Opinion ID: 2266034
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Appellant's statements

Text: Appellant made several alibi statements. [3] Appellant told police that on the day of Lori's disappearance, he talked with a salesman at Sears in the Bloomsburg Mall to price a dishwasher and returned home between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. Appellant also told police that he had had no contact with his wife on May 24 and that he and his wife were on a friendly basis. He denied any knowledge of the area where the body was discovered. He further told the police that he had an insurance policy on himself and his family for ten thousand dollars. Later, he told the police that his brother, Stephen Krist, had confessed to him on July 13 that Krist killed Lori to get even with the Auman family. The record reflects the following. No salesperson at Sears remembered seeing appellant on May 24. [4] The only Sears appliance person who had contact with appellant was Jim Kline, not on May 24 but on May 30. Appellant had approached Mr. Kline and wanted him to provide a writing that would evidence that he had been in the store to price dishwashers. He explained that, They want to know where I am at all times. Appellant had no idea which dishwasher he had seen. Kline wrote the note for May 30; however, appellant made him redo it for May 24 at 5:30 p.m. which he did because the customer is always right. [5] Lori's attorney testified that the parties were not getting along and that they were engaged in a bitter custody dispute. On the day Lori disappeared, she had filed for modification of support. Appellant had previously told his supervisor at Weis Markets that he would kill his wife to avoid making payment and to make sure no one could take his child away. Another witness testified that appellant was familiar with the area where the body was found. Appellant had applied for life insurance on his family pursuant to an application received by Montgomery Ward Life on March 16, 1989, six months after the parties separated and two months prior to the victim's disappearance. The policy was a two hundred thousand dollar accidental death and dismemberment policy which was issued only for appellant. On June 14 and 15, 1989, within two and three days of the victim's discovery, appellant contacted the insurance company and advised that the policy had been improperly issued, as it should have had spousal coverage. Wards noted the error and reissued the policy with coverage for the spouse. Appellant did not inform Wards of Lori's death in the telephone calls, even though he had been informed of the discovery of Lori's body on June 12. Appellant waited until June 23 to do so. (The payout for criminal homicide would have been ten thousand dollars.) Stephen Krist denied he ever told his brother he had killed Lori to get even with the Auman family. Krist produced proof that he was working on July 13, the date of the supposed confession, at a site two hundred miles from appellant's home. Krist also testified that his knife had been missing since he had stayed with appellant.