Incomplete Justice: The Vanishing of Kathy Heckel

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Can secrets buried within a small town and the heart of a seemingly ordinary family lead to a haunting mystery that lingers for decades? Join us as we navigate the case of Kathy Heckel, a Pennsylvania mother whose 1991 disappearance left a void in her family and perplexed investigators for years. This episode peels back the layers of Kathy’s life, revealing extramarital affairs and an unnerving lack of physical evidence that would baffle authorities and entangle her co-worker, Lloyd Groves, in a web of suspicion, yet never result in finding out what really happened to her.

On July 15, 1991, 40-year-old Kathy Heckel left work her lunch break like it was any other Monday. She couldn’t have known that it would be her last – she never returned, and her loved ones haven’t seen or heard from her since. Twenty-four years later, a coworker was charged with her murder, even though Kathy’s body is still missing and investigators can’t determine how he killed her.

Small town families

Katherine Jeanette Dolan – who went by “Kathy” – was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan on June 25, 1951, to parents Clarence and Margaret. She had two brothers – Dan and Steve – and a sister, Cindy. The Dolans moved to Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, when Kathy was young, and she graduated from high school there in 1969.

Lock Haven is located in the rural northcentral portion of Pennsylvania, about 30 miles northeast of Penn State  and a little over three-hour drive northwest of Philadelphia.

It’s the seat of Clinton County, which has a population density of just 43 people per square mile (the state average is 284/sq mi). Part of the Appalachian Mountains runs through this region, affording beautiful scenery and ample natural recreation.

After graduation, Kathy took a job as a data processor at Hammermill’s International Paper Company, a paper mill and major local employer, after working there part-time during high school. In June 1972, she met John Heckel, a US Army officer, while he was on leave from a combat tour in Vietnam. A year later, John and Kathy married. Children Alicia and John IV followed. Kathy was a “devoted and loving mother” as well as a “diligent and well-liked employee.” Kathy stayed at Hammermill, earning a promotion to administrative assistant and then plant controller in human resources. John climbed the ranks in the military to Command Sergeant Major, the highest rank for a non-commissioned officer.

Marital troubles

Since John routinely had to work away from home for long periods, Kathy mostly ran the household and managed the family’s finances. In the late 1980s, the couple seemed to hit a rough patch. Their “credit had begun to deteriorate,” and from 1987 until 1991, Kathy made about $50,000 worth of withdrawals from their joint bank account that John couldn’t account for, and Kathy never explained. During this time, Kathy occasionally went out without telling John where and stayed out “late into the night.” Once she was gone so late that he went out searching for her.

John suspected Kathy was having an affair – although he never confronted her about it – and thought it might be with her coworker, 42-year-old Loyd Groves. Loyd was an industrial chemist specializing in asbestos abatement who joined Hammermill in 1981. His wife was also named Katherine, and they had four school-aged children together. Katherine worked part-time at a local library.

The Groves and Heckel families both lived in Lock Haven, and their children were friends and schoolmates of similar ages, so Kathy and Loyd had frequent contact outside of work. They played on a work-sponsored volleyball team together as well. In the spring of 1991, John became suspicious when Kathy stopped taking her kids to volleyball practice at the YMCA with her, telling them it was for “adults only.”

Fleeting affair

According to multiple witnesses, John Heckel was right about the affair between his wife and Loyd Groves, although Loyd has always denied it. Around June 1991, Loyd and Kathy started  meeting up over their lunch hour at the Heckels’ home or in the back parking lot of a local Kmart, often having sex in the back of Loyd’s van.

Around this same time, Kathy and John attended a wedding where Kathy ran into a childhood friend, a man named Dennis Taylor. Kathy and Dennis reconnected that night, exchanging information and promising to meet up. Catching up turned into romance by early July, and Kathy told Dennis about her affair with Loyd and her plans to end it. According to Dennis, Loyd refused to accept Kathy’s decision. She told Dennis that Loyd was “becoming a clinging vine…he keeps calling…I don’t want to talk to him…I just started to hang up.” Dennis described Kathy as “annoyed” but also “fearful” over Loyd’s reaction. 

