Moosic woman pleads guilty to hindering prosecution in homicide case
A Moosic woman pleaded guilty last week to two counts of hindering prosecution in the homicide of a Dickson City woman, court documents say.
Elaine Peters, 63, of Moosic, pleaded in connection with the Jan. 31 death of Mary Harvey, 63, of 413 Bowman St., Dickson City.
Harvey’s death was ruled a homicide after emergency responders told police the severe head injury did not appear to come from a fall. No one has been charged directly with her death.
According to the criminal complaint:
Emergency responders initially responded to Harvey’s Bowman Street residence at about 11 p.m. on Jan. 30. They found Harvey with a severe head injury and rushed her to Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton.
Ambulance personnel told police the injury did not appear to come from a fall, court papers state.
The next day, Jan. 31, at 9:26 a.m., Lackawanna County Coroner Tim Rowland told police Harvey died while in surgery at Geisinger. While investigating that day, police learned Peters had allegedly told a person who cleaned up bloody items from the home, “You’re touching a crime scene.”
But at that time, the death had not been ruled a homicide and the house was not yet declared a crime scene.
On Feb. 1, an autopsy determined the cause of Harvey’s death as blunt force trauma to the head and the manner as homicide.
Peters remains in Lackawanna County Prison, court records state.
Court documents on the case were sealed during the initial investigation, but were unsealed in early April.
