Officials: Suspect called slaying victim?s daughter

LEESBURG (AP) The daughter of a biophysicist killed in his home with a sword was charged with his homicide Friday, the Loudoun County sheriffs office said.

Clara Jane Schwartz, 21, was arrested at about 4:30 p.m. on the campus of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, where she is a student, the sheriffs office said. She is the fourth person charged in the bizarre slaying of her father on Dec. 8.

Robert M. Schwartz, 57, a nationally known DNA researcher, was found slain in his remote fieldstone-and-log farmhouse. He had an X carved in the back of his neck and the slaying had occult overtones, authorities said.

Court documents show that one of the others charged in the murder called Clara Schwartz after the slaying to tell her hed done the job.

The records also state that Katherine Inglis, 19, told sheriffs investigators that Clara Schwartz called her to warn that the group might be under suspicion in the killing before police interviewed them.

Documents recovered through search warrants revealed that Clara Schwartz discussed the planning and murder of her father with at least one of the three others charged, the sheriffs department said in a news release Friday night.

The department declined to comment further on the arrest, but said Clara Schwartz was being returned to Loudoun County and would go before a magistrate Friday night.

Efforts to reach prosecutor Robert D. Anderson were not successful after the girl was arrested. Anderson had earlier declined to comment about Clara Schwartz.

Inglis made the statements to police Dec. 11, three days after Robert Schwartz was killed. The statements do not say Clara Schwartz knew that her father would be killed, but indicate she knew of the slaying before police found her fathers body.

Inglis also provides the first clue to a motive for the killing, writing that Clara Schwartz told them her father had hit her and tried to poison her, angering the group.

Clara Schwartz did not respond to three phone messages from The Washington Post and two e-mails seeking comment before her arrest. An attorney retained by Clara Schwartz after the killing said he was no longer on the case and declined to comment. He and others involved in the case said they did not think she had hired new counsel.

The girls grandfather, Bob Schwartz, said he has not discussed the slaying with his granddaughter and that he did not know of any contact between her and those charged. He also said he did not believe his son ever hit Clara.

Inglis, Michael Pfohl, 21, both of Haymarket, and Kyle Hulbert, 18, of Millersville, Md., are also charged with murder. Inglis told police that Hulbert entered Schwartzs house alone and slashed him with the two-foot sword while she and Pfohl waited in a car.

In a 10-page confession, Inglis wrote that the three suspects went shopping before going to Schwartzs house at 5:15 p.m. Inglis and Pfohl knew that Hulbert said he had a job to do, and Kyles definition of job is assassination, she wrote. But, Inglis said, she didnt know that the victim would be Schwartz.

Hulbert had a sword strapped to his waist and was wearing Pfohls trench coat when he walked up the road toward the Schwartz house and disappeared, Inglis wrote.

While Hulbert was inside the house, Pfohl tried to turn the car around to face the street, she wrote, but he got stuck in the mud. Hulbert came back after 30 to 40 minutes and looked shaken up, Inglis said.

She said she didnt realize what had happened inside until she asked Hulbert to ask Mr. Schwartz for help getting out of the mud. He told us very seriously that nobody was home … and I did the math, she wrote. I knew he had done something to Mr. Schwartz. She then noticed that the trench coat was torn and smeared with blood.

Hulbert told her that when he had Schwartz on his knees, Schwartz said, What did I ever do to you? according to court records.

After calling a tow truck to free the car, Inglis told police the three drove to a friends house and discussed their alibi. They decided to tell police they had gone to the Schwartz home to pick up notebooks for Clara but had found no one home.

I am sorry for not coming to the police early, because it could have saved a mans life and left one of my dearest friends with a father no matter how wrongly he treated her, Inglis wrote.

Court documents say Hulbert suffers from bipolar disorder and has spent time at psychiatric facilities. He told a magistrate in December that the killing was not premeditated and that Inglis and Pfohl did not know about it.

Attorneys for Inglis, Hulbert and Pfohl declined to comment.