Gang of Six Tortures + Humiliates Her For 36 Hours
Jennifer Lee Dougherty was born on November 8, 1979, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, to parents Denise and Richard. Her parents ultimately divorced, with Denise remarrying a man named Bobby Murphy of Mount Pleasant. Jennifer grew up just an hour southeast of Pittsburgh where her father ultimately relocated. She had two sisters, Joy and Jamie, and a stepbrother named Dave. Although she never received a specific diagnosis, Jennifer had a developmental disability of some kind. She struggled with social cues and judgment, and was a frequent target by bullies as a child.
This same bullying would follow her into adulthood. While at school, she was pushed around by the other girls and would have gum mashed into her hair. Jennifer would often come home from school in tears. She once told her mother that sometimes she wished that she could be what she referred to as a “normal girl.” Jennifer aspired to do all the kinds of things that able-bodied people usually take for granted: to live on her own, to belong to a community, to have a job, get married, and have children.
By all accounts, Jennifer was sweet-natured and trusting, sometimes to a fault. When others were cruel, Jennifer would reason that they might be having a bad day and would try even harder to be kind to them. She would see the good in people above all else. Even though she was the target of some pretty nasty bullying, Jennifer was also quick to make friends due to her warm demeanor. According to her mother Denise, “Jennifer was a very easygoing. She liked to have fun. She was trusting. She made friends easily. She loved to dance and she loved to sing.”
She enjoyed helping to care for her nieces and nephew and loved working on vehicles with her uncle. She hoped that she might be a mechanic like him one day. Jennifer’s favorite foods included lasagna and cheesecake. She was also a big fan of scary movies, college football, and wrestling. In 2010, at the age of 30, Jennifer was on her way to achieving some of her aspirations. She very much wanted to live her life independently, and for her, this meant moving out of her mother’s house.
In order to facilitate this, Jennifer partook in living skills classes at a local community center called the West Place Clubhouse in Greensburg. Jennifer would often take the 20-minute bus ride from Mount Pleasant to Greensburg where she was training to become a mechanic just like her uncle. She’d also make the trip with some regularity for dentists and counseling appointments. According to their website, clubhouses provide comprehensive and dynamic opportunities for persons living with severe mental illness to participate in housing, employment, education, health, and wellness initiatives that renews and reconnects them with mainstream society.
Members play an active role in their own recovery and that of their peers by working alongside staff to organize and run programs. Although a grown woman, she still functioned at the emotional level of a 14-year-old girl. Her eyes still sparkled with a childlike wonder, unlike those of her peers who had become hardened by the burdens of adulthood. And although Jennifer’s whimsical nature made her a beloved figure in her community, it also made her vulnerable to those who would wish to take advantage of her good-natured spark.
Due to this, Jennifer’s mother and sister were particularly protective of her. They wanted to shield her from the outside influences that would seek to do her harm, but they also recognized that she was a grown woman who deserved all that adulthood had to offer. Jennifer had recently told her family that she made a group of new friends at the West Place Clubhouse. Thrilled about the prospect of Jennifer expanding her network and building confidence, she had her family’s full support. However, these were exactly the types of people that they were trying to shield her from.
The group consisted of Angela Marinucci, Ricky Smyrnes, Amber Meidinger, Melvin Knight, Peggy Miller, and Robert Masters Jr. Born on January 12, 1990, Amber Christine Meidinger met Melvin Knight at a homeless shelter in Washington state in January of 2010. Melvin was born on October 27, 1989, to a drug-addicted father who was imprisoned during the early years of his life. Melvin desperately wanted to be different from his father. Sadly, he developed lifelong learning and social problems after he fell out of a moving vehicle and hit his head at the age of five.
Amber and Melvin soon became a couple and decided to leave the state of Washington for a shot at a better life. The two moved to several different locations before settling in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Amber and Melvin met up with Ricky on February 8, 2010. At the time, Amber was pregnant with Melvin’s child and the couple had been staying at a Greensburg area hotel. Melvin and Ricky were already familiar with one another from a stint in jail. Ricky offered Amber and Melvin a place to stay at his apartment located at 428 North Pennsylvania Avenue in Greensburg.
On March 6, 1986, Ricky Van Edward Smyrnes was born to a drug-addicted sex worker and a Pittsburgh gang member. Abandoned at birth, he was moved in and out of foster homes and was treated for mental health disorders as early as age four. He suffered harm and neglect until he was eventually taken in by the Smyrnes family of North Huntington at age 10. Ricky suffered abuse and physical harm from his adoptive father and his uncle. He had tried alcohol and a whole array of drugs by the age of six.
He had also been diagnosed with PTSD at the age of eight and had undergone 103 therapy sessions by age 10. In addition, he was diagnosed as having as many as seven different personalities and 15 total psychiatric issues. Ricky’s criminal history started off pretty early. In 1997, at the age of 11, he burglarized his neighbor’s home and stole knives, guitars, coins, bullets, and cash. That same year, he assaulted a woman in her own basement. Also staying at Ricky’s apartment was 17-year-old Angela Lynn Marinucci.
