Rich Kennedy / Staff Photographer
Lloyd Hill is escorted out of district court in Ottsville Wednesday by Pennsylvania State Constables and State Police after waiving his preliminary hearing on multiple murder charges.
Posted: Thursday, March 1, 2012 6:00 am | Updated: 11:40 am, Thu Mar 1, 2012.
By Matt Coughlin Staff Writer | 0 comments
Lloyd Hill’s mother summed up the tragedy unfolding for her family.
“My grandchildren have no parents now,” Rose O’Brien said Wednesday, after her son waived a preliminary hearing on charges that he killed his estranged wife and her boyfriend.
Police said that Hill bludgeoned Frederick Tarantino, 43, to death with a baseball bat and then stabbed Stefanie Hill, 36, to death inside her Nockamixon apartment.
Hill, 41, wearing a yellow prison jumpsuit, bulletproof vest and spectacles, also entered a not guilty plea during the brief court appearance before District Judge Gary Gambardella in Nockamixon. He is scheduled to appear in county court next month for a formal arraignment, but that date will likely change, attorneys said.
Hill said “yes,” twice when the judge asked if he understood two aspects of the court proceedings. And he said nothing as he was led back to prison in chains by constables and state troopers.
As O’Brien left the courtroom, she was asked if she had any comment.
“What is there to say?” she said before leaving. “My grandchildren have no parents now.”
O’Brien’s grandchildren — the Hills’ eldest daughter who lives in Quakertown, their second daughter, a Palisades High School senior, and their son, a sophomore — are staying with family in the area.
Tarantino and his estranged wife, Tara, had three daughters and a son. At the time of the murders, Lloyd Hill was living with Tara Tarantino.
Frederick Tarantino and Stefanie Hill had been together for several years. They moved into the Schoolhouse Apartments on Route 611 in Nockamixon just a few months before the murders. Police said the couple had been keeping their new address hidden from Lloyd Hill, who had previously threatened to kill them.
On Jan. 27, he made good on that threat, prosecutors say.
State police said Lloyd Hill waited for Frederick Tarantino to step outside the apartment building early that Friday morning. When Tarantino stepped into the lobby of the former red brick schoolhouse, he was on his way to warm up his truck in the pouring rain before heading to work. But Lloyd Hill repeatedly struck him in the head, police said, and left Tarantino’s body in the bushes by the building’s entrance, according to police.
He then entered the basement apartment and repeatedly stabbed Stefanie Hill with a kitchen knife, according to court records.
The Hills’ middle daughter woke to her mother screaming her name and then crossed paths with her blood-spattered father in the hallway, police said. He said he’d killed “Fred” and left, they said.
Police arrested Hill later that morning after a state trooper spotted his Ford Taurus on Route 412 near Palisades Middle School. That night he was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and related offenses.
The Tarantinos and the Hills had been friends, authorities said, having met at a now defunct church several years ago.
But the Hills were having marital problems. In 2004, Stefanie Hill said she didn’t want to work on their marriage any longer. According to court records, Lloyd Hill head-butted her, struck her, bit her cheek and tore her nightgown during an altercation in the couple’s living room as the children prepared for school. Lloyd Hill pleaded guilty to simple assault in that case.
Stefanie Hill and Frederick Tarantino began their relationship and the two spurned spouses, Lloyd Hill and Tara Tarantino, became involved more recently, authorities said.
Members of the families declined to comment. Robert James, the district attorney’s chief of trials who is prosecuting the case, declined to comment when asked if Lloyd Hill had any of his family members visit at the prison.
Matt Coughlin: 215-345-3147; mcoughlin@phillyBurbs.com;
Twitter: @coughlinreports
Hearing scheduled for Bucks man accused of double homicide
Rick Kintzel / Staff Photographe
(File photo) Lloyd Hill of Quakertown is led law enforcement officers from the Dublin State Police Station last month in connection of a double homicide in Nockamixon Township.
Posted: Wednesday, February 29, 2012 12:00 am | Updated: 6:30 am, Wed Feb 29, 2012.
By Matt Coughlin Staff Writer | 1 comment
A 41-year-old Bucks County man faces a preliminary hearing Wednesday on charges he brutally murdered his estranged wife and her boyfriend with a baseball bat and a kitchen knife in late January.
Lloyd Hill has been in county prison without bail since his arrest Jan. 27, hours after police say he ambushed Frederick Tarantino with a baseball bat and then stabbed Stefanie Hill repeatedly as she screamed for her teenage daughter in the next room of their Nockamixon apartment.