Dennis said that when Kathy “…broke it off…it was causing her a lot of consternation because [Loyd] wasn’t willing to give up. He was treating it very badly, stalking her, saying things to her, very lewd…on one occasion, he wrote a card that he had given her. It was very graphic on what kind of sexual things that he would do with her and wanted to do with her. And on different occasions, she said that she was actually scared because he was following her…He would take anything she would give him…he just wanted a place in her life.”

Monday morning

Dennis and Kathy made plans to meet up next on the night of Monday, July 15, 1991. Kathy reported to work as normal that day and brought coffee and donuts to a mid-morning meeting with 18 other Hammermill employees. The conference room was located near Loyd Groves’s office, and when Kathy came in, Loyd barged into the room, disrupted the meeting, and “stormed after” Kathy. An audible argument between the two of them followed, but no one could hear exactly what was being said.

Around 11:30 or 11:45am, Kathy called Dennis Taylor at work. She “sounded disturbed” and “upset” and told Dennis that Loyd wanted to go to lunch with her. Dennis had to cut the call short so he could get back to work, but promised he would call Kathy back shortly. When he did, she had already left for lunch.

Kathy’s closest work friend, Carol Smith, recalled that Kathy left for the lunch hour like it was any other day, saying she had some errands to run. Carol was among several witnesses who “observed a visibly angry [Loyd] Groves leaving the same time” as Kathy. Another coworker who noticed the scene, Jean Carter, followed the pair out to the parking lot. There, she spotted Loyd and Kathy sitting in the front seats of Loyd’s van. Loyd appeared “angry and red-faced and [was] looking at [Kathy].”

Early indicators

Katherine Groves said that Loyd came home unexpectedly around 12:45pm to change his clothes. He had already removed his outer shirt and “told her he had a mess at work.” Loyd did his own laundry since the beginning of their marriage, so Katherine never inspected the clothes he brought home. Loyd was in and out within 10 minutes, and Katherine didn’t question him about it afterwards.

Loyd returned to work that afternoon, but it’s not clear exactly when. He kept a daily work log “meticulously” but he had stopped recording back on July 1. He wasn’t present at a 2:00pm meeting he was supposed to attend, but coworkers spotted him around the mill sometime later. Loyd arrived home at about 5:30pm with pizza for the kids – it was his and Katherine’s 18-year wedding anniversary, and they went out for dinner. Katherine said that Loyd “appeared preoccupied,” and she assumed it had something to do with work.

Even though Dennis Taylor wasn’t able to reach Kathy Heckel by phone, he still went to the restaurant where they planned to meet that evening. She never showed. Kathy’s work friend, Carol Smith, had grown concerned hours earlier when Kathy never returned from her lunch break. In the rare event Kathy returned late, she always called to let someone know. Carol told their supervisor what happened, and then she went to the parking lot looking for either Kathy’s car or Loyd’s van. She had a gut feeling that “Loyd could have done something to Kathy.” Carol didn’t see either vehicle the rest of the afternoon.

Missing mother

John Heckel was away on military duty in Fort Drumm, New York, about seven to eight hours away, so when Kathy didn’t come home on time, her nine- and thirteen-year-old children were left home alone. They called Carol Smith, who was still concerned about Kathy not returning to work from her lunch break. Carol came over right away and called Kathy’s mother, Margaret Dolan. Especially when John was away, Kathy kept her mom informed of her and the kids’ schedules and any changes, and the kids had activities planned that evening. Margaret came over to the house to watch the children, and then she called John to let him know what was going on. He headed home immediately on emergency leave.

Once everyone was home, and without any idea where Kathy could be, her family reported her missing. Dennis Taylor went to the police as well to report Kathy’s disappearance and share what he knew. A massive search effort began with multiple search teams, tracking dogs, horses, cadaver dogs, and helicopters to cover an area of “at least 10 miles,” including several square miles of woods and mountains. Kathy’s family offered a $5,000 reward for information.

