Hearing postponed in woman’s killing

Staff report

New Castle, pa.

A preliminary hearing has been postponed for a man accused of first- degree murder in the death of his girlfriend.

The hearing for Keith Wolfrey, 23, of Ellwood City was set for today in Lawrence County Central Court. Wolfrey’s public defender requested more time, District Magistrate Jerry Cartwright’s office in Ellwood City said Monday. A new date was not immediately set.

Wolfrey is charged in the strangulation death of Joie Lordi, 20, who shared a home with him on Pershing Street in Ellwood City. She was the mother of Wolfrey’s 6-month-old son.

According to an affidavit on file in Cartwright’s office, Wolfrey called police at 10:22 a.m. May 22 to report Lordi’s death.

Police found her on the kitchen floor, her face covered with duct tape, the affidavit says.

Wolfrey told police the two argued the night before. He said he was in the process of moving out because they were breaking up and that she asked him for his residence key.

He told police he remembered putting his hands around her neck, but then his memory got “foggy.”

He said he thinks he passed out and woke up between 12:30 and 1:30 a.m. May 22. He saw Lordi lying next to him on the kitchen floor.

He told police he went upstairs to bed, then awoke between 4:30 and 5 a.m. He said he went downstairs and saw her body, then “freaked out” and covered her face with the tape.

He said the baby woke him in the morning, and he called his mother, then police.

He was incarcerated without bond in the Lawrence County jail.