Skip to content
News
Link copied to clipboard

Missing Pa. woman found dead; stepfather charged

EASTON, Pa. - The body of missing day-care worker Jessica Padgett, 33, of Whitehall Township, has been found, and her stepfather has been charged with murder, authorities said Wednesday.

Authorities found the body of Jessica Padgett, who had been missing since disappearing from her job Friday afternoon.
Authorities found the body of Jessica Padgett, who had been missing since disappearing from her job Friday afternoon.Read more

EASTON, Pa. - The body of missing day-care worker Jessica Padgett, 33, of Whitehall Township, has been found, and her stepfather has been charged with murder, authorities said Wednesday.

At an afternoon news conference, Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli announced that Gregory R. Graf faces homicide charges. He is accused of shooting Padgett and hiding her body on his and her mother's Allen Township property, Morganelli said.

Morganelli said that Padgett, missing since Friday, was shot in the back of the head and that Graf's motive appeared to be sexual assault.

"There's definitely a sex angle to this crime," Morganelli said. "That is still being developed in terms of the particular nature of it."

Padgett was last seen at 12:50 p.m. Friday leaving Duck Duck Goose Child Care in Northampton. She was supposed to return to her job there a short time later.

Padgett also worked at Graf's business, Distinctive Fence, on a property owned by Graf and Padgett's mother, Danelle. She was headed there to send a fax when she disappeared, sister Kristi Davis has said.

Padgett's Facebook page says she was married in September and has three children.

Court records show that Graf, 53, was convicted of theft in the 1980s. In 1995, he served a three- to 23-month sentence in Lehigh County Prison for conspiracy and possession of drugs with intent to deliver.