A 50-year-old man will spend the rest of his life in prison for killing his ex-girlfriend just days after being freed from jail for assault.
According to a news release from the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office on January 9, Christopher Rowe was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in connection with Kaylene Roedel’s death. In November, a jury convicted him of first-degree murder, aggravated assault, and filing false police reports.
In 2016, Rowe allegedly assaulted Roedel and received a sentence at Cambia County Jail. He lived with Roedel at the time and had custody of their child.
While in jail, Rowe allegedly “made comments to other inmates that he wanted to kill Roedel.” The attorney general’s office claimed Rowe had even threatened Roedel at her workplace. She went missing several days after Rowe’s release and was discovered dead on a hiking route on August 7, 2016.
Security footage that the investigators retrieved shows Roedel’s vehicle in Rowe’s hands close to the victim’s discovery.
According to officials, a witness informed police that Rowe confessed to strangling Roedel and “that if the witness told anyone, they would also be killed.”
Pennsylvania Attorney General Henry stated, “This defendant ended one life and devastated many others with the premeditated and cold-hearted killing of the mother of his child. We hope this first-degree murder conviction and life sentence — which ensures he will never harm another person in free society — provide a sense of justice for Kaylene’s family and friends.”
