Ernest Wholaver, a suspect in the Christmas Eve slayings of his estranged wife and two daughters had his brother drive him to the victims’ Middletown home the day before Christmas, left the house “excited and shaking” and then concocted a false alibi about the slayings, according to his brother’s statement in a police affidavit.
Scott Lewis Wholaver, 28, of St. Benedict, was charged yesterday with homicide in the killings and committed without bail to Dauphin County Prison, but authorities said they don’t believe he was the triggerman in the slayings.
No charges have been filed against Ernest Wholaver, 42, who earlier this week was placed in the county prison on previously filed charges that he sexually molested his two daughters.
At a news conference yesterday Dauphin County District Attorney Edward M. Marsico Jr. said Scott Wholaver made his statement after investigators confronted him Thursday and yesterday morning with inconsistencies in the alibi he and his brother had earlier told police.
“Both [brothers] gave information about their whereabouts that we were skeptical about from the beginning,” Marsico said. “Now as you can see from the affidavit, we believe [the alibis] were not true.”
Scott Wholaver, a truck driver for the family company who lived with his brother and their parents in St. Benedict, near Johnstown, said “he didn’t know of anyone else who would have killed these victims,” according to the affidavit.
In the affidavit, he described to police how he drove his brother from St. Benedict to Middletown a 4 a.m., stopping the vehicle near the family’s home. Ernest Wholaver got out of the truck and returned about five to 10 minutes later and then they drove of, with Scott Wholaver taking “evasive maneuvers” to avoid being seen.
Ernest returned to the truck appearing excited and shaking. He told Scott that he was looking in the windows [of] the house,” according to the affidavit. “… Scott reports that he and Ernest constructed a lie to tell the police about these murders.”
At the time of the killings, Ernest Wholaver was free on $100,000 bail on the molestation charges, which had been filed in July.
A protection from abuse order filed on behalf of the youngest daughter also mandated that he not visit his family or go near the home, which is why he moved to St. Benedict. He was taken to prison Thursday after his bail bondsman revoked the bond out of concern that he had become a flight risk.
Allegations of Ernest Wholayer’s violence were part of the court record in the molestation case – the younger daughter had testified in a preliminary hearing had once held an unloaded gun to her head as a joke and the older daughter testified he had threatened to kill her if she told about the sexual abuse.
Marisco continued to identify Ernest Wholaver as a suspect yesterday. The district attorney said he expected an additional conspirator to be charged “sometime in the next couple days” after further investigation.
The funeral for Jean Wholayer and her two daughters, Elizabeth, 15, and Victoria, 20, was held yesterday, but burial was postponed because investigators wanted more time for their review, according to the funeral directors.
Arraigned on three charges of homicide, as well as a count of burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary yesterday, before District Justice David H. Judy in Middletown, Scott Wholaver, with reddish blond hair and beard, kept his head down in the courtroom and gave a barely audible “yes” when asked if he understood the charges. He also indicated that he did not yet have an attorney.
Harrisburg attorney Spero T. Lappas, representing Ernest Wholaver, said the statement provided by his client’s brother does not directly link Ernest to the killings.
“There is no allegation of any direct evidence connecting Ernest Wholavcr with any crime whatsoever,” Lappas said. “I’m sorry to hear that Mr. Marsico is planning to file charges in the next few days in light of the fact that this investigation appears to be very young and by the looks of this affidavit, it has not yet produced any substantial evidence … whatsoever.”
Marsico would not discuss what other evidence investigators had found and would also not disclose what the two brothers have told police. Ernest Wholaver talked to police for about two hours before Lappas was able to reach him by phone and have him discontinue the interview.
Yesterday, Lappas said his client had no wish to talk further to the police but that during his interview “he was completely and fully cooperative.”
Should his client be charged in the killings, Lappas said they will be ready with a “full and complete” defense, just a they are ready to defend against the molestation charges.
Ernest Wholaver was scheduled to be tried on the molestation charges later this month, but Marsico said that trial would be delayed as prosecutors studied how to proceed. Though the witnesses are dead, Marsico said they may be able to move forward based on statements already taken from them.
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