Boyfriend snapped teenager's neck after she snubbed marriage proposal, police say
Christopher Tucker was charged with murder and criminal homicide after being arrested at a truck stop.
A Pennsylvania man has been charged with murder after allegedly snapping the neck of a teenage friend and beating her with a hatchet after she snubbed his marriage proposal.
Police say that Christopher Tucker admitted strangling Tara Serino and popping her eyes out until she was dead, court documents state.
After the alleged attack, the 34-year-old allegedly wrapped the 19-year-old's body in a rug and fled.
Tucker, from Berks County, is now charged with criminal homicide, first-degree murder and third-degree murder after he was arrested at a truck stop in Champaign County, Illinois, reported NBC News.
He has now been extradited to Pennsylvania and remanded in custody as he awaits a court appearance after he was arrested on 31 October, the day after Serino was killed.
Serino, from Upper Macungie, was allegedly propositioned by Tucker a few days before she disappeared, but she replied that she did not want to get married and she was sleeping with other men.
He allegedly told police that Merino told him that he should kill her, according to the official papers.
The documents revealed that Serino's father, Fred, notified police that their daughter had gone missing after she failed to return home.
Both the defendant's father, John Tucker and Fred Serino were reportedly trying to locate their children when John was notified that his son was in hospital after being arrested for trying to break into a farming machine.
"He was behaving in a very odd and unusual fashion, so he was taken to the hospital," said District Attorney John Adams, according to 69 News.
When it emerged that Serino was not with him Christopher was arrested. It is reported that while he was still in hospital, he confessed to police about Tara's murder.
Two officers entered his home and found Serino's body wrapped in a blanket in the bedroom, the documents obtained by The Morning Call, revealed. Adams said the murder was "very gruesome"
Tucker is also charged with two counts each of aggravated assault and possession of an instrument of crime.
