Case #20: The Crimes of Reverend AB Schirmer

Part of a news broadcast showing Reverend AB Schirmer's wives

On October 29th, 2008, investigators were called to a crime scene at Reeders Methodist Church in Reeders, Pennsylvania. The victim is Joesph Musante, a parishioner at the church. A window leading into the church's office had been broken. There was also a gun laying at Joseph's feet. 

Investigators immediately determined to look into this case as a homicide, at least until they could prove otherwise. The evidence would show that Joe Musante died of a gunshot wound to the head. 

It should also be noted that nothing appeared to be out of place. Initially it might actually appear as though Joe's death was a suicide. 

So, the question becomes: why did Joe Musante go into the church in the first place. Right now, the evidence seems like it could go either way. There's nothing that seems to definitively point to murder, nor is there anything that definitively points to suicide.  

The first step investigators really had to take was investigating Joe Musante's life. 

To give a little context into who Joe was, he was a carpenter, who also happened to help out around the church. Musante had actually built the desk that was in the reverend's office. Joe's wife, Cindy was the reverend's secretary.

Before too long, investigators were tipped off to the possibility that there may have been to the relationship between Joe Musante and the reverend, whose name was Arthur Burton Schirmer.

After investigators looked into this tip, they found that Reverend Schirmer and Cindy Musante were having affair. On top of that, the reverend's own wife had died in a car crash three months earlier. 

Betty, Reverend Schirmer's wife, was killed in a single vehicle accident on a deserted stretch of road. Oh, and she wasn't the reverend's first wife to die. Betty was his second wife. The reverend's first wife, Jewel had died in 1999 after falling down a flight of stairs. 

Now, at this point, the reverend was starting to look quite suspicious. Naturally, investigators decided to look into all three cases. 

Jewel Schirmer was described as being a loving, doting wife and mother. She directed the childrens' choir on Sundays. 

In fact, when he was interviewed, Jewel's own brother, John Behney, said he noticed something wasn't quite right while she was on life support in the hospital. He had said her face was entirely black and blue. He noted she had too much head and face trauma for a simple fall down the stairs. More specifically, Jewel had only fallen down six steps. 

Something else that began raising suspicion was Schirmer's demeanor over Jewel's state. While at the hospital, Schimrer was sitting with some of the people from his church. Apparently, he was joking and laughing the whole time with the other churchgoers. Behney distinctly recalled his father saying he didn't seem too concerned. 

To make things even more suspicious, Schirmer declined having an autopsy performed on Jewel. He also was the one who had the final say in pulling her off of life support. Because Schirmer said no to an autopsy, this allowed her death to be ruled as an accident. However, Behney actually went over Schirmer's head and requested an autopsy to be performed on his sister. 

When Jewel's body arrived for autopsy, she didn't have a heart. Come to find out, she was an organ donor. This raised even more suspicion because she had allegedly had a heart attack. When forensic pathologist Wayne Ross finally had access to Jewel's heart, and was able to examine it, he found no evidence of a heart attack.

To try and find more evidence, investigators turned to the passing of Schirmer's second wife. This will circle us back to Betty Schirmer. 

The story goes that Schirmer was rushing his wife to the hospital at 2:00 AM for jaw pain. A deer jumped out into the middle of the road. Schirmer swerved, lost control, and struck a guardrail head-on. Neither were wearing seatbelts. Both were taken to the hospital. Betty was life flighted an hour away. Ultimately, Schirmer had her taken off of life support. 

Conveniently, because Betty was life flighted to another county, she was never autopsied. 

It seems like a pattern is beginning to emerge. 

To make this even more suspicious, not too long after taking her off of life support, Schirmer had her cremated. 

Investigators had to look elsewhere for evidence. They were able to find crime scene photos that allowed Ross and detective James Wagner to analyze the crash. One of the first holes in Schirmer's story is the fact that there were no skid marks. In fact, contrary to Schimrer's claim of going 50 to 55 miles an hour, evidence points to a low speed collision with the guardrail. On top of that, damage to the car was actually quite minimal. If anything, evidence showed that the accident looked like a minor fender bender. To elaborate a little further, detective Wagner found that there was no indication of the airbags deploying. 

