GUILTY VA - Laura Skinner, 21, Virginia Beach, 16 May 2004

Doyle

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The charred body of a young woman discovered today in a small Massachusetts town may be that of a sailor who disappeared this weekend from Virginia Beach, authorities said.

The woman, Laura Anne Skinner, and her roommate, Jarred Swartzmiller, both 21, were reported missing Monday, and authorities issued warrants over the last two days for Swartzmiller’s arrest.
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=70539&ran=155479
 
From July 2005:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2005/jul/12/20050712-095317-3010r/?page=all

A sailor who killed his roommate, then took her body to Massachusetts and burned it on a charcoal pyre, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison for first-degree murder... Swartzmiller, who pleaded guilty in early May, had been held without bail in a Virginia Beach jail. Public defender Peter Legler said he expected Swartzmiller to be sent to a maximum-security prison...

At a preliminary hearing in September, a friend testified that Swartzmiller told him he was in a daze from alcohol and a prescription painkiller when he wrapped a belt around his hand and hit Mrs. Skinner in the head with the buckle. Authorities said Swartzmiller battered Mrs. Skinner during an argument, then tried to hide the crime by driving her body out of state, wrapping it in a sleeping bag and burning it. Police Detective Sean R. Coerse testified in September that he found a receipt in Swartzmiller’s truck showing that the defendant bought charcoal and lighter fluid at a Wal-Mart in Norfolk the day Mrs. Skinner was killed...

Mrs. Skinner, Swartzmiller and their roommate, Paula Burd, were shipmates on the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. Mrs. Skinner had married another sailor four days before she was slain.
 

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