Witman Case

In approximately 7 ½ minutes on 2 October 1998, 13 year old Greg Witman was stabbed and slashed to death in his parent’s New Freedom PA home. Zach, Greg’s 15 year old brother, was convicted of the murder in 2003. Supporters contend that Zach had neither the time nor the motive to kill his brother. Zach’s appeal on the grounds of ineffective council is in front of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. No expert witnesses were called in his defense. During this presentation, I will attempt to take you through the crime scene and the case. You be the judge.

October 2, 1998 3:09 PMErynn Jeffery, friend of Greg's, calls the Witman residence. Someone picks up the phone and immediately hangs up. Jeffery later tells police that she is sure it was the downstairs phone because of the noise it makes when you hang up.

Front door of Witman residence. Zach, who was home sick from school, left his house key hanging on the inside of the storm door so Greg could get in.

3:10 PMGreg opens the front door of his house.

As Greg walks into the foyer, he is immediately attacked from behind with an edged weapon. During this initial attack, the table on the left of the previous picture is knocked down and broken. Greg drops his jacket out of his hand, and his backpack off of his shoulder during the altercation.

The assault continued in the laundry room where Greg is almost fully decapitated. Upon the arrival of EMS/Police, Greg’s head was in the direction of the arrow. Remember this picture, you will see it again.

3:15 PMErynn Jeffery calls the Witman residence a second time and speaks to Zach who is sleeping in his parents bedroom at the top of the steps. Jeffery believes this to be the upstairs phone due to the fact that it makes a different sound than the downstairs phone. Zach says he does not think Greg is home and hangs up. He then hears a commotion and believes it is his brother and a friend rough housing. Zach goes downstairs to investigate.

Zach walks down the stairs and immediately sees blood all over the floor, the broken table, and Greg’s backpack on the floor in the foyer. Zach, wearing socks, goes through the dining room to look for his brother. Upon finding Greg’s body in the laundry room, he can see that his brother’s neck is cut.

3:17(29) Zach calls 911

A hysterical Zach calls and tells 911 that he found his brother with his neck cut up and thinks he is dead. 911 screams at a reluctant Zach to “help his brother”. Zach moves his brother’s body which is slumped up against the washer, laying it flat on the floor per the directions of the 911 dispatcher.

From 3:17(29) Zach remains on the phone with 911 until they terminate the call at 3:24(59) after telling him that police were out in front of the house.

On October 3, 1998 at approximately 12:30 AM police find a small retractable knife with a 1 ¾” blade, wrapped up in soccer gloves (first believed to be socks) buried under a pine tree in the backyard of the Witman residence. Police claim they were led to what was described as an obvious mound by using Luminol (a chemical that reacts with blood ,bleach, and other oxidants). This obvious mound was not detected during the daylight search.

Review of Time Table for Zach to commit the crime

3:09 Erynn’s first call to Witman residence 3:10 Greg arrives home3:15 Zach speaks to Erynn and says Greg is not home3:17 Zack calls 911 to report that he thinks his brother is dead3:24 EMS arrives on scene3:30 Witman residence declared a crime scene

Prosecution claims that between 3:10 PM and 3:17 PM (7 minutes) Zach attacked his brother, stabbing him over 80 times, almost totally decapitating him in the downstairs laundry room, spoke to Erynn on the upstairs phone as if nothing had happened at 3:15, and buried the murder weapon and gloves in the back yard, all before calling 911 at 3:17.

Time table for someone else to kill Greg and flee

3:10 Greg arrives home

3:24(59) EMS arrives

Anyone besides Zach would have 7 minutes to kill Greg and up to another 7 minutes to bury the gloves and knife prior to fleeing before the arrival of EMS.

This is the route that the Commonwealth claims that Zach went to go outside to bury the knife and soccer gloves.

The Commonwealth claims that Zach, having killed Greg, now needs to hide the murder weapon and gloves, soaked with blood. He leaves the laundry room and walks across the tiled kitchen floor leaving no blood from his socks.

Zach continues through the kitchen into the family room where the police report they begin to pick up blood using Luminol around the entrance and to the right of the family room.

The black line in the picture shows where there was a gap of any detectable Luminol reaction between the family room entrance and the door to the porch.

Interior door leading to the porch, Zach somehow manages to manipulate both locks without getting any blood on them even though he gets blood on the phone when calling 911 and has blood all over his hands when EMS and police arrive.

The curved black line shows the area where police report three different positive Luminol reactions. The rug was cut up and tested for blood in 2002 by the Pennsylvania State Police and found to contain no blood. The circle shows the approximate location on the lock on the screen door that was present at the time of the murder. No blood was detected on the screen door.

View of hot tub from porch.

From the bottom of the porch steps to the area where the murder weapon was found, identified by the circle. Police claim a heavy Luminol reaction in this area, this just so happens to be the same location where the hot tub is emptied which contains chemicals known to react to Luminol.

The Commonwealth claims that Zach came back inside the same way without getting any more blood on the two doors or the floor.

Remember I told you to remember this picture? See the door, guess where it leads.

If you had just killed someone in the laundry room and wanted to bury the murder weapon by the hot tub, and were wearing socks, which way would you go?

Of course original crime scene photos are not shown here out of respect for the family. However I have had full access to all case material including crime scene photographs, autopsy, and the actual crime scene. The condition of Greg’s body and the amount of blood were horrifying, and was the worst edged weapon homicide I have seen in person, or pictures of in the US. Just imagine how much blood would be lost when someone , fighting for their life, has their windpipe and both of their jugular veins cut, in addition to over 80 stab wounds on the head ,neck, hand, and arms. Here is Zach’s sweatshirt. Do you think this blood looks like it got on the shirt from murdering someone, or trying to move a dead body?

How about Zach’s socks? How much blood and dirt do you suppose would be on them after running through his house murdering his brother, and then going out in the yard and burying the murder weapon? Testing showed no grass stains at all, and only a small amount of dirt. Or is it more consistent with the blood he would get on his socks from trying to help his dead brother and walking through blood and then into the garage and down the 100 foot driveway to the ambulance?

Zach on vacation with his Dad six weeks before Greg’s murder.

Zach in prison in 2009.

If you have any information about the case please call our tip line at-

717-819-6006

For more information on the case or to show your support please visit-

www.zachwitman.com

Created by

George F Matheis , Police Officer (RET)Modern Combative Systems LLC