Homicide victim was pregnant
Suspect charged with two counts of murder
[size=-1]BY MARA H. GOTTFRIED[/size]
[size=-1]Pioneer Press[/size]
When a man Memory Pachowicz accompanied to smoke marijuana began making sexual advances, the pregnant St. Paul woman fought for her life, slapping him in the face, kicking him and grabbing a hammer.
But the man took the hammer and struck her repeatedly on the head, according to a complaint the Ramsey County attorney's office filed Wednesday in charging Nathaniel Christopher Glass, 26, of St. Paul with second-degree murder and second-degree murder of an unborn child.
Pachowicz, 33 and the mother of 1-year-old and 13-year-old daughters, died from multiple blunt-force trauma impacts to her head the medical examiner counted 32 impacts, along with fractures on both sides and the base of her skull, the complaint said. She also had been stabbed in the chest and had five blunt-force impacts to the back of her right hand, believed to be defensive wounds, said Paul Schnell, police spokesman.
"Clearly she was struggling, she was putting up a fight to save her life," he said.
How Glass allegedly lured Pachowicz, who was about five weeks pregnant, to a vacant St. Paul apartment by promising her marijuana and what ensued closely mirror the experience of a woman Glass is accused of raping two weeks earlier.
Glass is being held in the Ramsey County jail. He declined an interview request.
He told police that late on March 5 or early March 6, he saw Pachowicz leaving a Rice Street bar, the complaint said. He said she approached him and asked if he knew where she could buy marijuana.
Glass invited Pachowicz to smoke marijuana with him in a vacant apartment at a Dayton's Bluff building and intended to have sex with her, the complaint said. The building at 875 E. Fifth St. was being sold and Glass, his girlfriend and their 2½-year-old daughter were the last tenants there, said Shirley Dishmon, Glass' mother.
The last person who reported seeing Pachowicz was a friend who told police Pachowicz was in her car and a maroon car was behind her at about 1 a.m. March 6.
"Pachowicz assured him (the friend) that the vehicle behind her was with her and was OK," the complaint said. She told her friend she was going to follow the man to buy marijuana.
At the apartment, Glass tried to kiss Pachowicz, but she turned away and "she would not let him touch her breasts or put his hand in her pants," the complaint said.
"He said that he didn't mean to hurt the girl and that he was getting mixed messages," the complaint said. Glass described a "tussle" that followed and said he "snapped out and did not recall how many times he hit her with the hammer," the complaint said.
Police haven't determined whether Pachowicz was sexually assaulted, Schnell said.
When Glass returned home at about 2 a.m. March 6, he was covered in blood and he told his girlfriend he had been "jumped," the complaint said. He wanted to throw away his clothes and boots and told her "he may have killed the guy that he fought with," the complaint said.
On Saturday, Glass called police to report a body had been found in the building where he lived, the complaint said. Investigators identified the body as Pachowicz's.
People close to Glass expressed shock over the charges.
"I do not feel at all that he did this or that he was capable of doing it," said his mother, who moved to the area from Chicago with Glass in 2000.
Glass' girlfriend of four years, who asked not to be identified, said she didn't believe the accusations until she read in the complaint he had confessed. The woman is five months pregnant with their second child.
Officers investigating Pachowicz's homicide discovered a woman had reported being raped Feb. 19 at the same apartment. The county attorney's office charged Glass on Tuesday with first-degree criminal sexual conduct in that case.
A woman told police she had been walking home when a man offered her a ride in his maroon vehicle. She agreed to go to the apartment after he told her he had marijuana. Once inside, the suspect allegedly pulled a knife and sexually assaulted her, the complaint said.
Homicide investigators noticed a car matching the description the rape victim gave parked outside the building where Pachowicz was found. They discovered it was Glass' mother's car and Glass drove it, the complaint said.
Bail was set Wednesday at $500,000 on the murder charges and had been set Tuesday at $100,000 on the criminal sexual conduct charge.
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http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/local/11154509.htm
Just a few of my thoughts on this article - Ok this is soo very sad. But if she knew she was pregnant WHY was going with him to smoke marijuana??? Maybe she didn't know she was pregnant?? I know this is what the suspect said he did to get her to go with him...so it could be a lie. How sad if true, had she not gone with him her and her baby would be alive and her two children would still have their mother. I am in no way saying this is her fault because it is NOT. It just sad to think that one simple choice made can change your life in an instant, this poor woman was so violently attacked my heart breaks for her. Very sad story. My prayers are with her children, family and friends.
