Philadelphia man held for trial in killing of pregnant girlfriend

Anna Angok was strangled at the hands of her on-again, off-again boyfriend after trading angry online messages with him on the day she broke up with him, investigators said Wednesday in Bucks County Court. She was pregnant with his child.

After a preliminary hearing that spanned three hours, District Judge Frank W. Peranteau Sr. ordered Jaleel Lamar Loper, of Philadelphia, held for trial on homicide, criminal homicide of an unborn child, stalking, and other charges.

Loper, 27, sat quietly and emotionless as his public defenders told the judge no one had seen Loper at Angok's apartment in Croydon on Sept. 26, the day she was killed.

Angok's 2-year-old daughter was at home at the time of the attack but was unharmed, investigators said.

A medical examiner ruled that Angok, 29, a South Sudan native who moved from Kenya to the United States in 2000, was strangled with a thin cord at the Glen Hollow Apartments on Newportville Road.

After her death, investigators said, Loper began to concoct lies and leave a trail of suspicious behavior.

Detectives believe he placed a 911 call at 6 p.m. Sept. 26 and asked police to "please hurry" to Angok's apartment. A few minutes later,  Murrey Alderfer, Angok's foster father, said he answered a call from Angok's phone number and a man whose voice he said he didn't recognize told him to "hurry up" and head to her apartment.

Investigators' recounting of the couple's tumultuous relationship portrayed a dynamic rife with tension and threats, particularly in the weeks before Angok's death.

"You better watch yourself at all times," Loper texted Angok on Sept. 17, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.

On Sept. 26, about four hours before investigators would find her body, Angok wrote to Loper on Facebook Messenger: "I told u I was done you think I'm playing?"

She then typed, "I need some time alone, this is not working out."

Minutes later, at 3:32 p.m., Loper sent back: "I knew u aint love me no more."

Loper, who worked at Family Food Products in Bensalem, then caught a ride from a coworker's grandmother, Diane Pacos, who picked up her grandson from his job at 3:30 p.m. most days. Pacos remembered seeing Loper standing outside his workplace, looking down as he used his cell phone, she testified Wednesday.

Pacos said she was reluctant to drive Loper  — a stranger — but acquiesced when her grandson pleaded, saying Loper only wanted to be dropped off at the Glen Hollow Apartments a few miles away.

During the 15-minute drive, Loper, who sat in the passenger seat, didn't say much, Pacos said — except that he "had something to take care of."