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Bucks man is being held in girlfriend's fatal stabbing

A Bucks County man, already under court sanctions for harassing a former girlfriend, was charged yesterday with fatally stabbing another woman, with whom he lived.

Samuel Funk Jr. was under orders to stay away from an ex-girlfriend.
Samuel Funk Jr. was under orders to stay away from an ex-girlfriend.Read more

A Bucks County man, already under court sanctions for harassing a former girlfriend, was charged yesterday with fatally stabbing another woman, with whom he lived.

Samuel H. Funk Jr., 41, is accused in the weekend slaying of Jacqueline Goulding, 35.

Since August 2005, Funk had been under a protection-from-abuse order for stalking and threatening a former girlfriend. He violated the order last year, and a Bucks County judge extended it through March 2008.

Police found Goulding dead Saturday night in her unit of the Aspen Falls Apartments in Falls Township. She had been struck several times, slashed in the hands, and stabbed once in the wrist and once, fatally, in the chest, Falls Township Police Lt. Ron MacPherson said.

Funk, her live-in boyfriend, is suspected of fleeing in Goulding's silver Ford Explorer after killing her. He was arrested Sunday afternoon at a Bristol Township bar, where the vehicle was spotted by an off-duty officer.

Funk was charged early yesterday with criminal homicide and was being held without bail at the Bucks County prison. He told investigators that he had struck Goulding during an argument and stabbed her as they fell struggling to the floor, MacPherson said.

An autopsy suggested that the slashes on Goulding's hands were defensive wounds suffered as she tried to ward off the attack.

Funk, described in court records as a stocky father of three who has his daughters' names tattooed on one arm, last worked for a construction company, MacPherson said. He appears to have no significant criminal record.

A former girlfriend, however, claimed that Funk terrorized her in 2005 at her home in Middletown Township. In a court petition seeking a protection order, the woman said she had ended a two-month relationship with Funk "because he was jealous and controlling."

After the breakup, she said, Funk spied on her and called with drunken, cursing threats. He repeatedly phoned her therapist with false claims that she was trying to kill herself, the woman said.

One time, the woman said, Funk got into her house when she was away. She entered to find him standing at the top of her stairs, drunk.

"He calls and says he has to watch me 24 hours a day . . .," the woman wrote. "I'm afraid he might be hiding in my house."

The woman was granted an order banning Funk from her residence and workplace, and from owning weapons.

Last March, the woman accused Funk of violating the order by standing outside her home and by making a series of harassing phone calls. A judge agreed to extend the protection order through early next year.