DISCOVERY OF BODIES ENDS WEEKLONG, NATIONAL SEARCH
RON DEVLIN
The Morning Call
Rita Mensinger, a fugitive since wounding her husband a week ago in their Cementon home, and her 11-year-old daughter, Chelsea, were found dead Friday morning in a conversion van parked at a Luzerne County truck stop, Whitehall Township police reported.
"The deaths have been ruled a murder-suicide," Detective Gerry Procanyn said at a Friday evening news conference at Whitehall police headquarters. "Both victims died of a single gunshot wound to the head, and a weapon was found in the van."
Dupont Police Chief Anthony DeMark said that Rita Mensinger apparently shot the child before turning the gun on herself.
"All indications are that the grandmother killed the child and then herself," DeMark said. Rita Mensinger, 57, was the child's biological grandmother and adoptive mother.
The .357-caliber Magnum, DeMark said, was found next to Rita Mensinger's body. It is believed to be the same handgun with which she allegedly shot her husband in the chest about 8 p.m. Sept. 15. Police are conducting ballistics tests on the ammunition.
Charles Mensinger, 49, was released Friday from St. Luke's Hospital in Fountain Hill, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Mensinger, who initially had been in intensive care, was notified of the deaths of his wife and daughter Friday by the Luzerne County district attorney.
The results of autopsies conducted Friday night at Nesbitt Hospital in Kingston, Luzerne County, were not available.
The Mensinger family could not be reached for comment Friday.
The discovery of the bodies, which brought to an end a nationwide search for Rita and Chelsea Mensinger, was made about 9 a.m. Friday at the Petro Truck Stop on Route 315 in Dupont, near the Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport.
An unidentified truck driver noticed the blue-and-silver Chevy van parked among rigs Wednesday night, Dupont police said. When he saw the van in the same spot Friday, he looked inside and saw the bodies.
The exact time of the shootings has not been determined, but DeMark said there are indications the van was there as early as Monday morning.
Chelsea, a pupil at Whitehall-Coplay Middle School, was found sitting in the second-row, passenger-side seat. She had been shot in the front of the head, police reported. Rita Mensinger was found lying in the rear `bed` section of the van.
The van was parked amid as many as 100 trucks about 90 feet off the main entrance to the truck stop, Procanyn said.
Whitehall police, who had been conducting a nationwide search for the van, were notified of the murder-suicide about 10 a.m. Friday by Dupont police.
"We have no idea what she was doing in Luzerne County," said Procanyn, with Chief Dennis L. Peters at his side in the Whitehall police headquarters.
Whitehall police notified Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that Rita Mensinger might have fled to their territories. She had been known to travel in Tennessee and Canada. She was not sighted in either place, Procanyn said.
An anonymous tip that Mensinger might have been headed for New England proved unfruitful, Procanyn said.
Charles Mensinger was wounded in the family home at 5340 Second St., Cementon, and identified his wife as the shooter. The Mensinger property, which sits on a hill overlooking the Lehigh River, is posted with "No Trespassing," "Keep Out" and "Private Property" signs.
Family members, including daughters in Carbon County and Tennessee, were at a loss to explain Rita Mensinger's behavior.
"I was shocked," said Debbie Huber, 39, of Kunkletown, who hasn't spoken to her mother in 21 years. "We cried. He doesn't understand why she did it, he can't believe it happened," she said earlier in the week.
Contact Ron Devlin
610-820-6512
ron.devlin@mcall.com