Pennsylvania Man Snapped Girlfriend’s Neck For Turning Down His Marriage Proposal

A 34-year-old Pennsylvania man has been charged with murder and criminal homicide for allegedly murdering a 19-year-old girl after she rejected his marriage proposal, reports said Monday.

Christopher R. Tucker, 34, of Albany Township, choked a female friend and ultimately snapped her neck after she said no to his marriage proposal, who as identified as Tara Serino, 19, Upper Macungie Police told NBC News Philadelphia.

Serino was last seen by her family very early Monday last week. Police said Tucker asked the girl to marry him at his Berks County home sometime between Monday and Tuesday last week. She reportedly rejected the proposal and told him that she was having a sexual relationship with another man. That is when Tucker snapped. Police also said that Serino apparently made an off-hand comment saying that Tucker should kill her.

Tucker allegedly confessed to the police that he snapped and choked Serino until he thought she was dead before poking her eyes out, snapping her neck, and then beating her with a hatchet.

Police said that Tucker allegedly wrapped Serino’s body in a rug before he escaped to Illinois, where his car was said to have broken down. Police said he then tried to steal from a nearby farm, but the farmer was present on the property and immediately alerted the police.

Authorities in Champaign County, Illinois, caught Tucker at a truck stop near Highway 57 in Buckley after he tried to break into the farmer's combine. They took him to Presence Urbana Medical Center for evaluation and Illinois police then executed an arrest warrant from the Pennsylvania State Police.

Serino’s body was discovered from Tucker’s home in Pennsylvania. Tucker confessed to the police at the hospital that he had killed her as she refused to marry him and left her body at his residence before driving to Illinois, NBC News Philadelphia reported.

Following Tucker’s confession about the murder, detectives in Pennsylvania searched Tucker's home and found Serino's body in his bedroom at his residence in Albany Township. Tucker is being held in an Illinois jail.

"What our troopers found when they got there was very gruesome," said Trooper David Beohm, with the Pennsylvania State Police, according to CBS Philadelphia.

"He asked her to marry him. When she said no he just snapped," Trooper Beohm added.

It was not clear if Tucker had an attorney. State police have been working to extradite him back to Pennsylvania. An investigation is also still ongoing into Serino’s murder.

Relatives told the police that Serino was reported missing after she had not called or informed them after she had arrived at Tucker's house last week and let them know that she was okay.

Serino's father told the police last Tuesday that Tucker's father had come to their home to return their daughter's cellphone and purse. Tucker's father, John, said he had gone to his son's home after receiving a call about his son being hospitalized in Illinois, when he found Serino's belongings at his place and decided to return them to her father, according to the Inquisitr.

A friend named Chad Flyte, who knew them both, said the two had been reportedly dating for only five months.

"I’m so sad for this poor girl because she had no idea. The type of past issues that he dealt with," Flyte told CBS Philadelphia.

Flyte also added that Tucker had severe mental illness and had recently been taken in and out of treatment for it.

"I had personally taken him to the hospital many times," said Flyte. "He’s my friend, he’s my brother, but he did something terrible."