The US Attorney for Nevada has charged a Pennsylvania man in the kidnapping and murder of his girlfriend, accusing him of luring her into desert for a photo shoot, then suffocating her, and leaving her nude body by the side of the road.
In a complaint seen by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the FBI said that John Matthew Chapman, 39, posed as his victim, 33-year-old Jaime Rae Feden, on Facebook Messenger after her returned to Pennsylvania from Las Vegas and lived in her home, claiming to another girlfriend that it belonged to a relative who had died.
Chapman was charged with kidnapping resulting in death, CBS Pittsburgh reported; he had already been charged with kidnapping in Pennsylvania. He is expected to appear in federal court in Pittsburgh on the new charges on March 2.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, authorities believe Chapman drove Feden to Las Vegas under false pretenses in September, telling her they were looking at houses with the possibility of moving there. Instead, he drove her into the desert, telling her it was for a bondage photo shoot. He zip-tied her to a signpost and put duct tape over her mouth and nose, the FBI said, watching until she died. After she died, he removed the zip ties, duct tape, and her clothing and left her body by the signpost.
A motorist found the body on October 5, Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee said. The Clark County Coroner’s Office, the Las Vegas Metro Police Department, the FBI, and the Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, Police Department assisted in making the identification using dental records, he said.
The Post-Gazette reported that the FBI affidavit including with the complain against Chapman said that investigators found a deleted photograph of Feden under a “Vegas” sign on his cell phone, dated September 24, and another of her tied to the signpost dated September 25.
The complaint also says he used apps to disguise his phone number as Feden’s and was caught up when a friend of Feden’s, suspecting something was amiss, texted falsely that “Uncle Ralph” had died. After a shot back and forth, Chapman, pretending to be Feden, responded “I’m sorry to be distant but the way everyone has treated me I don’t feel like part of the family anymore.”
The FBI said that Chapman confessed to police late last year, telling them he had planned to kill Feden before they left Pennsylvania and had a “kill kit” ready.
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[Featured image: Jaime Feden/ Bethel Park Police Department]
