Two teenage brothers from New Jersey will be charged with homicide after a Pennsylvania State Police trooper found them hiding and bloodied on the side of a Bucks County road near the stabbed body of a deceased man.
Joshua and Anthony Gamble, 17 and 19, respectively, will also be charged with conspiracy, possession of instruments of crime and tampering with evidence after the trooper discovered them hiding in a wooded area on the 500 block of E. Pumping Station Road in Richland Township shortly after midnight Thursday, Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub said. Joshua Gamble will be charged as an adult.
The trooper pulled over after spotting what appeared to be a disabled Subaru with New Jersey plates. The vehicle was registered to the brothers, according to Weintraub. Within 100 feet of the Subaru was also an Audi with Florida plates, which Weintraub said was a rental.
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When the trooper got out and walked toward the Audi, he came upon Joshua Gamble laying on the ground in a wooded area, Weintraub said.
The teen was detained without incident. The trooper noticed he had blood on the top of his shoes and was wearing a plastic-coated work glove on one hand, while another glove lay where he had been on the ground, the district attorney said. The teen was also carrying a Subaru key fob with what appeared to be blood on it, he added.
As Joshua was being detained by troopers, police heard Anthony running through the woods and toward the Subaru. He was ordered to stop and was detained. The elder brother had blood on his shoes, shirt sleeve, and two gloves were found in his pant pocket, Weintraub said.
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After backup officers arrived, they entered the woods and found the unidentified man dead near where Joshua Gamble had been hiding. He had stab wounds to his head, neck, upper chest and an arm, the DA said.
Police found a "large," bloodied knife on the floor of the passenger's seat of the Audi, Weintraub said. “It was a lot of blood in that vehicle, a lot of blood," he said.
They also found a cellphone and sanitizing wipes on the roof of the Audi, inside of which they also found another cellphone, Weintraub noted.
Investigators determined that Joshua gamble had bought the wipes and the work gloves from a nearby 7-Eleven about 20 minutes before state police discovered him hiding, Weintraub said.
The brothers are from Somerset, New Jersey, and neither has any apparent connection to Richland Township, he noted. The victim is also not from the area, Richland Township Police Department detective Sgt. Raymond Aleman said.
For now, prosecutors are presuming the slaying happened in Bucks County.
The investigation lasted hours, with police, at least one with a long gun, blocking the road well into daybreak. Bucks County Detectives, Richland Township Police and Pennsylvania State Police were all collaborating on the investigation.
Detectives could be seen taking away a large punching bag. Weintraub said the bag had "some material in it," but they had not yet determined if it was relevant to the investigation.
Aleman said earlier that there is "a likelihood" that the two brothers were dumping the body when the state trooper chanced upon them.
“This is exactly why the cops are on patrol. They notice something askew, something that makes their sixth sense go off, if you will," Weintraub said. "This trooper did exactly what we would hope any officer would do in this situation: pull over, investigate and make sure that the public is safe and take two dangerous people off of the roadway.”