Born July 14, 1992, Angela was Ricky’s teenage girlfriend who had some challenges of her own. Angela suffered a head injury when she was hit by a truck in 2008 at the age of 15. This injury substantially altered her behavior and pushed her into a downward spiral. People who have experienced brain injuries may have changes in their behavior and their emotional state. These may include difficulty with self-control, risky behavior, verbal or physical outbursts, lack of empathy for others, and anger. For Angela, being a teenager with a traumatic brain injury proved to be an explosive combination.
Angela was the first member of the group to befriend Jennifer. The two met at the West Place Clubhouse and became fast friends despite their difference in age and polar opposite personalities. Jennifer and Angela would talk on the phone for hours. Through Angela, she met the rest of the friend group. Jennifer increasingly spent more time in Greensburg with her new friends and it felt like she had found kindred spirits. They were all struggling with their own hardships and, in Jennifer’s opinion, were still able to make their way in the world.
Also living in Ricky’s apartment were Peggy Darlene Miller and Robert Lauren Masters Jr. However, Angela began to notice that her boyfriend was taking a special interest in Jennifer, talking to her in a flirtatious manner. She also allegedly overheard Ricky talking to Jennifer on the phone proclaiming his undying love for her. Ricky would later confess that he had loved Jennifer and that she loved him too. Allegedly, Jennifer rode the bus to his apartment to meet with him in secret and carry on an intimate affair while Angela was out.
However, Angela had some idea what was going on and hatched a plan to get back at her friend. After conspiring with others in the group, she invited Jennifer to a sleepover and Jennifer excitedly agreed. However, fun and games was not what Angela had in mind. On February 10, 2010, Jennifer told her parents that she planned on going to her friend’s apartment in Greensburg for a sleepover. As everyone lived with Ricky, she wasn’t about to tell her parents that she was staying at a guy’s place, so she claimed it was her friend Peggy’s apartment.
This also worked out as she’d be traveling in that direction anyway for a scheduled appointment. Seeing this as another opportunity to assert her independence, her family was all for it. By the time Jennifer was getting ready to leave, her mother was already at work, so she left a handwritten note with Peggy’s contact information in case of an emergency and a thoughtful message that read: “I hope that you will have a good day at work and I also love you very much.” Her stepfather Bobby dropped her off at the bus stop.
Jennifer kissed him on the cheek before saying her final goodbyes. The last message she posted to her MySpace and Twitter accounts was: “This is my time to make a new start for myself and making new friends and not being afraid of anything.” Upon arriving in Greensburg, she was met by Amber, Melvin, and Ricky, who took her back to their green two-story apartment building just a half a mile away. There she was greeted by the remaining members of the group: Angela, Peggy, and Robert.
Almost as soon as Jennifer entered the apartment, things took a horrific turn. Upon entering the apartment, the group began taunting Jennifer, which would have been terribly confusing as these were supposed to be her friends. They rummaged through her purse and took her money, gift cards, and cell phone, after which they ruined it by pouring water all over the remaining contents. Then things turned physical. Amber and Angela took turns beating Jennifer with a towel bar, crutches, a 2-liter bottle full of lemonade, and a vacuum cleaner hose.
All the while, the helpless woman had no idea why this was happening to her. To add insult to injury, the group held her down and repeatedly stomped on her chest and stomach. They also forced Jennifer to consume an array of liquids such as vegetable oil, laundry detergent, urine, and nail polish. She was also made to eat feces which they forced down her throat. These same substances were poured over her head along with porridge oats and spices. She had begged her friends to stop because she was in such pain and her eyes were burning, but the group refused to stop.
Jennifer tried hard to fight back and managed to punch Amber in the stomach. Amber was pregnant at the time. Her earnest attempt at defending herself against her attackers only escalated matters. Jennifer was bound with strings of Christmas lights so she could no longer fight back. Unable to move, the group humiliated Jennifer further by shaving her head bald and painting her face with nail polish. Melvin decided that he needed to take things up a notch by stripping Jennifer of all of her clothes, gagging her, then assaulting her while the others watched and taunted her further.
After going through unimaginable suffering, she was told to take a shower because she smelled bad. When the group grew bored of tormenting Jennifer the following morning, they decided that the only option was to kill her. They couldn’t let her go home and run the risk of her reporting what had transpired in Ricky’s apartment. The group took a vote on the matter and all six agreed that Jennifer had to die. As such, they forced the scared woman to write a page-long note that implied she had decided to take her own life.