Although John Heckel worried that his wife might be preparing to leave him, no one imagined that Kathy would abandon her children. Kathy talked to her daughter on the phone the morning of July 15, confirming their evening activities and planned porkchops for dinner. Investigators were certain that Kathy had “disappeared against her will.”

Suspicious actions

Loyd Groves reported to work the next day, but his demeanor was anything but normal. He wasn’t concerned or distraught the way other Hammermill employees were that day, especially those who knew Kathy.

Instead, Carol Smith said that Loyd “appeared terrified. His demeanor was one of calm and cool and collected all the time. I mean, you never saw him emotional or raising his voice or out of sorts. He was just very calm and cool. As I was looking out from the human resources office, I saw him against the wall and he just had this terrified – I don’t know how else to explain it, just this look on his face of a wild, terrified look, like he was very shaken.”

When Loyd drove his kids and one of their friends to the YMCA that night, they noticed “reddish-brown” stains on the van’s carpeting that looked like blood. That same friend noticed those stains weren’t there when he rode in the van on July 12. Loyd explained that he had killed a deer. When Katherine Groves noticed the stains, Loyd told her that their kids had spilled tar or oil in the van. She would later confirm that Loyd didn’t hunt much since he was a teenager, and on the rare occasion that he did, he never used the van.

First interview

Police quickly learned about Kathy and Loyd’s affair through Dennis Taylor and other Hammermill employees. When Loyd agreed to an informal interview on Wednesday, July 17, officers already knew that Kathy was “anxious and fearful” about ending her affair with Loyd, that dozens of their coworkers witnessed a “loud and riotous” argument between them, that Kathy was last seen alive with an angry Loyd in his van, and that Loyd was missing from work for several hours afterward.

Loyd was “cooperative…at first,” but that changed once officers told him he wasn’t under arrest. After that, “almost everything was a no, he wasn’t going to answer.” They were chilled by Loyd’s lack of emotion, saying “he has no emotions, whatsoever, nothing…this man is the coldest individual that I had ever seen in my life.” He denied having a romantic or sexual relationship with Kathy Heckel, and he couldn’t remember what he did for lunch the day she disappeared, just two days prior. He described that day as simply “a normal workday.” This, coming from someone universally described by others as routine- and detail-oriented, very intelligent, and not at all forgetful.  

Paranoid

Early the next morning, Thursday, July 18, Loyd called Hammermill communications manager Julie Brennan, in the HR department. Loyd asked Julie what police were saying and what was happening at the office. Julie asked where he was Monday afternoon – Loyd hesitated, then said he forgot, which she found unsettling. Julie became even more “disturbed” when Loyd asked her “to make sure [she] remembered talking to him Monday afternoon and that he was, in fact, here at the mill.” It was clear to Julie that Loyd Groves was “looking for an alibi,” and she reported the conversation to investigators.

Initial searches

Based on the prior day’s interviews, officers wanted to know if Loyd would let them search his van in the mill parking lot. He consented once he was assured that he would get his van back afterward. However, officers seized the van after their search turned up a gym bag containing a partially used roll of duct tape, ammunition for a .25 caliber handgun, and a hunting knife. They also observed that “several sections of carpeting” had recently been removed down to the plywood, mostly near the passenger seat. Spots of what looked like blood bordered the cut areas. Loyd said his kids had spilled tar or oil there, the same thing he told his wife, but not the deer hunting explanation he gave his kids.

Meanwhile, officers asked a Hammermill human resources supervisor to search Loyd’s desk for a handgun. They delegated that task to Julie Brennan, and she found a .25 caliber Colt semi-automatic pistol. The gun held five undischarged bullets, but it could have held two more, including one in the chamber. Loyd explained that the gun was an antique that he had never fired and brought to work for the purpose of selling it.

