Jurors: Hard to Believe Lebanon County Pastor's Spouses 'Could Have Suffered Such Horrific Injuries by Accident'
By Monica Von Dobeneck
Members of the investigating grand jury found disquieting similarities between the deaths of Betty Jean Schirmer in 2008 and Jewel Schirmer in 1999. Both died of traumatic brain injuries. And both were married to pastor Arthur Schirmer at the time of their deaths. Arthur Burton Schirmer already is facing trial for homicide in Monroe County for Betty's death. Now he is also charged with the murder of Jewel in Lebanon County. In the grand jury report, the jurors wrote, "We find it particularly disturbing and difficult to believe that both of A.B. Schirmer's wives could have suffered such horrific injuries by accident." Schirmer, 64, was pastor of Bethany United Methodist Church in Lebanon at the time of Jewel's death and, as noted by Lebanon County District Attorney Dave Arnold, "well-known in the community." At a press conference in Lebanon on Friday, Jewel's brother, Jonathan Behney, said he hopes justice will finally be done. "I feel the truth is finally going to come out," he said. Schirmer's attorney, James Swetz of Stroudsburg, told an Associated Press reporter his client will be vindicated. "Our belief and what we intend to show in both of these incidents is that the initial reports were correct, that the Monroe County death was an accident and in Lebanon County there was evidence of a heart attack" preceding the fall, he said. Behney was always suspicious that his sister did not die from an accident, according to court documents filed Thursday in the case. In 1999, a couple of days after Jewel Schirmer died, Behney called police to say "it was his opinion her head was smashed in by someone and that she was intentionally killed. He added that Arthur had been cheating on his sister for some time and has had several extramarital affairs with other women," according to court documents. It was the apparent misdiagnosis of a heart attack in Jewel Schirmer that kept investigators from looking at the case more closely at the time. Police were never called to the scene. According to the sequence of events outlined in the affidavit of probable cause, EMS personnel were called to the Schirmer home on Skyline Drive in North Lebanon Twp. at 1:45 p.m. April 23, 1999, for the report of a fall. They found a calm A.B. Schirmer near the garage, and he told them he had returned from a run to find Jewel, 50, at the bottom of the stairs. The emergency personnel noted later that A.B. was not wet, although it was raining. When they went inside, they found Jewel lying in a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs, with an extension cord from a shop vac wrapped around her leg. When they were preparing to load her into the ambulance, they could no longer find any sign of her husband. Jewel died the following day at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Forensic pathologist Wayne Ross of the Dauphin County Forensic Center in Harrisburg performed the autopsy. He noted multiple skull fractures but concluded the method of death was "undetermined," consistent with either a fall or blunt trauma from an object striking her head. A cardiologist at the medical center who was evaluating Jewel's organs for possible transplant concluded she had suffered a massive heart attack. For that reason, the investigation was closed, Arnold said. Arnold said more modern medical knowledge has called that diagnosis into question. A Hershey Medical Center cardiologist reviewing Jewel's records in 2010 concluded that the damage to her heart was a result of her brain trauma, not a cause of her fall. A.B. Schirmer moved to Monroe County after Jewel's death and worked as a pastor at Reeders United Methodist Church. He married his second wife, Betty, in 2001. The investigation into Jewel's death resurfaced after Betty Schirmer, 56, died in Pocono Twp. in July, 2008. A.B. Schirmer told police he was driving their car at about 45 mph when he swerved to avoid a deer and hit a guardrail, causing his wife's injuries. Investigators looked more carefully into his story after a man committed suicide in the church office a few months later. Schirmer had been having an affair with the man's wife, police discovered. Investigators reconstructing the accident determined that the car was traveling less than 25 mph, and the force of impact was not enough to cause the type of injuries Betty had suffered. Police charged Schirmer with homicide in September 2010. He is scheduled for trial in January. In February 2011, Lebanon investigators hired a biomechanical engineering firm to conduct tests at the former Schirmer home with crash dummies that could be thrown down the stairs to measure gravitational forces, impacts and other technical data. After analyzing the results, Ross, the pathologist, concluded that Jewel's injuries were not consistent with a fall down a flight of stairs. He changed the manner of death from "undetermined" to "homicide." Investigators also interviewed several people who said A.B. Schirmer had affairs with several women at Bethany United Methodist Church to whom he provided counseling. While it is difficult to investigate a death a dozen years after it occurred, Arnold said he felt there was enough evidence to charge A.B. Schirmer with homicide. Behney said his sister was outgoing, loved children and was involved with her church. She was the kind who "wore her heart on her sleeve," he said. She was an elementary music teacher at Our Lady of the Valley school, taught private voice and piano lessons, and served as Sunday school teacher and junior choir director at her husband's church. She and Arthur had three children together. In the grand jury presentment, jurors said they felt compelled to note another reaction, even though it could not be presented at trial, and that was A.B. Schirmer's arrogance when he was subpoenaed to testify. "Even upon a simple request to provide us with his name, Mr. Schirmer refused to do so," they said.
|
.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.