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Quick Facts
Nicknames or Aliases: The Route 40 Killer
Offender Status: Executed in 1992
MO: Abduction, strangulation, beating to death
Timespan of Crimes: 1987-1988
Date Apprehended: November 29, 1988
Date of Incarceration: November 23, 1989
Sentence: sentenced to death by lethal injection, convicted of 2 counts of first-degree murder
Case Status: Closed
Number of Victims: 5, suspected of 2 additional murders
Victims: Shirley Ellis, Catherine DiMauro, Margaret Lynn Finner, Michele Gordon, and Kathleen Meyer.
Location of Crimes: Route 40 in Deleware
Summary of Steven Brian Pennell’s Crimes
Steven Brian Pennell abducted most of his victims off Route 40 in Delaware. Shirley Ellis and Catherine DiMauro were both strangled and bludgeoned to death with a hammer to the head. Margaret Lynn Finner's body was so badly decomposed when found it was found that the cause of death was undetermined. Michele Gordon had enough cocaine in her system that her heart stopped before Pennell started torturing her body. Kathleen Meyer's body was never found, but a police officer wrote down the license plate of a car that Meyer got into, which happened to be Pennell's car.
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