Hill, who a short time earlier began living with Tarantino’s estranged wife in Haycock, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder. He is represented by the Public Defender’s Office.
The Tarantinos and the Hills had been friends, authorities said, having met at their former church. In the face of marital problems, Stefanie Hill and Frederick Tarantino got together. Then Lloyd Hill and Tara Tarantino became involved.
On the morning of the murders, Lloyd Hill waited for Frederick Tarantino to exit the Schoolhouse Apartments on Route 611, police allege. When Tarantino came out, Lloyd Hill ambushed him with the baseball bat, leaving his body in a bush by the front door in the pouring rain, according to police. He then entered the apartment and stabbed Stefanie Hill several times, police said.
She screamed for their teenage daughter, who woke to see her blood-covered father walking out of her mother’s bedroom, police said.
A neighbor attempted to help Stefanie Hill until paramedics arrived, but about an hour later she was pronounced dead at St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem.
Frederick Tarantino was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Police began looking for Hill’s car. Investigators were in touch with him and attempted to get him to surrender when a trooper spotted the vehicle on Route 412 near Palisades Middle School and he was arrested without incident.
He was arraigned several hours later before District Judge Gary Gambardella, who will also preside over the preliminary hearing. Hill offered only one-word answers to Gambardella during the arraignment. The families of all four adults have declined to comment.
Police said that Tarantino and Stefanie Hill had been hiding from Lloyd Hill. They moved into the Schoolhouse Apartments with the Hill’s middle child only a few months earlier and had kept their new home a secret from Lloyd Hill until only recently. Hill lived in a cottage a few miles away with Tara Tarantino, his son and the Tarantinos’ children. The Hills have an older daughter who lives in Quakertown.
There was a history of abuse involving Lloyd and Stefanie Hill, according to court records. In 2004, she said she didn’t want to work on their marriage any longer and he responded by head-butting her, striking her, biting her cheek and tearing her nightgown in the couple’s home as the children prepared for school, according to a police account. The children later told police their father threatened to kill their mother. Lloyd Hill pleaded guilty to simple assault.
Police said there was no protection from abuse order in effect.
Hill’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday before Gambardella in district court on Route 611 in Ottsville. During a preliminary hearing prosecutors attempt to establish that a crime occurred and that there is enough evidence to warrant the accused person is tried for the crime.
Matt Coughlin: 215-345-3147; mcoughlin@phillyburbs.com;
Twitter: @coughlinreports
Man charged in double homicide
Posted: Sunday, January 29, 2012 5:55 am | Updated: 2:00 pm, Tue Feb 28, 2012.
By Matt Coughlin Staff Writer | 20 comments
A teenage girl awoke early Friday morning to her mother screaming her name, police said.
As she rushed down the hall of their Nockamixon apartment, the girl ran into her father, from whom they had been hiding their whereabouts, according to court records.
“I killed Fred,” the blood-spattered Lloyd Hill told his teenage daughter before leaving the apartment, police said.
The teen rushed to her mother’s room and found Stefanie Hill, 36, suffering from multiple stab wounds. Stefanie Hill told her daughter to call police and then collapsed in the living room.
When troopers arrived at the Schoolhouse Apartments at 8768 Easton Road about 5:30 a.m. they found Stefanie Hill’s boyfriend, Frederick Tarantino, 43, dead in a bush outside the red brick apartment building, beaten with a baseball bat so badly at first they thought he might have been stabbed, investigators said. Stefanie Hill was rushed to St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem where she was pronounced dead about 7:15 a.m., according to police.
A brief manhunt ensued, and about 9:50 a.m. troopers spotted Lloyd Hill’s Ford Taurus on Route 412 near Palisades Middle School. He was arrested without incident. Police said he had blood on his hands and clothing. He was charged Friday night with the murders of his estranged wife and Tarantino.
After the murders but before his arrest, Lloyd Hill allegedly called Tara Tarantino and told her he’d killed their estranged spouses. The two had been spurned by Stefanie Hill and Frederick Tarantino and at some point began their own relationship, officials said. Tara Tarantino later told police that Lloyd Hill had admitted to the killings, according to court records. Police said she’s been cooperative and is not a suspect.
The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching Tara Tarantino for comment.
Two troubled couples
The relationships between the four adults are part of a long story that played out in court records and ended in the two homicides Friday.
Several years ago Stefanie and Lloyd Hill met Frederick and Tara Tarantino through church. The Hills, who were married in 2000, and Tarantinos, who were married in 1994, became friends. At some point Stefanie Hill and Frederick Tarantino became lovers.
