A 37-year-old man will spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, of first-degree murder for killing Samantha Jean Rementer two years ago in the Holland section of Northampton Township.
Thadius William McGrath, 37, of Chatham, Massachusetts was found guilty by Common Pleas Judge Wallace H. Bateman Jr. of first-degree murder, and two counts of child endangerment, two counts of recklessly endangering another person, and two counts of possession of an instrument of crime. Bateman sentenced McGrath to a mandatory sentence of life without parole for the murder conviction, and consecutive sentences of five to 10 years in state prison and 17 years of probation on the remaining charges.
Rementer, a 31-year-old mother of two, was described by her family as selfless, caring and loving. In victim impact statements, Rementer’s family detailed how the murder devastated their lives, and how it would affect her two daughters, who were home at the time of the murder.
During the degree-of-guilt hearing that began on Monday, Deputy District Attorney Thomas C. Gannon presented evidence that included testimony from Northampton Township Police officers who responded to a home in the 12000 block of Clark Court for a report of a suicidal subject on June 8, 2022.
Bodycam footage that captured their response was played in court, showing officers knocking on a door and announcing their presence but getting no response. After two gunshots are heard inside, the front door opened and a 4-year-old girl covered in blood emerged, frantically telling the officers that McGrath killed her mother, and then shot himself. The girl was taken to safety and a Northampton Township officer entered the home and safely removed a second younger child, who was seated in a highchair, from the home.
As police continued their investigation into what happened, they found the victim deceased on the floor of the rear bedroom with blood and blunt force trauma to her face and an electric cord wrapped around her neck. McGrath, suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the face, was found in a second bedroom. The shooting left him with permanent injuries.
The 4-year-old later recounted the events during a recorded child forensic interview at the Bucks County Children’s Advocacy Center. In the video, played during trial, she told investigators that the pair argued prior to the defendant beating and strangling the victim.
On Tuesday, forensic pathologist Zhongxue Hua testified that Rementer suffered cuts and bruises to her face and other parts of her body caused by being struck with objects that included a lamp and ladder. She died of ligature strangulation using the lamp’s electric cord, which was wrapped three times around her neck, Hua testified. She fought for her life, Hua testified, as evidenced by the injuries she suffered. The manual strangulation of the victim would have taken more than five minutes.
On Tuesday, Gannon presented prison phone calls made on the eve of the trial where McGrath spoke to his parents and admitted the killing was premeditated, saying that he thought about what he was going to do and then told the victim he was going to kill her. “It very, very much is first degree murder,” he told his father, according to the prison call. “The facts of this case are simply heinous and what this family went through is heart-wrenching,”
District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said. “It takes a particular level of evil to commit such a horrendous murder in front of the victim’s small children.” “I am so extremely proud of the prosecutorial and investigative team from the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and the Northampton Township Police Department for getting justice for the victim and her family and grateful that this violent defendant will never see the light of day.”
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