The Murder of John Yelenic Shattered a Small Community, but They Could Never Guess Who Did It

In the early morning hours of April 13, 2006, neighbors of 39-year-old John Yelenic woke up when they heard noises they later said sounded like pigs squealing. Despite the fact that this would be an unusual sound coming from the house that was nestled in the small town of Blairsville, Pa., they didn't think this was a cause for concern.

A few hours later, 9-year-old neighbor Zachary Uss walked over to Yelenic's home with the intention of playing with his son J.J. The two had moved in after Yelenic separated from his wife Michele Kamler. What Uss found was the body of Yelenic, whose throat had been slashed almost to the bone. Police would later turn to one of their own, State Trooper Kevin Foley. Where is he now, and what happened to Yelenic? Here's what we know.

At the time of Yelenic's murder, Foley was living with his estranged wife. The couple had been dating for two years. According to NBC News, authorities later found DNA under Yelenic's fingerprints that linked Foley to his death. The Pennsylvania state trooper was charged with criminal homicide At his trial, Deputy Attorney General Anthony Krastek said Foley hated Yelenic and even went so far as to accuse him of sexually abusing his own son. This lie was perpetuated by Kamler.

It was also revealed that Foley asked another trooper to help him kill Yelenic. While on the stand, Foley said that was just a joke. "I never made a threat with the intention of carrying it out," he testified. When Krastek asked why something like that would be funny, Foley replied, "There isn't any joke. It's just my personality, my behavior (with co-workers)."

In March 2009, Foley was found guilty of first-degree murder. He was subsequently sentenced to life without parole and is currently housed at SCI Mahoney in Frackville, Pa. He attempted to appeal the verdict seven years later in March 2016, arguing that his trial attorneys were "ineffective" for not suggesting Yelenic might have been killed by a neighbor, per The Tribune-Democrat. The appeal was denied.

Yelenic was murdered the day before he was planning on signing his divorce papers. Once that went through, Kamler stood to lose the $2500 a month in support that was established in their divorce settlement. Kamler was also listed on Yelenic's life insurance policy, and would have gotten $1 million from his death.

His death was described as "one of the most violent deaths I’ve seen," by forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht to Dateline's Andrea Canning. The young boy who found his body said, "He had red carpet so I didn’t notice the blood at first, but I noticed that his panel side window on the left was broken and there was blood kind of smeared a little bit going down the front." When he saw Yelenic's body, Uss ran home and called 911.

Don Isherwood, an officer with the Blairsville Borough Police Department, described the scene as "pretty gruesome." The divorce papers were on a coffee table covered in blood. "This was clearly a killing of passion," said Deputy Attorney General Krastek. He went on to say that "Michele spewed hate about how she felt about John Yelenic. That was the life Kevin Foley was living ... Michele was just constantly saying what a horrible man he was." She was never charged in connection to his death.