In 2004, Stefanie Hill told Lloyd Hill she no longer wanted to work on their marriage and he responded violently, police said. Lloyd Hill head-butted her, struck her, bit her cheek and tore her nightgown during an altercation in front of the couple’s three children early one morning, according to court records.
The children told police their father threatened to kill their mother, court records show. He later pleaded guilty to simple assault, something he’s done several times in Bucks and Philadelphia counties, according to court records.
Meanwhile, the other couple, the Tarantinos were dealing with their own problems. In 2007, the Tarantinos avoided foreclosure on their home for a second time. Last year Tara Tarantino filed for divorce, custody of their daughter, child support and alimony. That case was unresolved, according to court records available online.
Lloyd Hill’s threats continued, police said.
When Stefanie Hill, Fred Tarantino and the Hills’ middle daughter moved into the Schoolhouse Apartments shortly before Christmas, they decided to hide their whereabouts from Lloyd Hill.
Officials said the couple did not seek a protection from abuse order to keep Stefanie Hill’s estranged husband at bay.
Meanwhile, Lloyd Hill and Tara Tarantino were living together less than 12 minutes away in a cottage on East Saw Mill Road in Haycock on the edge of Nockamixon State Park. The Hills’ teenage son and the Tarantinos’ teenage daughter lived with Lloyd Hill and Tara Tarantino in Haycock. The Hills also have an adult daughter who lives elsewhere.
A deadly Friday
A week ago, according to state police, Lloyd Hill sent a text message telling Stefanie Hill he was going to kill her and Frederick Tarantino.
Investigators said it is unclear how Lloyd Hill learned the couple was living nearby. But on Friday, Lloyd Hill was waiting to ambush Frederick Tarantino at the Schoolhouse Apartments, police said. When Frederick Tarantino went to warm up his vehicle about 5:20 a.m. before heading to work, Lloyd Hill sprang, repeatedly striking Frederick Tarantino with an aluminum baseball bat, according to court records.
Lloyd Hill then stashed Frederick Tarantino’s body in a bush outside the red brick building and went inside, police said. Investigators said they recovered a bloody aluminum bat next to Frederick Tarantino’s body.
Lloyd Hill entered the basement level apartment and repeatedly stabbed Stefanie Hill in the neck and chest, according to police. A broken, bloody kitchen knife was found in the main bedroom, police said. Investigators took several pieces of evidence from the apartment complex Friday, including a section of carpet in the entryway.
Neighbor Terry Pursell Jr. was returning from feeding the horses at a farm across the street when Lloyd Hill drove out of the Schoolhouse Apartments driveway. Pursell spotted Frederick Tarantino’s arm sticking out from a bush as heavy rain fell. As he approached Frederick Tarantino, the Hills’ middle daughter, who’d found her mother, called to him for help.
Pursell said he quickly checked on Frederick Tarantino and, realizing he was dead, Pursell ran inside. He said he tried to bandage the stab wounds to Stefanie Hills’ upper left shoulder and put pressure on a severe chest wound. Pursell, a former volunteer firefighter, said that when paramedics arrived he helped carry Hill to the ambulance.
“When the EMT was administering oxygen to her she started breathing and her eyes weren’t motionless,” Pursell said. “I thought she had a fighting chance.”
Stefanie Hill was pronounced dead at 7:15 a.m. on her way to the emergency room in St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem.
Autopsies performed Saturday revealed the expected results: Stefanie Hill was killed by multiple stab wounds and Frederick Tarantino died of blunt force trauma to the head.
Kim Saunders, who knows Stefanie Hill and her daughter and Frederick Tarantino, said Friday afternoon that Stefanie Hill had “turned a corner to a happier life.”
She said Stefanie Hill and Frederick Tarantino were kind, loving people.
“These children did not deserve to have their mother taken away from them,” Saunders said.
During the brief manhunt for Lloyd Hill on Friday, the Palisades School District buildings were put on lockdown. Police said that was done out of an abundance of caution.
Friday night, District Judge Gary Gambardella told Lloyd Hill he was charged with two counts of first degree murder and faces life in prison or death. In an emotionless monotone, Lloyd Hill said “Yes,” to a series of questions from Gambardella during his arraignment.
In addition to two counts of first-degree murder, Hill is charged with burglary and two counts of possession of an instrument of crime. He was remanded to prison without bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 6 before Gambardella in Ottsville.
Staff writers Amanda Cregan and Laurie Mason-Schroeder contributed to this report.
Matt Coughlin: 215-345-3147; mcoughlin@phillyburbs.com;
Twitter: @coughlinreports
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