Who is Donald Meshey Jr? Pennsylvania man, 32, killed his dad and kept severed head in freezer
Trigger Warning: Graphic content
LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA: A Pennsylvania man is accused of murdering his father, then dismembering his body and storing the body parts in trash bags in his basement, moving the torso at another location in a town car, and storing the severed head in the freezer. Police showed up at Donald Lawrence Meshey Jr's house on August 11 after a female relative of the victim called police seeking a welfare check on him. Cops confirmed Meshey Jr led them to the "horrific" scene where he had stored what's believed to be his father, Donald Meshey Sr's head, in the freezer on a white dinner plate.
Speaking of people who've lost their lives at the hands of their children, a disabled woman Angela Tarver's head was found in the freezer of her son who decapitated her with a sword. In 2019, Florida man James Scandirito was found guilty of dismembering his dead father and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 2020, UK woman Lucy Fox allegedly stabbed her mother to death, chopped up her body, and discarded the body parts near a river. The court has ruled she is "unfit" to stand trial.
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Who is Donald Lawrence Meshey Jr?
Donald Meshey Jr is a 32-year-old resident of 202 W Strawberry Street Apartment 1 in Lancaster City. On August 11, at around 8:51 am officers from Lancaster City Bureau of Police made contact with Meshey Jr after a woman called them with concern about a relative at the house of the accused. The woman was worried after she was told by the accused about a cadaver in one of the beds in his home and a severed head in the freezer.
Officers had spoken to the woman before arriving at Meshey Jr's doorstep. They had received information that she had just been inside the home where she had a conversation with the accused and also saw the severed head which she believed belonged to Meshey Sr. Upon arriving at the house, an officer said the accused led him to the kitchen and proceeded to remove a severed head from the freezer. The Lancaster County Coroner's Office confirmed it was a human head. The scene was secured and additional detectives from the Criminal Investigation Division were called to initiate an investigation.
Donald Meshey Jr admitted killing a 'cadaver doll'
Meshey Jr was brought to the Lancaster City Police Station to be interviewed by detectives. During the interview, he said he had found a "cadaver doll" in his father's bedroom which looked and sounded like his dad. Meshey admitted he stabbed the "doll" for 2-3 minutes with a knife after which he dismembered the body with a 3-foot saw.
According to a report, Meshey Jr put the arms, legs, and head in a construction-sized garbage bag and put them in the basement. He admitted to having put the torso in another large garbage bag and used a "hand truck" to take it outside and put it in a Lincoln Town car. Meshey Jr moved the head in the freezer the next day
Investigators began working on confirming the identity of the victim in the late evening of August 12 they were able to determine the body belonged to Meshey Sr. “You can’t imagine running into something like this,” Lancaster police Capt. Michael Winter said. “Obviously, it’s a traumatic experience for anyone to experience, including police officers, so yeah, it’s a horrific scene.” Meshey Jr was arrested on August 11 at 1:30 pm and is being processed at the Lancaster City Police Station. He was charged with criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
Meshey Jr had also pleaded guilty in 2019 to criminal mischief for damaging property after driving through the gate at a transportation center in Delaware County and leaving the scene. In April this year, he pleaded guilty to a citation of harassment of attacking a truck yard jockey at a Pepsi warehouse in Cumberland County. Meshey Jr had admitted to physically assaulting the jockey but said he did it because the jockey pushed him first. Meshey Jr also pleaded guilty in May for shoving his sister into some boxes earlier this year. He was offered the chance to opt for an "alternate sentence" to avoid court costs and fines. Meshey Jr was supposed to complete at least six sessions of anger management counseling sessions by August 4 which he failed to do and paid the fines instead.