None — GREENSBURG, Pa. -- The husband of a slain Hempfield Township teacher has been charged in his wife's death.
According to a docket in the online court system, David Stahl, 41, faces criminal homicide and other charges. He’s being held in the Westmoreland County Jail.
The body of Rebecca Stahl, 37, was found Friday in waist-high shrubbery and weeds about 15 feet from a rural road near Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.
According to the criminal complaint, Rebecca Stahl was found naked and wrapped in a plastic cover. The complaint also stated that Stahl's cause of death was strangulation.
While executing a search warrant at the couple's home, police said they found muddy boots in a basement freezer and also found trace blood samples.
The criminal complaint also said police found a bag with clothing and boots in the freezer. Inside the bag was another bag that contained Rebecca Stahl’s burned driver's license, her school ID, checkbook and family photos.
According to the criminal complaint, state police also discovered a leaf in the freezer. Police said the leaf is from a particular kind of bush that grows where Rebecca Stahl’s body was found.
The criminal complaint went on to say that the couple was having financial difficulties.
Channel 11 News reporter Courtney Brennan spoke to David Stahl as he was taken into custody. He denied killing his wife. Brennan asked Stahl what happened, to which he replied, "I have no idea."
Police had been investigating Stahl's disappearance since relatives reported her missing on Tuesday after they hadn't heard from her since two days before, on Feb. 18.
Trooper Steve Limani, spokesman for the Greensburg barracks, said state police have "preliminarily" determined that she was "the victim of a homicide."
David Stahl was being treated at Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg, where he was admitted for an undisclosed problem Friday night.
Limani wouldn't comment on the reason for David Stahl's hospitalization and Stahl's father, Robert, told Channel 11's news exchange partners at TribLIVE he wasn't aware of it until television news stations reported it.
Stahl taught at the Derry Area Middle School, but relatives said she had been on medical leave to recover from surgery. David Stahl told police he last saw her Monday morning at their home.
Court records indicate the couple had a tumultuous relationship, with David Stahl being cited last year for harassment after his wife accused him of pushing her and ripping her sweater, though a judge dismissed that months later at her request.
Previously, he was sentenced to nine to 23 months in jail for simple assault stemming from a 2007 altercation with his wife and was also subject to a protection from abuse order. Court records indicate Rebecca Stahl told authorities that her husband could be violent when he drank.