From staff reports
Eldred “Ted” Walker, who was serving a state prison sentence for his role in the 1992 abduction and murder of 11-year-old Oil City resident Shauna Howe, has died.
Walker, who had been incarcerated since October 2021 at the state prison in Fayette County, died Sunday of natural causes, according to Maria Bivens, press secretary with the state Department of Corrections.
He had been serving his 20-to-40-year state prison sentence at the Albion correctional facility in Erie County prior to his transfer to Fayette County.
The girl was kidnapped Oct. 27, 1992, as she was headed home to her residence on Oil City’s South Side after a Girl Scout Halloween party.
Her body was found three days later at Coulter’s Hole in Rockland Township.
No arrests were made in the case for nearly a dozen years until brothers Timothy O’Brien and James O’Brien were arrested and arraigned in July 2004 on charges that accused them of killing Howe.
The O’Briens were convicted in a Venango County trial in October 2005 and sentenced to life in prison. Walker tried to withdraw his guilty pleas after the trial, but his request was denied.
He was finally sentenced in January 2007 to 10-to-20-year prison terms on both the murder and kidnapping charges.
He would have been eligible for parole in July 2024.
Walker died just three days after Howe’s mother, Lucy Brown, and Howe’s two sisters, Emily Krebs and Jennifer Makin, organized a memorial walk last Thursday in Oil City to mark the 30-year anniversary of her abduction and retrace her final steps.
And his death occurred 30 years to the day that Howe’s body was found.
Meanwhile, the O’Briens are continuing to serve their life sentences in state prisons. Timothy O’Brien is now 56 and James O’Brien is 50.
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