Suspect in Frystown slaying still on the loose

By ANDREA JOHNSON
Staff Writer

An 8-year-old girl told police she saw Julio Angel Lastra choke her mother and drag her body down the stairs of their Frystown home before hearing a car drive away early Thursday, according to the criminal complaint.

The 32-year-old Lastra of 1130 Brandywine St., Lebanon, is accused of breaking into Marisol Rivera’s home at 585 Frystown Road, Bethel Township, Berks County, shortly after midnight and killing her. Her body was found a little more than hour later in the trunk of a car in Dauphin County, but police still do not know the whereabouts of Lastra.

The Dauphin County coroner said yesterday Rivera had been strangled.

According to the criminal complaint, the girl told police that she was asleep in her mother’s bed with her mother when she awoke to her mother screaming sometime before 1 a.m. She said she saw a man choke her mother and pull her to the floor. The man then told her to be quiet and to not turn on the light. The girl punched the man on his back and bit his left arm as he kneeled on and choked Rivera, according the criminal complaint. The girl said she saw blood around her mother’s neck and heard her making gurgling sounds before she stopped moving.

The man told the girl “don’t worry, she’ll wake up in five minutes” and told her to leave the room, according to the criminal complaint. The girl said the man dragged her mother down the stairs and heard a car drive away.
The girl, who was the only person in the home at the time, called Sylma Perez, a friend of Rivera’s, around 1 a.m. and told her what happened. The girl then called police, and Perez came to the home shortly after police arrived. The girl told Perez and police that the man was Lastra, the ex-boyfriend of Rivera’s sister, Mari Reyes, according to criminal complaint.

The murder comes three days after Reyes of Lebanon obtained a protection-from-abuse court order against Lastra, with whom she had an ongoing relationship for the past seven years. In that time, Lastra, who was identified as a paranoid schizophrenic by Reyes in the PFA, attempted to kill her on two separate occasions by putting a pillow over her face and by trying to strangle her, according to the complaint. Lastra had told Reyes previously that “God had talked to him” and said that she had to die so he would “be with her for eternity.”

Police said Lastra had been to Rivera’s residence on several occasions in the past seven years.

Rivera’s body was found after Lastra, also known as Jose Ramon Ayala, wrecked the Chevrolet Lumina he was driving near Paxtonia Elementary School off of Jonestown Road in Lower Paxton Township. State troopers followed the car after they saw it turn left onto South Blue Ribbon Avenue against a red traffic signal. Lastra ran into a nearby wooded area when state troopers tried to administer a field sobriety test on him, police said.

In trying to identify Lastra, police searched the vehicle and found Rivera’s body in the trunk. Police said the car had been loaned to Rivera by friends.

At the same time, state police in Hamburg arrived at Rivera’s Frystown home. Police said Rivera was the mother of six children.

Police believe Lastra stole a silver Cadillac sport-utility vehicle between 3 and 5 a.m. from a home in the 7500 block of Jonestown Road, in West Hanover Township, Dauphin County, about four miles from where he fled from police. The SUV was recovered about 10 hours later in Baltimore, Md.

Lastra remains at large. and police said he is considered dangerous. In addition to first-, second- and third- degree murder and burglary, Lastra is also being charged with aggravated assault and criminal trespass.

Police describe Lastra as Hispanic, about 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing 190 to 200 pounds. He was last seen wearing a gray T-shirt, blue jeans, sandals and light-colored socks.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call state police at Hamburg at (610) 562-6886 or state police at Jonestown at 865-2194.

That is horrible. Her poor daughter. I couldn't imagine witnessing my mother's murder. Someone tried to kick in my mother's door in the middle of the night once. My mother hid in her house, never thinking to call the cops and actually ended up passing out from fear. He was at it for a long time and my mother's dog was barking her head off. Luckily, her neighbours called the cops and the guy took off.

