Deanna Wright McIntosh Case: Disappearance, Trials, and Sentences

The Deanna Wright McIntosh case is the 2004 rape and murder of a 15-year-old Yeadon, Pennsylvania sophomore whose charred remains were found in a steel drum on a West Philadelphia lot on December 30, 2004. Two men from the Lansdowne area, Lamar Haymes and Anwaar Malik Gettys, were convicted of first-degree murder in separate trials and sentenced to life in prison. Every appeal either man has filed has been denied.

How Deanna Disappeared

Deanna lived in Yeadon, a small Delaware County borough, with her mother, Darlene Wright, and her maternal grandmother. Her father, Jim McIntosh, was a retired FBI agent who had worked out of the bureau’s Philadelphia office, and she saw him regularly.¹

In early December 2004, Deanna and her mother argued, and Deanna spent the night at a friend’s house. The next day, a Friday, mother and daughter met with a school counselor about Deanna’s grades and reached an agreement, and a teacher recalled Deanna promising to come home. That was the last time Darlene saw her. She reported Deanna missing on December 4, 2004.²

The Body in the Drum

On December 30, 2004, skeletal remains were found inside a rusted steel trash drum on a vacant lot in the 100 block of North 63rd Street in West Philadelphia. The remains were badly charred. The Philadelphia medical examiner’s office identified them as Deanna’s and ruled her death a homicide. Detectives said they did not believe the killing was connected to Jim McIntosh’s former FBI work.³

How Police Identified the Killers

The case broke through people close to the suspects. On December 14, 2004, a witness told Yeadon Police Detective David Splain that 29-year-old Lamar Haymes had confessed to raping and killing a girl, dismembering her body, burning the remains in a metal drum near 60th Street in Philadelphia, and disposing of the evidence.²

A second witness came forward on December 29, saying he had helped 22-year-old Anwaar Malik Gettys buy gasoline and pick up a large green trash drum from the Lansdowne train station. He said he watched Gettys place wood inside the drum and set it on fire on the vacant lot where the remains were later recovered.¹

Interviewed the same day, Gettys confirmed the account and admitted helping Haymes transport the drum to the North 63rd Street lot.²¹⁴

Investigators concluded Deanna had been raped and beaten to death between December 3 and December 4, 2004, at the Lansdowne residence. Delaware County District Attorney Michael Green said she was “viciously murdered as part of a systematic plan to destroy any possible forensic evidence” linking Haymes to the sexual assault.²

Charges, Trials, and Sentences

Both men were formally charged on January 5, 2005. Haymes was charged with kidnapping, rape, first-degree murder, and abuse of a corpse, and held without bail. Delaware County authorities considered seeking the death penalty against him.⁵ Gettys was initially charged with abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, obstruction, hindering apprehension, and criminal conspiracy, and was held on ten percent of $3 million bail.² On July 21, 2005, Gettys was rearrested on additional charges including criminal homicide, kidnapping, rape, statutory sexual assault, and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.⁶

The two were tried separately. The prosecution’s case against Gettys relied on what the court later described as his “deliberate deceits,” forensic evidence tying the remains in the barrel to Deanna, and testimony placing her at his mother’s residence before her death. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse, and on November 30, 2006, the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas sentenced him to life in prison plus one to two years.⁶

Haymes went to trial soon after. On January 30, 2007, a jury convicted him of first-degree murder, rape, kidnapping, and abuse of a corpse in the Wright McIntosh case, along with simple assault, aggravated assault, and false imprisonment for a separate violent beating of a woman. He was sentenced to life without parole for the murder, plus a consecutive aggregate term of 285 to 570 months on the remaining counts.⁷

Why the Convictions Have Held

Gettys’ direct appeal was denied by the Pennsylvania Superior Court on March 13, 2009. His first Post Conviction Relief Act petition, arguing the evidence was insufficient and the verdict against the weight of the evidence, was dismissed after appointed counsel found the claims meritless; the Superior Court affirmed on August 12, 2016, ruling both issues had already been decided on direct appeal.⁶ A second PCRA petition filed in April 2018, alleging ineffective trial and PCRA counsel, was dismissed as untimely, and the Superior Court affirmed on June 11, 2020.⁸

Haymes’ direct appeal was denied on November 24, 2008. In state PCRA proceedings he raised ineffective-assistance and prosecutorial-misconduct claims, including an argument that prosecutor John F.X. Reilly had told Gettys’ jury that Gettys alone killed Deanna and then told Haymes’ jury that both men were responsible. Pennsylvania courts never reached the merits, finding Haymes had waived the key claims by failing to raise them in his second PCRA petition.⁷

Haymes then sought federal habeas corpus relief in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. On April 19, 2024, Judge John M. Gallagher denied the petition, adopting a magistrate judge’s finding that Haymes’ claims were procedurally defaulted for failure to exhaust state remedies.⁹ The Third Circuit denied a certificate of appealability on November 6, 2024, and denied rehearing on January 8, 2025.¹⁰ Haymes was most recently incarcerated at SCI-Camp Hill.

Who Deanna Was

Deanna was a sophomore at Penn Wood High School. Her mother described her as a “social butterfly.” She had spent about three years in the U.S. Navy Cadets, participated in the Freedom Theatre, and helped plan Yeadon’s Flag Day celebration. Her maternal grandfather had founded the Mount Olive Baptist Church in West Philadelphia, where Deanna sang.¹

After her daughter’s death, Darlene Wright said: “The predators saw a vulnerable kid, 15 years old, and they took advantage of her.” She began raising money in Deanna’s name to fund a program teaching teenagers about dangers in their communities.¹

1
Pocono Record. Police Holding Witness in Death
2
Delaware County Daily Times. Two Charged as Community Mourns
3
NBC News. Remains of Retired Agent’s Daughter Found
4
Delaware County Daily Times. Gettys To Face Trial in Media
5
FOX19. Remains in Barrel
6
FindLaw. Com. v. Gettys
7
CaseMine. Commonwealth v. Haymes
8
Midpage. Com. v. Gettys, A.
9
GovInfo. Haymes v. Gourley, Civil No. 2:21-cv-01022
10
U.S. Supreme Court. Haymes v. Gourley, No. 24-7144