Growing concern

Loyd was suspended from work for having a gun on the premises, but he was desperate to return. He persistently contacted coworker Mark Newman and asked for his help getting him back onto mill property. Loyd suggested that Mark could hire him in his department, under a different name, and Loyd would alter his appearance to avoid recognition. Mark refused and reported Loyd’s behavior to police instead.

Loyd also contacted his friend Michael Lutz around this time to ask him if he would take care of his wife and children if he was arrested. Michael was shaken enough by the conversation to report it to police.

Foul play

Responding to a tip around 10:30pm on July 18, police found the car Kathy drove to work the day she disappeared. It was parked the Lock Haven Hospital parking lot, although they couldn’t determine how long it had been there. The keys were missing, but nothing else seemed suspicious. After investigators took Kathy’s car into custody for forensic testing, they brought a scent dog to the empty parking lot and gave it Loyd Groves’s scent. The dog quickly “alerted to the precise spot where Kathy’s car had been found.” Otherwise, nothing of evidentiary value was collected from Kathy’s vehicle.

By the end of July, after two weeks of unsuccessful searching, the investigation into Kathy Heckel’s sudden disappearance shifted focus to a possible homicide with a single suspect: Loyd Groves. Both Dennis Taylor and John Heckel had been cleared by alibi and lack of motive.

Property search

On July 31, Pennsylvania State Police arrived with a search warrant for Loyd’s property in Woodward Township, expecting they might find Kathy’s body there, or at least evidence of what happened to her. That included their home on 15 acres and the 65 acres they owned across the street with a barn and several outbuildings.

When officers first arrived at the home, they observed the moment when Katherine saw Loyd approaching from across the way. She began “shaking…on the verge of passing out from fear.” During the search, officer Dennis Johnson was struck by Loyd’s demeanor:

“I just observed Loyd Groves sitting…and just staring. He had four children who were sitting there and…I had never seen anything like it…These children were so afraid of him that they just sat…they never looked up or anything…just kept their head down…there was never any talking, not a word, nothing, between the kids and nothing between the father and the kids. It was just like he has total control.”

In addition to the evidence they already collected from Loyd’s workplace and his van, officers collected three more guns, 11 knives, and some stained clothing. They also found a note Loyd wrote for his wife, Katherine, which seemed highly suspicious considering recent events. The undated note included the couple’s banking information along with detailed vehicle and property maintenance instructions, as if Loyd was planning to go away for a long time. Katherine confirmed that Loyd wrote the note because “he expected to go to jail.” She explained she felt that “Loyd was looking out for us.”

Between Kathy Heckel’s disappearance on July 15 and the July 31 home search, Loyd left home for three or four days. He didn’t tell Katherine or the kids where he went or why other than to say he needed “to get away for a while.” They didn’t ask for more details. Katherine never suspected that Loyd was having an affair, and she told investigators that even if she had, she wouldn’t have confronted Loyd or done anything about it. Katherine also shared that “when [Loyd] got angry, he started throwing things and she wondered what he was capable of doing.” After officers confronted her with evidence of the affair, Katherine finally asked Loyd about it. He denied it, telling her “that Kathy was probably off somewhere with one of her numerous boyfriends.”

Blood samples

In August, lab results came back for the blood found in Loyd’s van – it was Type A, like Kathy’s, and sent to another lab for DNA testing. This was enough for a search warrant to collect samples of Loyd Grove’s hair, saliva, and blood. Investigators covered their bases and collected samples from Dennis Taylor and John Heckel also, but both men provided them voluntarily. After this, Loyd sold his family’s property and moved about 200 miles west to Beaver, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh.

Unfortunately, the van blood samples weren’t large enough for DNA analysis in the 1990s. The search for Kathy Heckel continued even though her case grew cold. She was declared legally dead in 1998 after seven consecutive years of no activity with her social security number or on her credit cards or any other accounts.

