A Berks County, Pennsylvania, man choked a female friend and ultimately snapped her neck after she rejected his marriage proposal, Upper Macungie Police told NBC10.
Christopher R. Tucker, 34, of Albany Township, has been charged with murder and criminal homicide for allegedly killing 19-year-old Tara Serino, state police said. She was last seen by her family very early Monday.
Tucker asked Serino to marry him at his Berks County home some time between Monday and Tuesday, Upper Macungie Police said. She said no and then told him she was sleeping with other men, police said.
Then Serino apparently made an off-hand comment that Tucker should kill her.
Tucker allegedly told police he snapped, choking Serino until he thought she was dead. He then poked her eyes out, snapped her neck and beat her with a hatchet, police said.
He wrapped Serino in a rug and left it in his home as he fled to Illinois, police said.
Authorities in Champaign County, Illinois, picked Tucker up at a truck stop after he tried to break into a farmer's combine and took him to a hospital for evaluation. There police executed an arrest warrant from Pennsylvania State Police.
U.S. & World
Stories that affect your life across the U.S. and around the world.
Troopers searched Tucker's home following his confession to detectives and found Serino's body. He's being held in an Illinois jail.
Attorney information for Tucker was not immediately available. State police are working to extradite him back to Pennsylvania.
