The Murder of Kevin Mengel Jr.: The Plot, Arrests, and Pleas

The Kevin Mengel Jr. murder was a 2010 Chester County, Pennsylvania killing in which 33-year-old landscaping business owner Kevin Mengel Jr. was poisoned and then beaten to death with shovels by Stephen Shappell, a 21-year-old employee at his company, in a plot orchestrated by Kevin’s wife Morgan Mengel, who was having an affair with Shappell. Morgan is now serving life without parole, and Shappell is serving 40 to 80 years.¹

Who Kevin Mengel Jr. Was

Kevin E. Mengel Jr. grew up in Springfield, Pennsylvania and graduated from West Chester East High School in 1995.² He ran MKB Property Maintenance, a landscaping company in West Goshen named for the initials of his three children, Mercedes, Kevin, and Billy, who were 12, 10, and 6 when he was killed.³

His marriage to Morgan had been strained for years. The couple had been through custody disputes going back to 1999 and had filed for divorce in 2004 before withdrawing the petition.⁴

How the Plot Came Together

In the weeks before the murder, Morgan began an affair with Stephen Shappell, an employee at MKB. Prosecutors would later describe Shappell as a naive young man who “fell under the sexual spell” of Morgan Mengel. She told him she wanted to leave her husband so the two could start a life together, and she convinced him that killing Kevin was the only way out. According to the prosecution, Morgan never actually intended to be with Shappell; she “picked and groomed” him knowing she could manipulate him into being her fall guy.¹

They settled on a plan to poison Kevin with liquid nicotine mixed into a Snapple lemonade, with shovels as a backup if the poison was too slow. Shappell bought the nicotine and doctored the drink.⁵

The Killing

On June 17, 2010, Shappell handed Kevin the poisoned Snapple at the MKB Landscaping garage on West Chester Pike in West Goshen. When the nicotine did not work fast enough, he struck Kevin in the back of the head with a shovel. The shovel broke, so he picked up a second one and beat Kevin to death.¹

Text messages traded between Morgan and Shappell that morning documented the attack as it happened. At 10:30 a.m., Shappell wrote, “Just waiting for him to bend over I have shovel in my hand ha-ha.” Morgan replied, “U backin out?” Afterward, Shappell texted, “It’s done get up here now.” When Morgan asked, “Seriously?” he wrote back, “Dead serious.”⁶

Morgan drove to the garage, confirmed her husband was dead, and helped clean up and wrap the body in a tarp. Shappell then moved into the Mengel home and slept in the couple’s bed. He later drove the body to a wooded area behind Marple Newtown High School, where he had attended school, and buried it in a shallow grave.⁷

How Police Caught Them

The case opened as a missing persons report. Kevin’s mother, Kathleen Barton, called West Goshen police after not hearing from her son for several days, which the family said was out of character. Morgan tried to tell relatives that Kevin had been stressed and had packed up and left on his own. She also sent text messages to Kevin’s mother on Father’s Day pretending to be him, which investigators found suspicious.⁴

The break came on June 25, 2010, when Detective David Maurer confirmed the affair between Morgan and Shappell. When Maurer arrived at MKB, Shappell fled in Morgan’s truck. In an interrogation at the West Goshen police station, Morgan admitted her husband had been murdered, that Shappell had killed him, and that she had known about the plan.⁸

Police recovered hundreds of text messages between the two that laid out the planning and the killing. A cadaver dog located Kevin’s body behind Marple Newtown High School on June 26, 2010.⁸ Shappell, who had fled to Colorado, was arrested in Denver the next evening with help from the Denver Police Department.⁹

A Mistrial, Then a Jailhouse Scheme

Morgan Mengel’s first trial began in late January 2012 before Senior Judge Thomas Gavin in Chester County. On the third day of testimony, Sgt. Michael Carroll testified that Morgan’s own father had called her “despicable.” Her defense attorney, Jack McMahon, objected that the statement was improper hearsay. Judge Gavin declared a mistrial on February 3, 2012.¹⁰ Judge Gavin later denied a defense motion to bar retrial on double jeopardy grounds, and the state Superior Court denied the appeal without comment on June 14, 2012.¹¹

While awaiting retrial, Morgan tried to keep Shappell from cooperating with prosecutors. She wrote him more than a dozen letters claiming she had given birth to his twin sons, born four weeks prematurely in February 2011, and urged him to tell police she was innocent so she could be released to raise the children.¹²

