Man charged with homicide in death of missing autistic woman

DRUMS, Pa. (AP) — A man has been charged with criminal homicide in the death of a missing autistic woman after authorities said he told them where to find her body in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Harold Haulman III 42, is also charged in Luzerne County with abuse of a corpse and kidnapping in the death of 26-year-old Erica Shultz, whose body was found in a wooded area in Butler Township.

The victim’s sister reported her missing Dec. 6 to Bloomsburg police, the (Wilkes-Barre) Times Leader reported. Investigators said a witness reported seeing the victim get into a minivan after leaving work at a Bloomsburg grocery store on Nov. 14. They said Haulman owns a vehicle of the same description.

Haulman was interviewed by FBI agents two days before Christmas in Battle Creek, Michigan. When he failed to attend a second interview on Christmas Eve, investigators tracked him from Michigan to Duncannon, Pennsylvania, where he arrived Christmas morning. A Norfolk Southern Railway police officer saw him walking on railroad tracks the next day and alleged that he used a box cutter on his arm and expressed a wish to die.

Detectives allege that Haulman was interviewed in a hospital and directed them to the victim’s body, which had head trauma and defensive wounds. Investigators said the two met on a dating website. Court documents don’t list an attorney for Haulman and phone numbers listed for him had been reassigned or were no longer in service.

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