Jackson Township Pastor Charged with Another Murder
By Andrew Scott
Earl Goodman stood in the front doorway of his Skyline Drive home Friday in North Lebanon Township and looked across the quiet, residential street at the split-level house where his former neighbors, the Schirmer family, had lived until 1999. "I couldn't believe what I heard," said Goodman, wearing a Good Samaritan Health Systems volunteer T-shirt. He had heard earlier that morning that Lebanon County authorities had charged his former neighbor, Arthur "A.B." Schirmer, now 64, with murder in the April 23, 1999, death of his first wife, Jewel Schirmer, 50. Arthur Schirmer is already awaiting a January trial on murder charges in the 2008 death of his second wife, Betty Jean Schirmer, in Monroe County. The charges against Arthur Schirmer in Jewel's death resulted from a grand jury investigation that began after Schirmer was charged in 2010 with Betty Jean's murder, Lebanon County District Attorney David Arnold said Friday. Accompanied by detectives and Jewel Schirmer's brother, John Behney, Arnold declined at a news conference to comment on a motive behind Jewel's murder, but said the investigation revealed Arthur Schirmer was "continuously unfaithful" while married to Jewel and that the couple had financial difficulties. "I never noticed anything wrong with (the Schirmers') relationship," Goodman said. "Arthur was a pretty good friend of mine. I knew him quite well. Jewel was a fine Christian woman with a wonderful singing voice." A few doors from Goodman, a neighbor, who declined to give her name, said it's "good" Arthur Schirmer was charged in Jewel's death. "I always thought something wasn't right," she said. By 2001, two years after Jewel Schirmer's death, Arthur Schirmer married the former Betty Jean Shertzer and was pastor at Reeders United Methodist Church in Jackson Township. Schirmer said Betty Jean awoke on the morning of July 15, 2008, complaining of jaw pain. He said he was driving her to Pocono Medical Center, heading north on Route 715 toward Interstate 80 in Pocono Township. Schirmer said Betty Jean was uncomfortable in the passenger seat and that she removed her seat belt to get into a more comfortable position. He said a deer darted into the road at that moment, and he swerved to avoid it, crashing into the guide rail. He said Betty Jean, who hadn't yet put her seat belt back on, hit her head against the windshield. She died from the head injury the next day at Lehigh Valley Hospital. More than three months later, in late October 2008, church member Joseph Musante, 50, of Reeders, committed suicide in the church. Police learned Schirmer had been involved in an affair with Musante's wife, a church employee at the time, and that Schirmer's previous wife had died under questionable circumstances. Police took another look at the crash that led to Betty Jean Schirmer's death and, finding information that contradicted what Schirmer had initially told them, charged him in September 2010. Crash-test dummies After Arthur Schirmer was charged in Betty Jean's death, Lebanon County authorities, who had been in contact with Monroe County authorities, decided to take another look at Jewel Schirmer's death. Part of the reopened investigation involved hiring a biomechanical engineering firm using crash-test dummies to do a simulated fall down steps to determine if Jewel could have received such a fatal injury in that manner. This past January, Dauphin County Chief Deputy Coroner Lisa Potteiger amended the manner of Jewel's death to "homicide." "It's taken 13 years, but we understand why it took so long, and now we're happy with the grand jury's decision that charges be filed in my sister's death," Behney said. "It's time for justice. Jewel was an outgoing woman who wore her heart on her sleeve and loved kids. Her death is a wrong that has to be put right."
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