A fellow inmate, Krista Young, tipped off police that the pregnancy was fake. In June 2011, Chester County Detective Matthew Gordon searched both prison cells and recovered the letters. Investigators showed Shappell proof that Morgan had never given birth. A separate inmate later testified that while writing those love letters, Morgan privately called Shappell “a joke” and talked about writing a book about the case and making “millions and scillions of dollars.”¹²

Shappell agreed to cooperate. In December 2011, he pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and criminal conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in exchange for his testimony against Morgan.¹

Guilty Pleas and Sentences

Jury selection for Morgan Mengel’s retrial was set for February 4, 2013. The next day, instead of going to trial, she pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, criminal conspiracy, possession of instruments of crime, and hindering apprehension.¹³ She told Judge Gavin she pleaded guilty because she “wanted the process of healing to begin.”¹⁴

Judge Gavin sentenced her to life in state prison without parole, plus 20 years of consecutive probation. He declined the prosecution’s request for an additional 20-to-40-year term on top of the mandatory life sentence, calling such add-ons “irrational.”¹³ Chief Deputy District Attorney Patrick Carmody called Morgan a “master manipulator” and a “stupid criminal” whose narcissism was her “Achilles’ heel,” and pushed back on the “love triangle” label, telling the court, “You can’t have a love triangle if the woman only loves herself.”¹⁵ Letters from the Mengel children were read aloud at the hearing, and Kevin Mengel Sr. addressed the defendant directly, blaming her for the “destruction of a loving family.”¹⁴

Stephen Shappell was sentenced on February 11, 2013 to 40 to 80 years in state prison. He apologized to the Mengel family in court, saying, “I am truly sorry for what I have done to your family. It is truly unforgiveable.” The judge noted that although the term was technically shorter than Morgan’s, it would likely keep Shappell in prison for the rest of his life.¹ Morgan Mengel is serving her life sentence at SCI Muncy in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania.¹⁶

What Happened to the Mengel Children

After the murder, Kevin’s three children were placed in the care of his mother, Kathleen Barton, and her husband, Dr. Richard Barton. Kevin Mengel Sr. said the Bartons were “doing a phenomenal job” and that the children were in school, playing sports, and “growing up as normally as can be.”¹⁶

The family set up the Kevin Mengel Jr. Children’s Trust Fund through Penn Liberty Bank to give the children a financial foundation when they reached adulthood. Kevin Mengel Sr. said he spoke to the media mainly to drive attention and contributions to the fund, saying it was “not a topic that you want to keep rehashing, but it helps when people see this.”¹⁷

Morgan Mengel is legally barred from contacting the Mengel family, but she has sent occasional letters to the children from prison. As of 2015, the family was handling those letters carefully as the children grew older and became more aware of how their father died.¹⁶

1
Daily Local News. Shappell Sentenced in Mengel Murder
2
Daily Local News. Kevin E. Mengel Jr., 33, Springfield Native, Owned Landscaping Company
3
Delaware County Daily Times. Love Triangle Fallout: I Feel Horrible for the Kids
4
NBC Philadelphia. Wife, Lawn Boy Lover Charged With Man’s Murder
5
Main Line Media News. Prosecutor Says Morgan Mengel Was Stupid
6
Delaware County Daily Times. Wife Enters Guilty Plea in Chesco Love Triangle Slaying of Husband
7
Daily Local News. Jury Chosen for Mengel Murder Trial
8
The Mercury. Morgan Mengel Love Triangle Murder Case: Police, Family Talk About Lessons Learned
9
Main Line Media News. Love Triangle Murder Suspect Arrested in Colorado
10
Daily Local News. Judge Rules Mengel Can Be Retried in Husband’s Murder
11
The Reporter. Chester County Judge Sets Date for Morgan Mengel Retrial
12
Daily Local News. Jailhouse Letters Reveal Morgan Mengel’s Deceptions
13
The Mercury. Emotional Testimony in Morgan Mengel Murder Plea
14
Daily Local News. Morgan Mengel Pleads Guilty to First-Degree Murder
15
Delaware County Daily Times. Prosecutor Calls Killer Wife in Chesco Love Triangle Stupid Criminal
16
Main Line Media News. Discovery Channel Show Draws Attention to Morgan Mengel Case
17
Daily Local News. Cable Show Draws Attention to Mengel Case