In 2002, investigators reclassified Kathy’s case as a homicide and resubmitted several pieces of evidence for forensic testing with more advanced DNA technology, including the blood found in Loyd Groves’s van. When Trooper Richard Davey served Loyd with a search warrant for a new blood sample, he said Loyd “wouldn’t look me in the eye at all…he turned white” and “made no comment.” Loyd “never asked why I was after his blood” and “was very quiet and subdued at the medical center.” After he was done having his blood drawn, Loyd finally started asking questions. He didn’t react or respond to Trooper Davey’s answers, except that “he turned around and literally ran down the hall to get away.”

There were four spots of blood collected from Loyd’s van, and only one of them was large enough to generate a DNA profile. All they knew after 2002 was that all the blood was human, and the largest spot matched Kathy’s type. It would take another decade for DNA testing to advance enough to generate a profile, but the result was conclusive – Kathy’s blood was in Loyd’s van, and it was located close to the border of a piece of carpeting he cut out down to the plywood. Experts couldn’t say how or when the blood got in the van. Loyd claimed that it could have been from sexual activity, or a cut Kathy had on her finger before she disappeared.

Grand jury

A year-long grand jury presentation began in February 2014 to decide whether there was enough evidence to charge Loyd Groves with homicide. Multiple Hammermill employees, friends, family members, investigators, and scientific experts were interviewed. The grand jury decided that the case evidence and witness testimony established “probable cause to believe that Loyd Groves killed Kathy Heckel.” It was clear to them that Kathy had attempted to end their affair, but Loyd, “with the settled purpose and obsessive manner which he brought to his work…resolved that Kathy should not leave him.”

Although investigators can’t prove how Loyd killed Kathy and disposed of her body, they believe it occurred between 12:00 and 1:00pm on July 15, 1991, shortly after she left work on her lunch break. A coworker found Loyd later that afternoon “in the basement near the flammable liquids closet.” This was an area he could access for his job, but he had no apparent reason to do so on July 15. Loyd’s job also gave him access to and “control over numerous chemicals, to include acids / [caustic] substances and flammable substances,” any of which could assist with destroying physical evidence or a body.

A local pool supply business owner remembered that Loyd purchased a 15×15’ section of pool liner “shortly before Kathy disappeared.” He didn’t have a pool or water feature on his property, and the liner has never been recovered.

Gayle Taylor, a coworker of Loyd’s between 1993 and 1996, remembered telling Loyd about finding drugs in her teen son’s dresser. Gayle said, “if the drugs don’t kill him, I will.” Loyd responded, “Well, I can show you how to bury a body so it would never be found.”

“The grand jury considered and rejected any argument that [Loyd’s] success in disposing of Kathy’s body should not be an impediment to his prosecution or allow him to escape justice any longer.” Sixty-five-year-old Loyd Groves was arrested on January 29, 2015, and held without bail on charges of first- and third-degree murder. Loyd continued to deny the charges and the alleged affair, but his wife filed for divorce a year later.

Murder trial

Pretrial motions and Loyd’s health problems delayed his trial start date until November 2018, 27 years after Kathy disappeared. Loyd’s defense in a nutshell was that investigators can’t prove that Kathy is dead, therefore they can’t prove that a crime was even committed, let alone that he is guilty. The defense also came for Kathy’s character, highlighting her infidelity, accusing her of using drugs, and especially trying to make her widowed husband, John Heckel, appear suspicious.

After 11 days of trial, a Clinton County jury acquitted Loyd of first-degree murder but found him guilty of murder in the third degree, meaning the prosecution didn’t prove premeditation or intent to kill. Loyd was sentenced to the maximum term in effect at the time of the crime: 10-20 years with credit for the four years he had already served since arrest, plus a $10,000 fine.

