PENNSYLVANIA
Huffington Post
Arthur Schirmer, Retired Pastor, Killed Both Wives, Jewel Schirmer And Betty Jean Schirmer: Cops
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM 09/29/12
LEBANON, Pa. — Retired Pennsylvania pastor Arthur “A.B.” Schirmer was a serial philanderer, preying on women in his church who were having trouble in their own marriages, court documents say.
Yet adultery might have been the least of his sins.
Charged two years ago in the death of his second wife, Schirmer now stands accused of killing his first wife, too, after a grand jury concluded her injuries weren’t consistent with a fall down the stairs, Lebanon County prosecutors announced Friday. He intends to plead innocent, and his children say they support him.
Schirmer, 64, has long claimed he was out for a run on April 23, 1999, when he returned home to find Jewel Schirmer’s body in a pool of blood at the bottom of the basement steps. Although she had suffered a fractured skull as well as injuries to her face, body, arms and legs, the coroner made no determination as to whether her death was an accident or a homicide, and the case was closed.
That decision never sat well with her brother.
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