Many University of Pittsburgh students, living in the South Oakland area, were stunned. Undergrad Ernie Lorsan, a Lawn Street resident, was shocked beyond belief. "I still can't believe it happened on my street. The guy's like some kind of sicko Jeffrey Dahmer. I'm glad he killed himself." After many bouts with property owner Roy O. Kirk, 28, of 311 Lawn Street over his consistent failure to maintain his buildings and land (such violations include his repeatedly ignoring mandates and deadlines to clean up his property; and having buildings with holes in the roof, water damage to the rafters, and poor supports on wood columns), many residents, including Ann Hoover, 44, of 321 Lawn Street, banded together to see to it that Kirk fixed his properties. The Health Department had cited Kirk with three separate violations over a period of several months for a total fine of $41,400. When Anne Hoover didn't answer the door on Tuesday, March 25, friends became worried... they didn't think she would miss the day that Kirk was scheduled for another court hearing for his violations. One of Hoover's friends, Rose Liptak, called the police after finding that she was neither at the Allegheny County Courthouse nor her home. Liptak suggested the arriving officers look next door in Kirk's abandoned house. Officers found a reluctant-to-speak and antsy Kirk in his living room: barefoot, dirty, and disheveled. He was also stained with blood. Following an extension cord down the steps to his basement, police discovered a power saw, a hacksaw, tin snips... and Ann Hoover's torso. Nearby were bags stuffed with her arms and legs. It took four officers to finally subdue the fiercely resisting Kirk. After handcuffing him, they placed him in the back of their police wagon. Upon arrival at the East Liberty investigations branch, police found that Kirk had hanged himself. Though handcuffed, he was able to remove his belt, create a loop-like noose, and tie it to the grating on the rear inside door of the wagon. Efforts to revive him were in vain.
Subsequent police homicide investigations uncovered that Kirk apparently made a hole in the brick basement wall dividing the row house he had owned and Hoover's connecting home. After crawling through it, Kirk strangled Hoover and hit her head repeatedly with some kind of blunt instrument. He then proceeded to dismember her body with a various saws and tin snips, before being interrupted by police intervention. An accomplished pianist, Hoover was an agreeable person well-accomplished in the skills of communication; rightly so, since she was first a telemarketer for the Pittsburgh Symphony and then a Squirrel Hill-based firm, Direct Advantage Marketing. She will be dearly missed by friends and family.
Visit the OnTV Bulletin Archive.