The guy was caught a couple of days later when he killed someone down the street. When he was caught at the scene he said he had been trying to kill someone for days and this was the first time it worked out.

My point is even thinking about this now makes me want to kill this guy, slowly and painfully. I have often imagined killing this man. He fills me with so much rage. I can't begin to imagine the rage that 8 year old is going to feel for the rest of her life.

yeah I hope someone runs him down with a car, then when he goes to jail he gets ass raped. he deserves all he gets.

This so sad. The poor child.

When I read the address my heart dropped.
I just asked Billy if the guy was one of his tenants. Thank God, NO!!!!
Billy's owned 1120, 1122, 1124, & 1126 Brandywine. His ex-father owns
1128.

I hate these people too....wtf is wrong with people? I want to beat them with a table leg!

Parents face abuse charges
By STEVE SNYDER
Staff Writer
Lebanon Daily News


Douglas Pope A city husband and wife were charged yesterday with abusing their children.
Douglas Pope, 35, and Kelly Pope, 32, both of North Eighth Street, were charged with endangering the welfare of children, county detectives said. Douglas was also charged with simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.

Douglas is accused of striking his 4-year-old daughter in her face with a wooden table leg, causing an injury on Aug. 29. He is alleged to have hit his 6-year-old son with the same table leg on several occasions in August, detectives said.

Kelly is accused of withholding information from school officials about how her daughter’s injuries occurred. County detectives allege that Kelly allowed her husband to strike the

Kelly Pope children.
Both Popes were arraigned before District Judge Thomas Capello, who set bail at $15,000 for Douglas and $10,000 for Kelly.

They were placed in the county prison after failing to post bail, detectives said.

A preliminary hearing is set Oct. 30.

According to an affidavit, Douglas told Detective James Grumbine in February that he struck his daughter in the face with the table leg “because he was angry and mad at her for wiping feces on her bedroom wall.”

The girl suffered bruising to her right eye.

On Sept. 18, during another interview, Douglas told Grumbine he “accidentally” struck his daughter in the eye and said he “normally hits (her) on the buttocks with the stick when she misbehaves.”
Grumbine reported that the “stick” was actually a 2-foot, one-inch long wooden table leg with a metal screw in one end.

The boy was interviewed Thursday and said he saw Douglas strike his sister in her face and said “his father hits both he and his sister with the stick,” the affidavit said.

The girl’s teacher told Grumbine that she often has to call the Popes and ask them to bring clean clothing because “(their daughter) comes to school in dirty clothes and unbathed.”

Kelly was interviewed by Grumbine Thursday, and she “knew of both her children being hit with a wooden table leg (by Douglas) ... on numerous occasions and did nothing to stop it.”

She did not tell the teacher how her daughter’s eye injury occurred because she feared the school would call Lebanon County Children and Youth or the police, the affidavit said.

Grumbine visited the Pope home twice and “saw it to be filthy, in total disarray and to smell of garbage.”

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That doesn't even make my massive amounts of anger about this stuff flare up, anymore. I'm a trained rape/sexual assault/domestic violence advocate, and I've seen and heard so much of it ..


I just have to note that this woman obviously had the resources to know about and how to obtain an order of protection. Wherever she heard about this most likely gave her information regarding a women's shelter or safe house.

The most dangerous time is when you leave --- because you aren't there to know what he's up to, anticipate his next moves, and he's REALLY angry at his loss of power/control (which is why men/people abuse, unless they have a real mental disorder, which is RARE).


That woman and those around her should have realized (and probably did) that this is the most dangerous time and an order of protection is just a piece of fucking paper -- it is no death-ray that shoots in all angles around you if that bastard comes near.

She SHOULD have gone somewhere where he didn't know where she was, for at LEAST a week to a month, depending on how long his cycle of abuse typically lasts. She would have known more than anybody.

It is tragic but all too common and a stupid mistake. I am so sorry to hear that her daughter had to go through all of that. What a brave little girl, though, with everything she did.