2019 in Review: Fires, crashes, crimes and deaths round out the year

Here is a look back at a few prominent incidents that happened across the coverage area:

Fires

• Bruce Allen Miller, 37, of Lehighton, and his son, Bruce Alan Miller, 10, of Hatfield, died in a Jan. 21 fire at 1132 Blue Mountain Drive in Danielsville.

Lysek said the cause of death for Miller Jr. was smoke inhalation with acute methamphetamine and amphetamine intoxication, while his son died of smoke inhalation.

Bruce Allen Miller had methamphetamine and amphetamine in his system.

• Fortunately, not every fire ends in a tragedy. When flames broke out at a double-family home at 607 Fireline Road in Bowmanstown the morning of Nov. 5.

Three good Samaritans, Gail Strohl, Bob Shotwell and Casey Doherty stopped while driving and ultimately saved the life of an elderly man who had dementia and was inside his home but unaware the house was filling with smoke.

All three carried the man out of the burning home and across the street, and would later sit with him in the hospital.

• A Northampton woman and a former junior firefighter were charged April 4 with setting multiple barn fires in the Lehigh Valley.

State Police in Bethlehem charged Samantha Keeney, 24, and Justin Emmons, 19, of Northampton, in connection with the barn fires at 3646 Cedar Drive and 786 Fir Drive in Lehigh Township, and 4413 Cherryville Road, Allen Township.

Keeney and Emmons have been charged with causing or risking catastrophe, arson and related offenses, agricultural vandalism, criminal mischief, criminal trespass, and recklessly endangering another person. They are awaiting trial.

Crashes

• Lloyd Musick, 49, of Summit Hill, died trying to help at a crash scene.

State police at Bethlehem said the incident occurred at 5:34 p.m. Nov. 19 along Route 309 and Mountain Road in Lynn Township when a 2007 Kia Sedona attempted to cross 309 from Mosserville Road to Mountain Road.

A white minivan, traveling south on 309, struck three of the passers-by, resulting in one fatality, one serious injury and one minor injury.

Musick was transported by EMS to Lehigh Valley Cedar Crest, while the passer-by with the serious injury was flown to Lehigh Valley Cedar Crest.

• Off-duty police officer Andrew A.J. Jones, 25, of Wyoming, Pennsylvania, was killed in the early morning hours of Dec. 22 in a crash in Mahoning Township.

Formerly of Summit Hill, Jones died on the way to the hospital after hitting a large tree on Mill Road, just north of the intersection with Mahoning Drive West, according to Carbon County Coroner Robert Miller.

Jones was a part-time police officer for the Summit Hill police department from June 2018 until this past October, when he gained full-time employment with Swoyersville Police Department.

Tragic deaths

• There were two deaths at Blue Mountain Resort this year.

On Jan. 1, Connor Golembiewski, 17, of Flemington, New Jersey, fell off a ski lift.

Noel Pagan Jr., 21, of Allentown, died Feb. 10 in a skiing accident after he went off a jump on the Yeti Trail. Pagan was not wearing a helmet, and was transported to St. Luke’s Palmerton Campus, where he later died.

• A Slatington area yoga instructor died in a swimming tragedy June 11 in the Dominican Republic.

Surely Miller, 40, died after being caught up in a rip current and swept away at a Dominican Republic beach. She left behind three sons, ages 15, 11 and 9.

• Just a few weeks later, Xin Huang, 29, of the Philadelphia-area, lost his life July 21 while swimming at Beltzville Lake.

Carbon County Coroner Robert Miller said Huang was at Beltzville with his family and went out to a floating toy to help a child. He couldn’t swim and didn’t realize how the lake drops off, Miller said.

Chief charged

Weissport terminated its former Chief of Police Brent Getz on April 1.

Getz, who was promoted to part-time chief of police in February, was terminated after being charged with raping a child when he was a teenager.

Gregory Wagner was also charged.

Both have both pleaded not guilty and are facing a joint trial in Carbon County Court. Getz’s defense attorney, Brian Collins, has asked the court to hold separate trials and bring in jurors from another county because of the large amount of news coverage.

Getz remains out on $100,000 bail. Wagner is currently jailed at Carbon County Correctional Facility on $250,000 bail.

On Oct. 21, borough council appointed Matthew Williams as part-time chief of police.

Criminal deaths

• State police at Schuylkill Haven said Terry Lynn Gee, 53, of Ephrata, was found in a truck in the Rausch Creek Trail Riders camp site in Hegins Township. She was flown to the Hershey Medical Center for treatment and died Jan. 9.

Troopers said when she was found she had severe head and neck trauma and was bleeding heavily. At the hospital, doctors found stab wounds and related that some of her injuries were also consistent with strangulation.

Robert Leonard, 44, of Lancaster, was charged. He is awaiting trial.

• A Berks County man upset over the breakup with his girlfriend, on Jan. 24 traveled to the Lower Towamensing Township home at the 4400 block of Little Gap Road where she lived with her parents.

There, Lehighton State Police said Kyle Gruver, 27, of Fleetwood, bludgeoned, stabbed and shot Megan Leland, 26, multiple times before turning the gun on himself in a murder-suicide.

• A well-known Schuylkill County jeweler was stabbed to death in a New Orleans hotel room in February.

Megan Hall, 25, was charged with armed robbery, obstruction of justice and with the second-degree murder of 62-year-old Patrick Murphy. Hall faces a mandatory lifetime prison sentence if convicted of the murder charge, according to a release from Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office.

An armed robbery conviction carries a penalty of 10 to 99 years in state prison, while obstruction of justice in a homicide investigation is punishable by up to 40 years.

• Yessy Rivera, 32, who had been serving 20-40 years for a 2017 Lehighton slaying, died Sept. 29, according to prison officials.

Rivera was found unresponsive in his cell at State Correctional Institution Benner Township, according to a statement from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

• Nicholas Joseph Cantelmi, 31, of Jim Thorpe, was killed Nov. 27 after a standoff in Porter Township, Pike County.

The state police Specialized Emergency Response Team was called to the scene, with nearly 30 troopers responding. The team attempted to negotiate for seven hours.

When police heard a shot from inside the cabin, the SERT entered the cabin and Cantelmi brandished a gun. He was shot and was pronounced dead at the scene by the Pike County Coroner’s Office.

The investigation was continuing into the police use of lethal force.

Drug deaths

• A New Jersey man was charged with delivering heroin to a Polk Township man who later died from taking the drug.

Jordan Levine, 31, Plainsboro, was charged in the death of Robert Evennou, 28, who died Feb. 25, 2017.

Evennou’s girlfriend reported that Levine arrived at her home that day and they snorted heroin together. When she awoke, Evennou was unresponsive, she said.

The death was determined to be caused by mixed substance toxicity, as his toxicology information included alprazolam, fentanyl and bupropion.

• Brittany Nicole Vanhouwe, 30, Saylorsburg, was charged earlier this month with drug delivery resulting in death and involuntary manslaughter in the overdose death of Edward G. Blew, 38, on Aug. 27. State police said she sold him methamphetamine and heroin/fentanyl.