Aug 12, 2003 By Patty Shultz 4 min read

BULLSKIN TWP. – A Normalville man charged with killing his 13-year-old cousin after smoking marijuana and crack cocaine with her will stand trial in Fayette County Court. District Justice Robert Breakiron ruled Monday that charges of criminal homicide, statutory sexual assault and abuse of a corpse filed against Brian Keith Hays would be bound over to court in connection with the death of Danielle Nicole McManus during the early morning hours of May 3.

Hays, 20, attired in the county prison’s orange jumpsuit sat with his head bowed while his aunt, Kim McDonald, recounted the last time she saw her daughter alive.

“The covers had fallen off of her,” she told Fayette County District Attorney Nancy Vernon. “I put them back on her and kissed her on the cheek and went back to bed.”

McDonald said her daughter was sleeping on a living room couch in their Clinton Road home dressed in her white with a ladybug design pajama pants and a fleece shirt with the Disney cartoon character Eeyore emblazoned on it when she went through the room at about 2 a.m.

Some three-and-one-half hours later she was awakened by her boyfriend Robert Nicholson and told that her daughter was no longer on the sofa.

“We looked all over the house,” said a now sobbing McDonald. “I called her name. I drove up and down the road. We could not find her anywhere.

“I was frantic.”

State police investigating officer Trooper John Marshall told Vernon that he was dispatched to the scene later in the day after a burned van was discovered in a nearby junkyard where it was thought a body was inside.

Marshall testified that through DNA testing and after finding a small piece of white material with a ladybug design, it was determined the remains were those of McManus.

Marshall said that the investigation involved taking DNA samples of all the family members that resided in the Clinton Road home, including Hays, his girlfriend and his young daughter.

During an interview at the state police barracks, Marshall said Hays admitted to having found McManus on the sofa and asked her if she wanted “to catch one” outside with him. After smoking the marijuana, Hays told Marshall the two then walked toward the neighboring junkyard where they got into the van and smoked some crack cocaine he had purchased earlier.

Marshall told Vernon that Hays said the two had sex and then smoked an additional amount of crack cocaine.

“He said that it was then that Danielle went into a seizure,” testified Marshall. “He said he tried to shake her.

“He said he got scared and set the (driver’s) seat on fire.”

Marshall, however, testified that a turbine engine, weighing 40-to-50 pounds, was found at the driver’s seat location and that McManus’ remains were found “stuffed” in a three-to-four inch area between the driver’s door and the driver’s seat with her head and torso near the accelerator and brake pedals and her legs and feet wrapped around the seat.

During testimony it was revealed that there was no carbon monoxide or other related chemicals found in McManus’ airway passages.

Marshall told Vernon that during prior interviews, Hays denied having any information about McManus’ fate and repeatedly said after watching a movie with his girlfriend in their bedroom, he went outside and smoked a cigarette and then fell asleep in a chair on the porch, but did not see his cousin.

Several family members in the courtroom wiped away tears as Marshall recounted his interview with Hays.

McDonald left the room twice and then returned to hear Breakiron’s ruling.

“I can’t,” she said when asked to comment on the outcome.

Hays, escorted out of the room by several officers, asked to be allowed to kiss his daughter. The officers acquiesced and he smiled at her and kissed her on the forehead.

Vernon, meanwhile, said she would seek a first-degree murder conviction when the matter goes to trial.

Hays remains lodged in Fayette County Prison.