important, according to organizer Doug Riley it’s the educational aspect of the event that’s most important. “If you didn’t live through it, you just didn’t understand the breadth and impact of the war. It’s important for the kids of today to learn about that,” he said.
Photo by Curt Werner.
Steve and Tina McNaughton from New Oxford swing dance to the tunes of the Will Fisher band Saturday night.
See the August 21, 2014 edition of the Dillsburg Banner for details.
____ The Dillsburg Borough Council unanimously approved a five-year contract with the Carroll Township Police Department on Tuesday evening.
____ “You made history tonight,” former council president Mark Ryder told the council members after the meeting. This is the first five-year police contract that it ever signed with the township police, Ryder said.
____ Council President John Richardson agreed, stating that the previous contract covered only one year. In the past, there also were two and three year contracts with the Carroll Township police department.
____ In the first year of the new contract, the borough will pay the police force $76.63 per hour for 2,500 total hours, which will total $191,575 for that year.
____ In the following years, there will be a 2.75 percent increase each year from 2016 through 2019.
____ The new contract calls for 244 additional hours of police service than in 2014. Also, the borough will pay $3,425 less for police service in 2015 than it did in 2014, according to the new contract.
See the August 21, 2014 edition of the Dillsburg Banner for details.
Also in the August 21, 2014 edition:
___
___ -Community Calendar
___ -Obituaries
___ -Letters to the Editor
___ -Editorials
___ -Births
___ -20 years ago
___ -Classifieds
Print Edition Highlights - August 21, 2014
By Dave Wolf
Photo by Karen Wolf.
A Whitetail fawn rests, camoflauged in Big Meadows campground.
____ One last trip to put a period at the end of summer. It’s never an easy decision, but one that we make every year at this time. We usually consider summer’s end on Labor Day weekend, although autumn doesn’t start until September 22nd.
____ Before school bells ring, many plan that one last trip of the season; others hesitate and wait until their younger people are back in school. Pennsylvania is loaded with places to go and things to see and do. With gas prices dropping, it might be a good time to slip across a few state lines to find one of my wife’s and my favorite National Parks; Shenandoah National Park.
____ We like it because we can make it a day trip. But, in reality that’s a lot of traveling, especially if you have young children, and truthfully you can’t see very much in a day. Our trips most often consist of two nights lodging and three days of traveling along the Skyline Drive, the 105-mile Scenic Byway in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.
____ The speed limit there is 35-mph and we rarely drive that fast, so you can see that a 6 to 10 hour drive isn’t out of the question. There are 75 overlooks that will give you a spectacular view of both the Shenandoah Valley and Virginia Piedmont. Often there is a foggy mist hanging over the valleys below and there is something mystical about standing there looking down on the world.
____ The highway is two lanes and filled with curves; I drive in anticipation of what’s around the next corner. What I hope to see is a black bear, a white-tailed deer, a flock of turkey, a bird or even a butterfly.
Photo by Karen Wolf.
A wild turkey photographed along Skyline Drive.
See the August 21, 2014 edition of the Dillsburg Banner for details.
By Carolyn Kimmel
Photo by Mark Ryder
People gather for three days of bingo, rides, tractor shows, bands and good food at the Wellsville Fireman’s Carnival on fire company grounds last weekend.
____ It couldn’t have been nicer weather for an outdoor carnival than it was last weekend in Wellsville, where small town charm and neighborly chatter took center stage.
____ “Everyone comes to talk to their neighbors and friends. It’s a big once-a-year get-together,” said Dennis Turner, who used to be a volunteer firefighter for Wellsville Fire Co. but had to quit due to the demands of his regular job in the manufacturing business.
____ Turner still comes out to help at the annual carnival, however, and has been ever since he was 16 years old.
____ No one knows how many people turn out for the annual event, but organizers estimated the crowd at upwards of 10,000 people over three days. They come to play bingo, ride the rides, see the tractor show, eat a “famous sausage sandwich” and listen to the bands. This year, three local bands were on hand – the Colt Wilbur Band from Mechanicsburg on Thursday night, Border Line from New Oxford on Friday night and Laredo from Hummelstown on Saturday night.
____ “People are standing shoulder to shoulder out there. We fill up the whole town with cars,” said Greg McCoy, treasurer of the Wellsville Fire Co. who was a volunteer firefighter for 32 years. “There aren’t as many carnivals as there used to be and everyone tells us that they like the value; our prices are reasonable.”
See the August 21, 2014 edition of the Dillsburg Banner for details.
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