Jennifer Daugherty was born in 1979 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, she was plagued by intellectual and developmental disabilities from a young age.
Her parents, Denise and Richard Daugherty, separated when she was quite young. Afterwards, she continued to live with her mother, who married Bobby Murphy. The family grew to include a stepbrother named Dave, in addition to her sisters, Jamie and Joy.
Jennifer’s sister, Joy Burkholder, did not notice Jennifer was different until grade school because other students treated Jennifer differently. This made Joy extra protective of Jennifer.
Jennifer Daugherty, though, was easygoing and sweet-natured. Her disabilities, however, made her miss some social cues, and she was very trusting.
Meeting Her Doom
In 2010, at age 30, Jennifer was close to reaching her dreams. She wanted to live on her own. That meant leaving her mom’s house. To help with this, Jennifer took living skills classes at the West Place Clubhouse in Greensburg, in Western Pennsylvania. It was a community centre that offered therapy and chances to socialise for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Jennifer often took a 20-minute bus from Mt. Pleasant to Greensburg. There, she trained to become a mechanic, like her uncle. She also went there for dental and counselling visits.
It was at the West Place Clubhouse that Jennifer met Angela Marinucci, Ricky Smyrnes, Amber Meidinger, Melvin Knight, Peggy Miller, and Robert Masters Jr.
Jennifer’s new friends had all faced life-changing events at young ages. In 2008, when Angela was just 15, she crashed into a truck and suffered severe head injuries. This subsequently affected her behaviour and thinking patterns.
23-year-old Ricky Smyrnes was Angela’s boyfriend and was born to drug-addicted parents. Ricky spent his youth moving in and out of foster homes.
He faced a lot of physical and sexual abuse and neglect. By age six, he had tried alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. At 8 years, doctors said he had PTSD. Later, he was diagnosed with seven different personalities and 15 psychiatric issues. He led a life of crime, involving burglary and indecent assault. He was sentenced to two years in prison, where he met Melvin Knight.
20-year-old Melvin was born to a drug-addicted father who was in prison for much of Melvin’s early life. At age five, Melvin fell from a moving vehicle and hit his head, which caused lifelong learning and social problems.
Melvin would meet his girlfriend, 20-year-old Amber Meidinger, at a homeless shelter in Washington in January 2010. She soon became pregnant with Melvin’s child, and they both moved in with Ricky in his apartment in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. The four started going to the West Place Clubhouse together.
There, they became friends with 36-year-old Robert Masters and 26-year-old Peggy Miller, before all meeting Jennifer. Angela was the first in the group to befriend her.
Sometime after meeting Jennifer, Angela Marinucci feared that her boyfriend, Ricky Smyrnes, was becoming too attached to Jennifer. He talked to her flirtatiously. Angela then came up with a plan to get back at her. She talked it over with the others in the group, and they invited Jennifer to a sleepover.
On February 10th, 2010, Jennifer told her parents she was going to her friend, Peggy’s, apartment in Greensburg for a sleepover. Before leaving, Jennifer left a note for her mother. It said she would stay at Peggy’s and gave Peggy’s phone number in case her mom needed to reach her.
Her stepfather, Bobby, dropped her off at the bus stop, and Jennifer proceeded to Greensburg.
The last message she posted to her MySpace and Twitter accounts was, “This is my time to make a new start for myself, and make new friends, and not be afraid of anything.” When Jennifer got to Greensburg, Amber, Melvin, and Ricky met her. They took her to their green two-story apartment building just a half mile away. There, Angela, Peggy, and Robert took her in.
Jennifer’s sister, Joy Burkholder, was at work when Jennifer left for Greensburg. She noticed Jennifer had not called her. This was unusual. When Joy called Jennifer’s cell phone, she noticed that the voicemail was not in Jennifer’s voice. Joy thought their mom might have forgotten to pay the phone bill, and the number had been repurposed.
Joy called her mom at home to check. Her mom concurred that she had heard the same thing after calling her that morning.
Joy started to think that someone had stolen Jennifer’s phone, and that she could be stuck in Greensburg without a way to call her sister or mother. She could not possibly have memorised their numbers. Joy thought she might have to go to Greensburg to find her.
Torture and Murder
Joy Burkholder would never have suspected that the young adults her sister thought were friends were about to put her through the unthinkable.
As soon as Jennifer entered the apartment, Angela accused her of wanting to have a relationship with Ricky.
Angela even suspected that Jennifer might be expecting Ricky’s baby. She got the others to take turns kicking Jennifer in the stomach. This was just the start. The group went through Jennifer’s purse and stole money, gift cards, and her cell phone. They hit her head with filled soda bottles and then used scissors to cut off all her hair. Then they painted her face with nail polish.
As their misplaced anger against Jennifer increased, Angela Marinucci, Ricky Smyrnes, Amber Meidinger, Melvin Knight, Peggy Miller, and Robert Masters Jr all participated in or watched each other pour water and oatmeal over Jennifer’s head and rub spices into her eyes. Jennifer screamed that her eyes burned. She begged them to stop. She asked what she had done to deserve this.
Jennifer’s tormentors then wrapped her in fairy lights and made her masquerade as a Christmas tree. Things got worse when Melvin stripped her naked, gagged her, and raped her. The others watched and laughed. The horrible ordeal of humiliating Jennifer lasted 36 hours.