In delivering the sentence, the judge commented on the “horrendous” crime and the fact that Loyd Groves will now have a “state inmate number,” something “he has deserved for a long time.” The judge emphasized the trauma to Kathy’s family, exacerbated by never being able to recover her body, Loyd’s lack of remorse, and his personal knowledge of Kathy’s young children at the time. Kathy’s sister said that not being able to bury her remains means their family “will suffer for years to come.” Kathy’s son confirmed that, in the meantime, this “was the sentence we were hoping for…He killed my mother. He should spend the rest of his life in prison.” At age 69, having already survived three heart attacks, 10-20 years was essentially a life sentence for Loyd anyway.

Unsuccessful appeal

Loyd insisted, “The cause of this loss was not me. I hurt no one. I committed no crime.” In his post-sentencing appeal. Loyd argued that there was no probable cause for any of the search warrants and evidence obtained from them.

However, Loyd lied about his affair with Kathy to police, couldn’t remember where he was or what he was doing when she disappeared, and was the last person seen with her following a heated argument. He told his friends and family that he would be arrested within the first few days after Kathy’s disappearance, implying that a crime occurred and he committed it. Furthermore, the search of Loyd’s van, to which he consented, and his work desk, which his employer owned and consented to, revealed blood, a knife, ammunition, duct tape, and a gun, most of which Loyd had no good explanation for.

Loyd also questioned the weight and admissibility of specific pieces of evidence, such as Kathy’s blood in his van, highlighting that there was no evidence of the “means and manner of the victim’s demise” and that Loyd had no prior criminal history.

Loyd’s appeal was unsuccessful – his sentence was upheld, and he’ll be eligible for parole in 2025, at age 75.

No closure

Kathy’s friends and coworkers remember her as “fun loving, always with a smile on her face, and easy to talk to.” Kathy’s mother confirms that “she was the bright light of our family…that was Kathy, always smiling and laughing.” Kathy’s husband, John, who learned about her infidelity along with her disappearance said that “she was just fantastic…a great mother,” and that “as long as he can breathe, he will continue to try to find his wife’s remains.” Kathy’s son says that the hardest part is “we never got to say goodbye…our family has never been the same.”

More missing

Unfortunately, Kathy Heckel wasn’t the only woman to disappear from the area in 1991. In fact, she was the third in a string of four missing persons’ cases that police investigated together and ultimately concluded were not related. Two of these cases are still unsolved, and considering the tremendous toll that this has on their families, it’s worth mentioning them now as well to help in any way we can.

Twenty-nine-year-old Brenda Condon was the first woman to go missing in February 1991 during her shift at a Bellefonte bar. Clues from that night are curious but limited, and the only witnesses are late night bar patrons – not the most reliable of sources. Brenda had two children and split custody with their father. Police and Brenda’s family think that her boyfriend, Greg Palazzari, may know more about what happened to her. Greg was a cocaine dealer at the time, and Brenda wanted to quit using before she disappeared. Brenda is still missing, and she is believed to be a victim of homicide.

Thirty-seven-year-old Josette Brungart disappeared four months later in June 1991. In the early morning hours, Josette and her husband, Bradley Brungart, were working a paper delivery route in Walker Township. Bradley says that Josette exited their car during an argument; he kept driving, giving her time to cool off, but couldn’t find her afterward. Josette’s body was discovered in the nearby woods six months later, but her cause of death couldn’t be determined and there were no signs of foul play. Bradley was considered a suspect and investigated by police, but he maintains his innocence and has never been charged.

Within two weeks of Kathy Heckel’s disappearance in July 1991, 44-year-old Donna Breon became the area’s fourth woman to go missing. Donna, who was known to struggle with depression, was seen walking away from her home and then couldn’t be reached. She was accounted for within a week, confirming that she had simply gone out to clear her head. The community’s response to Donna’s situation reveals their concern about a pattern of missing local women. Police assured the public that there were no evidentiary links between the cases and are still investigating what happened to Brenda Condon and Josette Brungart.

How you can help

If you have any information that may help advance these investigations, please think of the family left behind and submit your tip to Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers either online or by calling 1-800-4PA-TIPS.

Additional resources

KATHERINE HECKEL

BRENDA CONDON

JOSETTE BRUNGART

DONNA BREON