Witness: Wife had lover kill husband to avoid messy divorce

Days after hundreds of mourners memorialized a 33-year-old Chester County landscaper, his accused killers - his wife and her young lover - appeared in court this morning for their preliminary hearings.

Authorities say Morgan Marie Mengel, 34, of West Goshen Township, conspired with Stephen M. Shappell, 21, formerly of Broomall, to kill Kevin Mengel Jr. on June 17.

Shappell, who was represented by attorney Thomas Wagner, was an employee of Kevin Mengel's landscaping company, MKB Property Maintenance, a name created with the initials of each of the couple's three children. Shappell waived his hearing before District Judge William Kraut.

Morgan Mengel was ordered held for trial following an hour-long hearing.

Police said the codefendants plotted the murder by first trying to poison Mengel's lemon Snapple at his West Goshen landscaping office. Then Shappell beat his boss with a shovel before burying his body in a field near Marple Newtown High School, police said.

With the assistance of cadaver dogs, police found Kevin Mengel's body buried in woods behind Marple Newtown High School in Newtown Township, Delaware County, on June 26.

Amid heavy security that included a police dog, Morgan Mengel, a petite woman with streaked hair, part of which was drawn into a topknot, kept her head down during much of her hearing. She was represented by Assistant Public Defender Kate Grimes.

West Goshen Det. David S. Maurer testified that he began an investigation after Kevin Mengel's mother, Kathleen Barton, reported her son missing on Father's Day, June 20. Relatives said that was Kevin Mengel's favorite holiday.

Maurer testified that Morgan Mengel initially told police that her husband sent her a text on June 18 indicating "he had had enough, he was leaving, and she could take the business . . ."

Morgan Mengel denied having an affair with Shappell until she was told Shappell had admitted the affair, Maurer testified. Eventually she admitted the relationship, as well as putting poison in her husband's Snapple "to numb his central nervous system so they could kill him," Maurer said.

Maurer testified that Morgan Mengel said he wanted her husband dead because she did not want to go through a "messy divorce" that would likely prompt her husband and his mother to seek custody of the children.