The suspect and the victim in a South Fork homicide case had worked together on an excavation job on the day of the killing, investigators allege.
Austin Louis Kline, 22, of South Fork, is accused of shooting and killing Richard Allen Morgan, 55, of Altoona, on Thursday. Investigators allege that he then left Morgan’s body in a detached garage in South Fork.
State police found Morgan’s body on Friday after text messages reviewed by police contradicted portions of Kline’s alibi and after a state police dog detected the scent of human remains in “several areas” at the Lake Street property where Kline lived, state Trooper Donald Neisner wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.
Kline and Morgan knew one another before the day of the homicide, but it’s not yet clear “how well or how long,” Cambria County District Attorney Gregory Neugebauer said.
“This does not appear to be a random act,” he said.
Neisner indicated that Kline hired Morgan to help with excavation work on Thursday for $650 in cash. A relative of Morgan’s said that he arranged the job for Morgan through Facebook, became concerned after Morgan didn’t return home and and went to state police for help, police wrote.
According to state police, Kline admitted to shooting Morgan and striking him afterward with a blunt weapon. Police did not indicate what allegedly prompted the act.
Kline is facing charges of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse. Neugebauer said the abuse charge was filed because Kline allegedly tried to conceal the location where the crime occurred.
Kline is also facing theft charges in a separate case. Online court records indicate that he was charged in March with stealing $18,000 in collectibles and with “deceptive business practices” for allegedly failing to finish projects he was contracted to complete in 2022.
He’s awaiting trial on nine criminal counts related to that case in the Cambria County Court of Common Pleas.
Kline was out on bond when the latest act occurred. He is now lodged in Cambria County Prison with no bail amount set because criminal homicide is a non-bailable offense in Pennsylvania.
Morgan’s death is the third criminal homicide in Cambria County in 2023.
Michael Cogdell, 18, of Pittsburgh, is awaiting a preliminary hearing on charges related to the fatal shooting of 41-year-old Marvin Price on Jan. 23 on Park Avenue in Johnstown’s Moxham section.
Separately, an investigation is ongoing and a $3,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest in the death of Lance Ross, 65, of Johnstown.
Ross died Feb. 20 at Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center after being found injured at his bar, The Freight Station, 20 Matthew St. in Old Conemaugh Borough. Officials said that an autopsy showed that Ross died from blunt-force trauma, injuries consistent with an assault.