The note written in cursive read: “I haven’t been happy for a while and I also feel like everybody would be better without me on this Earth. I will always love my mom and stepdad no matter what and I will always love the rest of my family also. My nieces and nephew would be lucky to have her better aunt than me. I am done with life. Goodbye, Jennifer.” Jennifer was given sleeping pills and antibiotics, and she begged to be allowed to go home, but it was all for naught. Jennifer was stabbed in the chest and lungs by Melvin Knight.
According to Melvin, “Ricky got a knife and told me to stab her and then I stabbed her in the chest three times.” However, Jennifer managed to survive this attack. Upon noticing this, Ricky allegedly exclaimed, “Dang, this [ __ ] still alive.” Ricky then grabbed the knife and slit Jennifer’s wrists. Still clinging to life, the men then choked Jennifer with the Christmas lights that she had been bound by. In a final act of depravity, the group decorated Jennifer’s dead body to look like a Christmas tree.
Allegedly, Angela became enraged because the lights weren’t flashing. As such, she decided that they needed to dump her body. After removing the lights and stuffing the note in Jennifer’s back pocket, the group stuffed her body inside of a trash can. It was left under a truck in the snow-covered parking lot of Greensburg Salem Middle School. A truck driver noticed the trash can and decided to investigate further, discovering Jennifer’s body inside. It was not long before police realized who had committed such heinous acts.
All six were arrested and they quickly began to talk. At the start of the trial on November 3, 2010, the prosecution sought the death penalty for Ricky, Melvin, and Amber. Forensic pathologist Cyril H. Wecht stated, “This is one of the most horrific cases I have seen. You have one young defenseless woman, six people who are keeping her captive and doing all of these things, knowing that she is mentally challenged. Put it all together, it is bizarre, it is extreme barbarism.”
On April 12, 2012, Melvin Knight pled guilty to first and second-degree homicide, kidnapping, and conspiracy. It was reported that upon hearing his confession tape played in the courtroom, he laughed out loud. In August 2012, a jury voted to put Melvin to death. In September 2014, Melvin appealed his sentence; however, it was unanimously rejected. Chief Justice Deborah Todd stated, “We conclude that the appellant’s sentence of death was not the product of passion, prejudice or any other arbitrary factor, but rather was fully supported by the evidence.”
On February 28, 2013, Ricky Smyrnes was sentenced to death. He appealed his sentence, but in February of 2017, it was upheld. His execution was delayed in July of 2017. It is unlikely that either Melvin or Ricky will ever meet the gurney needle, as an execution has not been carried out in Pennsylvania since 1999. On December 4, 2013, Amber Christine Meidinger was sentenced to 40 to 80 years in prison after pleading guilty to third-degree homicide. While awaiting trial, she gave birth to her baby, who was placed in foster care.
The police did not accuse Robert Masters and Peggy Miller of participating in the entire act of torture, but evidence suggests they were part of the meetings where the ordeal was planned and voted for her to be killed. During the beatings, Jennifer begged them to let her go, but they didn’t. Robert stated, “I was scared for my life. I should have done something but I didn’t because I was scared. Can the family forgive me?” Peggy stated, “I am sorry and I am guilty. She was my friend and I should not have voted for her to die.”
Jennifer’s sister, Joy Burkholder, had pointed words for Peggy: “You had my sister as a friend. She loved Miller and valued her. You didn’t value her. You probably value a hairbrush more than you value her.” Robert Lauren Masters Jr. pled guilty to third-degree homicide and was sentenced to 30 to 70 years in prison. Peggy Darlene Miller was sentenced to 35 to 74 years in prison. Several neighbors testified against Angela, claiming she had planned to kill Jennifer several days before. Neighbor Anthony Zappone heard Angela say, “I’m going to kill that [ __ ].”
On August 3, 2011, Angela Marinucci was given a mandatory life sentence. Later, this was revoked and re-sentenced. Finally, in May 2022, she was sentenced to 60 years to life. Jennifer’s sister Joy said after sentencing, “My biggest regret was forcing Jennifer to act as an adult. I would go back and do many things differently. Jennifer was exploited and her kindness and her handicap made her very vulnerable.” Her stepfather Bobby said, “Closure is Jennifer coming back to us and Jennifer won’t come back so there is no closure.”
On April 23, 2012, Pennsylvania State Senator Kim Ward proposed “Jennifer’s Law,” which would require the reporting of a violent crime to law enforcement immediately. Her sister Joy shared, “Over the course of 30 plus hours, six people had the opportunity to help my sister and nobody did. Legally they didn’t have to. It seems wrong to me that you can be a spectator during a murder and not be responsible to intervene in any way. I know my sister is not coming back, however this law could and will save lives.”
Senator Ward stated, “It is heartbreaking to think of what Jennifer went through and the fact that one phone call to police might have put an end to these cruel crimes. Sometimes society has to compel people to do the right thing.” She went on to state, “By making Pennsylvania the 12th state, we can make a statement in Jennifer’s memory. We can say the world may be cold, but we do not live in a heartless society. We do not look on while evil is perpetrated. We are better than that.”
