GROVE CITY, PA. Alarm of slain man never sounded

The two were charged with killing a counselor at their juvenile detention home.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
GROVE CITY, Pa. -- George Junior Republic staff members have "panic buttons" they can press in serious situations, but Wayne Urey Jr., never sounded his alarm when he was attacked in a housing cottage at the facility.
Urey, 43, of Mercer, an evening care worker at the juvenile detention and education center in Pine Township, died as a result of the 12:10 a.m. Monday attack.
The suspects -- Anthony Machicote and Jeremy Melvin -- approached a security guard at South High School at 10th and Carson streets on Pittsburgh's South Side around 2 p.m. Monday and turned themselves in. Pennsylvania State Police said they had fled the ungated campus in Urey's green Chevy S10 pickup truck.
They were returned to Mercer County and arraigned as adults on charges of criminal homicide, criminal conspiracy, robbery, criminal conspiracy, theft, aggravated assault and escape. They are being held without bail pending a hearing Nov. 19.
Rick Losasso, George Junior's chief executive officer, said he wasn't sure if Urey was carrying his alarm at the time of the attack. The alarm would have sounded a siren in the cottage and alerted authorities, he said.
Another juvenile in the cottage alerted a daytime relief staff person who was sleeping in the cottage and that person called authorities after discovering Urey was injured, Losasso said. Urey was taken to United Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead in the emergency room at 2 a.m.
The Mercer County Coroner's Office had an autopsy performed on Urey Monday afternoon. Deputy Coroner Scott Black listed the immediate cause of death as suffocation by strangulation.
It was the first homicide in the facility's 94-year history, he said.
According to an affidavit of probable cause, Machicote and Melvin tied Urey's hands with bedsheets, tied his legs with a belt and fastened a sheet around his head and neck.
Emergency crews found Urey unconscious with trauma to the head and a broken right leg. Paramedics could not revive him at the scene.
'Tonight's the night'
Other boys who were staying in the cottage, whom state police would not identify, told officials that Machicote and Melvin had planned to escape the treatment facility and tried to recruit other boys to join them, court documents said.
One of the boys told police that, on Sunday night, he heard Melvin say, "Tonight's the night," and saw him shadow boxing, according to the court documents.
Another juvenile told police he saw Machicote and Melvin run out of the cottage shortly after midnight. Moments later, he found Urey tied up and unconscious in a bedroom, authorities said.
Losasso said Urey had worked at George Junior for 12 years.
As an evening care worker, he was working the night shift, handling security and supervision of a particular cottage.
In this case, the regular cottage counselor-parents were off for the weekend and a single relief staff worker was covering the dayturn shift and sleeping in the cottage that housed 11 boys, Losasso said.
That relief person went off duty at 10 p.m. and was asleep when the attack occurred, he said.
Offenses
Machicote, 17, of North Versailles, Pa., and Melvin, 16, of McKeesport, both Pittsburgh suburbs, were sent to George Junior by the Allegheny County Juvenile Court, Losasso said, declining to reveal what offenses they had committed.
One had been at the facility since August and the other had been here only a month, he said.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on its Web site that Machicote was sent there after being found delinquent -- the juvenile court equivalent of guilty -- of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Melvin was there after being found delinquent on a charge of assault, according to the newspaper, which didn't identify a source for the information.
The two weren't roommates but lived in the same cottage, Losasso said, adding he wasn't aware of any previous problems with the boys.
About the center
George Junior Republic was founded in 1909 by philanthropist William Ruben George as a home for wayward boys. The 450-acre campus has facilities for 480 juvenile boys who, although sentenced to a detention center, attend regular academic classes on the grounds taught by Grove City Area School District teachers.
The facility also has equestrian facilities, a gymnasium, vocational training facilities and an indoor swimming pool, according to its Web site.
George Junior operates about 60 cottages, or homes, on the school grounds. Because it is a private facility, it screens juveniles and rejects those it believes it cannot help, Losasso said. The youths' parents or government agencies pay tuition of up to $120 per day.
It has no walls or fences, and escapes there are relatively common.
Losasso estimated that about 30 boys fled the grounds last year and the number is expected to be about the same this year.
Attacks against staff members occur occasionally but are rarely serious, according to police reports. The last serious one involved an assault on a female staff member about three years ago, Losasso said.
XThe Associated Press contributed to this story.