At one point, the six locked Jennifer in a dark wardrobe and deliberated on what to do to her next. Neighbours later admitted they heard a lot of slamming and crying that day, but did not call the police.
Peggy Miller and Robert Masters were left alone with Jennifer while the other four were out of the apartment for a couple of hours. Jennifer then begged Robert and Peggy to let her go. They did not.
Jennifer almost escaped one time, prevailing on the mercy of Robert Masters and Peggy Miller. Before she could dress up and leave, Angela called and refused permission for the release of the hostage.
The group decided she needed more punishment. They made Jennifer consume detergent, bleach, nail polish, cigarette ash, chilli powder, and medications. She was also compelled to consume urine and human waste. The enraged group hit Jennifer with a vacuum cleaner hose, after which Amber Meidinger and Angela Marinucci took turns beating her with a crutch and a metal towel rack.
After 36 hours of torture, the six feared getting caught for what they had done to Jennifer. All of Jennifer’s so-called friends voted for her to die. They made her write a ‘suicide note’ which read, “I haven’t been very happy for a while, and I also feel that everyone will be better off without me on the earth.
I will always love my mum and stepdad no matter what, and I will also always love the rest of my family. My nieces and nephews would be lucky to have a better aunt than me. I am done with life. Goodbye, Jennifer.”
They pushed the note into Jennifer’s back pocket and hoped people would think she killed herself. Peggy then tied Jennifer with fairy lights again and turned her to Melvin Knight and Ricky Smyrnes, who took her to the bathroom, where they forced her to take sleeping pills.
Ricky then went to the kitchen for a steak knife, which he handed to Melvin. Melvin asked Jennifer if she was ready to die. He then stabbed her chest and throat repeatedly, hitting a lung.
The two men remained with Jennifer in the bathroom for a while, passing the knife back and forth between them. They stabbed Jennifer 18 more times and then left her to bleed out.
When they returned later, Jennifer was still breathing in spite of all the injuries. So Ricky and Melvin cut her wrists and wrapped Christmas lights around her neck. Both men pulled the ends of the Christmas lights in opposite directions until Jennifer stopped breathing.
Ricky and Melvin then put Jennifer’s body in a garbage bag, which they pushed into a trash can in Greensburg Middle School’s parking lot. A witness saw these two men pulling the can through the snow and stuffing it under a truck.
On the 11th of February 2010, a truck driver named Daniel Grant found Jennifer’s body under his work truck in the Greensburg-Salem Middle School parking lot. He called the police, who started an investigation and identified Jennifer as the victim.
Forensic pathologist Cyril H. Wecht did the autopsy. The body was still in the garbage can, head first, and partly covered with plastic bags. Christmas lights were around the neck and wrists. Decorative material bound the ankles. Jennifer’s body had countless cuts, scrapes, and bruises.
Justice for Jennifer Daugherty
It did not take long for the group, later called the “Greensburg Six“, to get apprehended. The note that Jennifer left for her mother before heading to Greensburg on her last day alive had Angela’s contact details on it.
Jennifer’s sister, Joy, had also tried calling her many times from her workplace that day. Joy discovered that Jennifer’s voicemail greeting had changed to “You’ve reached the phone of Melvin and Amber.”
Investigators went to Angela’s apartment and questioned her and her friends. They admitted everything that happened, confirming that Jennifer had arrived back at the apartment, and the whole group started bullying and mistreating their guest.
Detectives talked to Melvin Knight just hours after finding the body of 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty. Knight described in detail how they tortured Daugherty for 36 hours before killing her. He said it all started when Jennifer allegedly made a pass at defendant Ricky Smearns. Smearns’ girlfriend, Angie Marinucci, got angry and started beating Jennifer.
The others joined in, including Knight and Amber Meidinger. All six were charged with Jennifer’s murder. Nine months later, the trial began. Prosecutors wanted the death penalty for Ricky Smearns, Melvin Knight, and Amber Meidinger.
Angela Marinucci was 17 at the time of the crime. She was the first of the Greensburg Six convicted of Jennifer’s murder. At her trial, prosecutors said she started the torture and encouraged the others to join in.
She was found guilty of first-degree murder and got life in prison without parole. The state appeals court overturned it and ruled that juveniles cannot get mandatory life terms. In 2017, Angela got another life sentence. That would be overturned, too, because it had no potential for parole.
In 2022, Judge Rita Hathaway gave her a third sentence of 40 years to life for the murder, plus 20-40 years for conspiracy. Angela appealed again, arguing that the latest sentence violated the state constitution and showed the judge’s bias. In January 2024, three Superior Court judges rejected Angela Marinucci’s appeal.
Ricky Smyrnes and Melvin Knight were found guilty of first-degree murder and received the sentence of death by lethal injection. Both men appealed, but their convictions were upheld. They remain on death row.
Amber Meidinger pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and received a sentence of 40-80 years. She was a key witness in Angela’s, Melvin’s, and Ricky’s trials. Peggy Miller and Robert Masters pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, too. Peggy received a sentence of 35 to 74 years, while Masters received 30 to 70 years.
After the trial, Jennifer’s sister Joy Burkholder said, “She was exploited, and her kindness and her handicap made her very vulnerable. She trusted everybody; she believed everyone was good, and no one would hurt her.”
