PA- DA: Jumper strangled girlfriend

12-30-2008 Pennsylvania:

COURTHOUSE — A Bridgeport man who decapitated himself jumping off the Dannehower Bridge Saturday afternoon had apparently accidentally strangled his live-in girlfriend while the two were having sex, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.

Just before 2 p.m., 43-year-old James F. Goeke drove a burgundy minivan halfway across the northbound side of the bridge that crosses the Schuylkill River, and parked the vehicle on the shoulder.

The man tied a rope to the minivan’s back seat and put the other end around his neck and jumped off the bridge, and after “falling a great distance,” the rope decapitated him. His body and head landed on Barbadoes Island, according to District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman.

Upper Merion and Norristown police were the first on the scene and saw the man on the railing with a rope around his neck.

“Upon arrival of police officers, (Goeke) jumped off the bridge,” the DA said.

When investigators later went to Goeke’s Belmont Village apartment on Ross Road, they immediately smelled “the odor of death” even before entering the unit, Ferman said. Minutes later, police found a woman’s badly decomposed body under a blanket in the master bedroom.

Investigators determined the dead woman was 42-year-old Michelle Kavenaugh, who lived in the apartment with Goeke. She was naked and lying on her back and had a belt from a cloth robe around her neck, according to authorities.

“It appeared the two were involved in consensual sexual relations,” the DA said. “This appears to be an accidental killing.”

Investigators believe the homicide inside the Belmont Village Apartments unit occurred within the past week.

Goeke left behind a signed suicide note on a computer table in the residence’s living room that read: “I’m sorry. It was an accident. It was too late to save her. I’m going to join her now. I’m sorry.”

“He was so devastated, he took his own life,” Ferman said. “Clearly, this is a tragedy all the way around.”

An autopsy performed Sunday concluded Kavenaugh’s death was caused by ligature strangulation. ..News Source.. by KEITH PHUCAS, Times Herald Staff