D.A. Man videotaped himself having sex with stepdaughter's corpse

ALLEN TOWNSHIP, Pa. - The man accused of killing his stepdaughter, Jessica Padgett, videotaped himself having sex with her corpse, Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said Friday.

He said the video confirmed what Gregory R. Graf told investigators on the day he was charged with homicide last month: that he wanted to have sex with Padgett, and that he did so after she was dead.

Morganelli said he had concluded Graf killed Padgett in order to have sex with her body.

He said he had authorized the filing of an abuse-of-corpse charge against Graf, 53. A misdemeanor, it means Morganelli won't be able to seek the death penalty because the alleged sexual abuse occurred after Padgett was killed.

Morganelli declined to discuss what the video showed, other than to say Graf committed a variety of sexual acts against Padgett, 33, of Whitehall Township, who once described him as like a second father.

Graf is accused of shooting Padgett in the back of the head on Nov. 21 and hiding her body on his property while family and friends searched for her.

Padgett went missing that day after she left Duck Duck Goose Child Care in Northampton.

Morganelli also said Graf had a marijuana-growing operation that police discovered as they searched for Padgett.