Nearly nine years ago, Pennsylvania State Police announced they were searching for a 41-year-old mother who had vanished from the Lower Macungie Township mobile home park where she lived.
Holly Grim, a petite woman with brown hair and brown eyes, hadn’t shown up for work Nov. 22, 2013, at the Allen Organ Co. in Macungie, and her relatives couldn’t reach her. Police said they considered her an endangered missing person.
Grim had driven her teenage son to the school bus stop early that morning but when her mother came to visit half an hour later, Grim’s car was outside and her glasses and cigarettes were inside, but she wasn’t home. A spilled cup of coffee, overturned ashtray and an out-of-place coffee table led Grim’s mother and boyfriend to believe someone had interrupted Grim’s morning routine of a cigarette and coffee while she watched the news.
Despite pleas from Grim’s family and efforts by volunteer investigators, it was nearly three years before state police unearthed human bones on a Ross Township property owned by Grim’s former co-worker, Michael Horvath. Days later, investigators confirmed the remains were Grim’s and charged Horvath with kidnapping and killing Grim and disposing of her body in a shallow grave at the base of Blue Mountain.
Horvath, 55, will stand trial starting Wednesday in Monroe County, where he has been jailed since October 2016. The trial is expected to last two weeks.
Why did the case take so long to go to trial?
Horvath was originally set to stand trial sometime in early 2019, but as disputed pre-trial issues arose it was pushed back to fall 2019 and then 2020, when the pandemic shut down courts. The trial was delayed indefinitely amid a backlog of cases until Wednesday’s trial date was set at the end of 2020.
These issues included a highly unusual petition in 2020 by the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office to disqualify the public defender’s office from representing Horvath, who had been begging for a new court-appointed attorney anyway. Assistant Public Defender Chandra Bleice filed a petition in 2017 asking President Judge Margherita Patti-Worthington to appoint outside counsel for Horvath, saying she could not handle Horvath’s case along with the rest of her heavy workload, but it was denied.
The district attorney’s request prompted the judge to scold prosecutors for their criticism but she stopped short of disqualifying the district attorney’s office and calling the state attorney general’s office. Patti-Worthington appointed Stroudsburg attorney Janet Jackson and David Churundolo, both death penalty-certified defense lawyers, to represent Horvath.
What penalty does Horvath face if convicted?
Prosecutors announced several months after Horvath was charged that they would seek the death penalty, but as the trial date approached, Horvath’s attorneys and prosecutors negotiated a deal in which the district attorney’s office would drop the death penalty if Horvath agreed to a bench trial without a jury.
Jackson said the bench trial avoids the complications of seating a death penalty-qualified jury and will result in a faster resolution. Horvath, who agreed to the bench trial, faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and potentially additional sentences for related charges including kidnapping, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse.
Prosecutors offered a deal earlier in the case to forgo the death penalty if he revealed the location of the rest of Grim’s body, only half of which was found in the woods near his property. Gov. Tom Wolf signed a moratorium on the death penalty in 2015 and Pennsylvania has not executed a prisoner since 1999.
Why is Horvath being tried in Monroe County?
Although investigators say Grim was kidnapped in her home in Lower Macungie, they say evidence indicates he killed her and buried her on his property in Monroe County. Her remains were found in a 4-by-4-foot area behind Horvath’s property in the Saylorsburg section of Ross Township. A search of Horvath’s home revealed other evidence including restraints and DVDs on “murder,” “sexual deviance” and “hunting humans,” according to court records. Police also say there is evidence he was stalking Grim and other women.
How did police identify Horvath as a suspect?
Grim and Horvath worked on the same shift at Allen Organ Co. and he was one of several employees who was either late or absent from work on the day Grim disappeared. Court records show he was interviewed shortly after she went missing and claimed he got a flat tire on the way to work and decided to turn around and return home. Police later matched DNA Horvath gave voluntarily to a bloodstain on Grim’s door.
What is Horvath’s defense?
Jackson, his court-appointed attorney, declined to talk about the defense strategy in the trial, saying it would be inappropriate. Horvath’s previous attorneys pushed to have certain evidence suppressed, arguing they didn’t have enough time to thoroughly investigate Grim’s home. One issue is a shed that stood behind Grim’s home where police believe Horvath hid while he waited to kidnap her, court records show. The shed was demolished shortly after Horvath was arrested and defenders said knowing more about the shed would have helped Horvath’s case.
Although Pennsylvania’s spousal privilege laws prevent prosecutors from compelling Horvath’s wife to testify against him, her words may be part of the record presented by prosecutors anyway. That’s because authorities recorded Horvath in phone calls from jail to his wife instructing her to sell his property, including a trailer and shed prosecutors believe he used in the crime.
Morning Call reporter Peter Hall can be reached at 610-820-6581 or peter.hall@mcall.com.