Now, the investigators started looking at blood patterns inside the vehicle for more clues. First off, there was no indication of blood on the driver's side (Schirmer's side). The crime scene photos also showed indication of a broken windshield near the mirror that wasn't consistent with a headstrike. What was really telling was the blood on Betty's seat. The crime scene photos showed far more blood on the seat compared to the dash and the windshield. The blood should have been around her body, but not under her body for the crime scene to line up with the reverend's story. 

A look at where Betty Schirmer had been sitting in the car

In fact, looking at the evidence showed more signs that she was already bleeding heavily while she was being placed in the car. After discovering this evidence, the death of Betty Schirmer became a homicide investigation. 

The investigation was reopened without Reverend Schirmer's knowledge. This was done so that Schirmer could not tamper with any evidence. 

The investigation brought up another potential red flag in Schirmer's behavior. Schirmer had the car repaired and was still using it. 

Wagner was searching for evidence in the parsonage where Schirmer and Betty lived (after securing a warrant, of course). Wagner said that as soon as he set foot in the garage, he noticed blood stains on the concrete floor. Forensic testing proved that the blood belonged to Betty Schirmer. 

This whole time, Schirmer was with investigators and completely unaware that his home was being searched. They asked him about the blood in the garage. At first he denied it. But, investigators "convinced" him of the blood. So, he came up with a story that he and Betty were carrying wood that was in the garage. The wood had fallen on them, and cut Betty's arm open. 

Funny enough, none of the investigators bought into the story. When they looked into the wood, they found a newspaper underneath the wood pile dated for September 2008. This is curious to investigators because Betty had died in July of 2008.

As the investigation into Schirmer continued it became apparent that he was having multiple affairs.

At first, it looked as though it could be a lost cause because Betty was cremated. Something that proved helpful was the fact that she had CAT scans done. Or so they thought. 

Investigators found it tricky with just the two-dimensional CAT scan. Fortunately, investigators were able to find people who could make a 3D model based on the initial CAT scan. 

When looking at the 3D model, they found injuries that did not line up with the car accident story. Shocker. I know.  

They said that had injuries lined up with a car accident, the scan would have looked different. The injuries were located on the right side of her head. Had the evidence pointed toward a car accident like Schirmer claimed, the injuries would have been to forehead and face. 

The injuries were found to be more consistent with blunt force trauma due to an object than injuries due to a car crash. 

Not only that, Betty's injuries seemed suspiciously similar to the injuries sustained by Jewel Schirmer. 

Now that they had information on how Betty died, investigators returned to the death of Jewel Schirmer. To do this; investigators performed something called a "dummy test." They tossed a dummy down the same steps Jewel allegedly fell down to see what kind of injuries she would have received. 

It may surprise you to learn that Jewel's injuries didn't exactly line up with a fall down the stairs. She didn't have injuries to neck, ribs, or hips. These are injuries that most likely would have occurred due to a fall down a flight of stairs. 

AB Schirmer after he has been arrested

Now, it has been scientifically proven that both of the reverend's wives were murdered. Reverend Schirmer was found to be staying with Joe Musante's wife, and was arrested at her house. There were two different trials that Schirmer had to face. In Monroe County, he was placed on trial for Betty Schirmer's murder. In Lebanon County, there was grand jury investigation for Jewel Schirmer's murder. He was found guilty of Betty Schirmer's murder. Not too long after that, he pleaded guilty to Jewel Schirmer's murder. 

As for Joe Musante, the man this whose death this whole thing started with, it was discovered that he had a history of depression. Both Schirmer and Joe's wife had solid alibis on the night Joe died. It was discovered that Joe Musante was alone in the church, and the gunshot would that killed him was self-inflicted. 

As for Schirmer, he was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison  

References: 

“Secrets of the Morgue.” Season 1, episode 5.