March 4-10, 2004

pretzel logic

Arresting Development

by Howard Altman

There’s a great debate taking place in the world of alternative journalism about the value of breaking news online.

One camp says that rushing a story onto the Web site is little more than an ego stroke for the reporter.

My camp says otherwise.

Though not our primary mission, breaking stories gets the paper's name out there, which is never a bad thing.

Of course, when it comes to such matters, I am a competitive, petty old bastard who gets great pleasure from kicking ass in a town full of great news hounds.

Which brings us to the sordid tale of Ralph Pitt, a 27-year-old pharmacy employee from West Philadelphia.

Monday morning, a little birdie whispered in my ear that police arrested Pitt the previous Friday in connection with one of the hottest stories going -- the possible serial killings of three Philly women who were selling their bodies and wound up strangled and dumped in the near Northeast. Pitt is being held in connection with the death of one of those women -- 24-year-old Jena Tadrzynski.

Somehow, despite all the hubbub, police managed to run silent about Pitt -- who was living in an apartment building on the 400 block of North 41st Street --until my birdie told me Pitt was arrested and charged with abuse of corpse and drug possession. I confirmed that with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office at about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, and the story went up on the City Paper site about three hours later.

Pitt, who is being held on $200,000 bail, has told police he did not kill Tadrzynski. Pitt has not been charged with murder, but investigators say they are "keeping an open mind" about his role in Tadrzynski's strangling as well as the deaths of Charisse Eschert, 28, and Karen Lynn DeWitt, 31, whose bodies -- like Tadrzynski's -- were found strangled and dumped.

According to the D.A.'s Office, Pitt told investigators that on the morning of Feb. 7, he picked up Tadrzynski near her apartment on Frankford Avenue and took her back to West Philadelphia. They spent the day having sex and taking the drug Ativan -- which police say Pitt stole from the Excellerx Pharmacy at Sixth and Walnut streets, where he was working. A woman answering the phone at the pharmacy would not comment about Pitt.

According to sources with knowledge of the case, Pitt told investigators that Tadrzynski stayed at his apartment through Monday and that when he left to go to work that morning, she was still alive. Investigators said Pitt confessed that when he returned at about 6 p.m., she was dead, possibly from an overdose of Ativan.

Then, Pitt "panicked," said Ed McCann, chief homicide investigator with the D.A.'s Office, and dumped Tadrzynski's naked body into a pile of garbage at a trash-transfer station in the city's Bridesburg neighborhood later that night. McCann said Pitt told police that when he found Tadrzynski, she was fully clothed. Her naked body was found by a worker at the trash-transfer station Feb. 10.

Sources close to the investigation say Pitt was turned in by his roommate, whose name is not being released, on Fri., Feb. 27, and that Pitt was arrested later that night.

"A lawyer brings the roommate to McCann and the guy tells a story of how his friend picked up this woman and killed her, wrapped up the body and dumped her," says a source with knowledge of the investigation. "The D.A.'s homicide guys go at it with him, but the most he will admit to is abuse of corpse."

While the roommate is not being held, investigators say that they are not ruling anything out.

"It could have been the roommate too," says a source close to the investigation. "We are trying to keep an open mind here, trying to figure out what we can to corroborate between the statements Pitt made and the statements his roommate made. Pitt says he didn't kill her."

Both Pitt and his roommate agree on where and when Tadrzynski was dumped, the source says.

The roommate told police that Feb. 7 was not Pitt's first encounter with Tadrzynski, according to the source. The two had been together two or three times in the past. The source adds that the roommate said Pitt dumped Tadrzynski in Bridesburg "because he was familiar with that area." The roommate also told police he had no information about whether Pitt was involved in the Eschert or DeWitt homicides.

"The roommate claims he only knows about Tadrzynski," the source said.

Pitt is being held on charges of abusing a corpse, possession of about a pound of marijuana with intent to deliver and the theft of the Ativan from the pharmacy. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday in the police facility at 55th and Pine streets.

I ran with this Tuesday because I didn't think it would hold until Thursday, when the paper comes out. There is so much competition, and we only hit the streets once a week.

To "own" the story, I called a contact at Channel 3 with a heads-up, in exchange for props. Petty, yes, but I'm like that about scoops.

It usually works, but this time they aired it as if it were their own.

D'oh.

Of course, none of that really matters to anyone but yours truly.

Three women are dead. Three families traumatized. (Cops say the killing of a fourth woman, Eveyln Rolon, 43, is probably not related).

Maybe the cops have the killer. Maybe not.

Either way, check out citypaper.net for the latest.