The Dawn Wagner murder was a New Year’s Eve 2013 killing in Salem Township, Pennsylvania, in which 51-year-old Dawn Marie Wagner was beaten with a hammer and strangled inside her mobile home by her 25-year-old daughter, Sarah Vercauteren, after Wagner refused to lend her car so Vercauteren could buy heroin. Vercauteren pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in April 2016 and is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.1CBS News Pittsburgh. Woman Pleads Guilty in Mother’s Murder, Sentenced to Life Without Parole
What Happened on New Year’s Eve 2013
On the evening of December 31, 2013, Vercauteren asked to borrow her mother’s 2011 Chevrolet Aveo. She told Wagner she wanted marijuana but later admitted to police she was actually going to buy heroin and believed her mother knew that. When Wagner said no, Vercauteren grabbed a hammer from the kitchen and attacked her in the living room of their home at Forbes Trail Park.2WTAE. Woman Confesses to Police in Hammer Killing An autopsy found Wagner had been struck at least 18 times.3TribLive. Salem Woman to Spend Life in Prison for Bludgeoning Mother With Hammer
Wagner’s large dog, Champ, tried to intervene and bit Vercauteren’s leg. Vercauteren struck the dog with the hammer as well, then dragged her mother into the bathroom and kept beating her. Wagner pleaded with her, saying she could take the car. Vercauteren told police she apologized to her mother, said she loved her, and then strangled her on the bathroom floor because Wagner was “gurgling” and she “didn’t want her to be suffering.”2WTAE. Woman Confesses to Police in Hammer Killing Vercauteren’s two-year-old son was asleep in another room during the attack.
The Week Before Wagner Was Found
After the killing, Vercauteren bound her mother’s legs with duct tape and tried to clean the scene, later stealing cleaning supplies, gloves, and garbage bags from a Walmart in Delmont to sanitize the mobile home further. She took Wagner’s wallet, withdrew $600 from her bank account, used it to buy heroin, and checked into the Hiland Terrace Motel in Irwin.2WTAE. Woman Confesses to Police in Hammer Killing To delay discovery, she used Wagner’s cellphone to send text messages to her mother’s friends, family, and coworkers, making it look as if Wagner were still alive.4WTAE. Woman Charged With Beating Mother With Hammer Arrested Three Times Previously
Wagner’s body was not found until January 9, 2014, when her estranged husband, Larry Wagner, and a maintenance man went to the mobile home after her employer reported that she had not come to work.2WTAE. Woman Confesses to Police in Hammer Killing
How Vercauteren Was Caught
By the time her mother’s body was discovered, Vercauteren was already in custody. On January 7, McKeesport police had arrested her for robbing a PNC Bank inside the Olympia Shopping Center in Versailles, Pennsylvania, after she passed a teller a note claiming to have a gun.5CBS News Pittsburgh. Woman in Court After Allegedly Robbing Bank, Murdering Her Mother
On January 10, 2014, still in custody on the robbery charges, Vercauteren gave state police a 50-minute taped confession describing the killing in graphic detail, including the blood in the bathroom and her inability to return to the room where her mother’s body lay. She was then charged with criminal homicide and robbery.6HuffPost. Sarah Vercauteren Kills Mom
Guilty Plea and Life Sentence
Vercauteren was held for trial after a February 2014 preliminary hearing at which Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck introduced the taped confession. She faced first- and second-degree murder charges. Her public defender, Wayne McGrew, signaled a possible “diminished capacity” defense, arguing her heroin addiction was so severe that she could not form the intent required for first-degree murder, and Common Pleas Judge Christopher Feliciani ordered a prosecution psychologist to examine her.7TribLive. Defense: 1st-Degree Murder Not Applicable in Mother’s Slaying
The case never reached a jury. On April 19, 2016, Vercauteren, then 27, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder before Judge Feliciani in Greensburg and received the mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.1CBS News Pittsburgh. Woman Pleads Guilty in Mother’s Murder, Sentenced to Life Without Parole3TribLive. Salem Woman to Spend Life in Prison for Bludgeoning Mother With Hammer
The 2018 Appeal
In 2018, Vercauteren filed a handwritten appeal from prison, representing herself. She claimed her former public defenders, Wayne McGrew and Greg Cecchetti, had provided ineffective assistance by not advising her to plead to lesser charges.8TribLive. Salem Woman Who Killed Mother Competent During Her Plea, Says New Defense Attorney
Judge Feliciani appointed attorney Brian Aston to investigate. After reviewing court transcripts and Vercauteren’s education and mental health records, Aston filed court documents in April 2019 concluding there was “no merit to the appeal” and that “the constellation of evidence in this matter compels this counselor to conclude the defendant was competent during her plea and aware of the inherent consequences.”8TribLive. Salem Woman Who Killed Mother Competent During Her Plea, Says New Defense Attorney Judge Feliciani denied the appeal on June 20, 2019, ruling it had also been filed past the deadline.9TribLive. Salem Woman: Drug Addiction to Blame for Mother’s Violent Death Vercauteren remains in prison serving her life sentence.
Who Dawn Wagner Was
Dawn Marie Wagner was born on February 25, 1962, in Illinois. At the time of her death she worked at Advanced Manufacturing Technologies in Export, Pennsylvania, and lived at Forbes Trail Park in Salem Township, Westmoreland County. She was survived by her estranged husband Larry, a son, her mother, a sister, and two grandsons, including the two-year-old boy who had been living with her and was in the mobile home the night she was killed.10Legacy.com. Dawn Wagner Obituary