Sources: Charges looming for fired Phila. homicide detective

Update: Former homicide detective Ron Dove has been charged with criminal conspiracy, hindering apprehension, flight to avoid apprehension and other offenses in the alleged attempt to cover up the slaying for which his girlfriend has since been charged, District Attorney Seth Williams announced Thursday.

Earlier Story:

A former Philadelphia police detective will face criminal charges in connection with allegedly driving his girlfriend - a murder suspect - to Upstate New York, then hindering the homicide investigation by lying to detectives who were looking for her, The Inquirer has learned.

Sources would not specify the exact charges that Ron Dove - who was fired in November 2013 after 16 years on the force - would face, but said they centered on his aid to Erica Sanchez. She is in custody awaiting trial in the death of Cesar Vera, who was stabbed at a North Philadelphia block party.

A grand jury has conducted a yearlong investigation into the case, the sources said, and the charges will be announced Thursday.

Calls to Dove's attorney, Brian McMonagle, were not returned Wednesday.

Investigators have said that in September 2013, Dove picked up Sanchez at the crime scene and moved her car, then drove her to Rochester and paid for her hotel room.

Afterward, when questioned by detectives searching for Sanchez, Dove told them he did not know where she was. Later, investigators found credit-card and cellphone records that tied him to Sanchez's hotel.

Dove was fired for "failing to cooperate in a departmental investigation as well as lying or attempting to deceive" police, the department said at the time.

An Internal Affairs investigation into Dove's involvement with Sanchez led officials to probe possible misconduct in two other slayings and a disappearance. It was unclear whether Dove was also facing charges in those cases.

Dove was the lead detective in the investigation into the killing of Leslie Delzingaro, who was shot at an Olney bar owned by Sanchez's father, Humberto, in 2010.

Delzingaro's family members told The Inquirer in 2013 that Dove seemed dismissive of the case and told them that Humberto Sanchez was "a great guy."

Investigators also looked into whether Dove concealed information in the unsolved shooting death of Melanie Colon, 22, who was found behind a Juniata Park apartment building in 2012. Colon's friend Reynaldo Torres disappeared with her and has not been seen since. Investigators believe Vera was linked to that case.

In late 2013, investigators found notes on Dove's iPad that led them to search a trash-strewn ravine near Vera's house. There, they found a jawbone that is a possible match to Torres.

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