Sep 21, 2006 By Steve Ferris 5 min read

WAYNESBURG – A Fayette County man was ordered to stand trial Wednesday on charges alleging he raped a 12-year-old Greene County girl who he already has been charged with killing. Jeffrey Robert Martin, 49, of Tomcat Hollow Road, New Geneva, was ordered held for court on sexual assault and abuse of a corpse charges, which state police filed in August, two months after Martin was held for trial for allegedly killing Gabrielle Miranda Bechen of Presock Road in Dunkard Township.

Magisterial District Judge Lee Watson held Martin on charges of rape, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, sexual assault and abuse of corpse during a preliminary hearing and returned him to the Greene County Prison on $500,000 straight cash bond.

Martin is being held in prison without bail on charges of homicide, aggravated assault and four counts of tampering with evidence.

Both cases against him are pending in Greene County Common Pleas Court.

The primary witness Wednesday was forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht of Allegheny County, who also testified at the homicide hearing.

The state trooper who led the investigation testified that Martin admitted to killing Bechen, but continues to deny sexually assaulting her.

The victim’s parents, Christopher and Blanche Marie Beechen, briefly testified about the last time they saw their daughter on June 13.

Her disappearance triggered a massive five-day search involving hundreds of volunteers. The break came on June 17, when searchers found the girl’s all-terrain vehicle in a hole buried in manure near a farm where Martin worked as a caretaker.

Martin was arrested after the ATV was found and led police to a wooded area near the farm where he buried the body.

In his recorded confession that was played during the homicide hearing, Martin told police he panicked and grabbed Bechen’s arm after she said she was going to tell her parents that he molested her. She broke free and ran, but Martin said she fell on the farm’s gravel driveway and choked her.

Under questioning Wednesday from Assistant District Attorney Linda Chambers, Wecht said when he conducted the autopsy in June, he found a fresh, acute vaginal bruise that appeared to have occurred around the time of death.

Wecht said the bruising occurred in a time span of minutes to an hour, or possibly two hours, before the girl died.

He said the girl’s bra was above her breasts, her pants were around her ankles and there was lime on her skin and clothes when her body arrived at the pathology lab he uses at Carlow University in Pittsburgh.

The clothing was positioned that way and the girl’s body was covered with lime when she was found and removed from the burial site, Deputy Greene County Coroner Mary Lewis testified later in the hearing.

Lewis said she made sure the clothing was not disturbed before the girl’s body was sent to Wecht.

Wecht, under cross-examination from Public Defender Harry Cancelmi, said the vaginal bruise was caused by some sort of blunt force trauma so he believes it was the result of a sexual assault.

He said he did not observe any semen, but the state police crime lab is testing swab samples to check for the presence of semen. He said he has not yet received those test results.

Wecht said he found numerous bruises and cuts on the body and many of the bruises occurred within minutes to a few hours before she died. There were some bruises that could have occurred before or after she died, he said.

“She was my daughter,” said Christopher Bechen, when asked Wednesday about his relationship with the victim.

He said looked in on his sleeping daughter before he left for work early on the morning of June 13.

Struggling to hold back her tears, Blanche Marie Bechen testified her son woke her up shortly after 8 a.m. after her husband left for work and she noticed that “Gabby” was lying next to her in bed.

She said she fell asleep again and woke up at 9:30 a.m.

Her son was there, but Gabby wasn’t inside or outside the house, she said.

Gabby’s ATV also was gone and her mother said she assumed Gabby went for a ride, even though she usually waits for her father to come home to ride with him.

She said she never saw her daughter alive again.

A 14-year-old girl who was staying with relatives across the street from the Bechens’ home said she saw Gabby pushing an ATV down her driveway, get on it and then ride away. Bechen was alone at the time, the girl testified.

Trooper Thomas Schuster, the lead investigator from the Waynesburg barracks, said Bechen disappeared on June 13 and Martin was arrested June 17.

Schuster said she was killed after 8 a.m. on June 13, when she arrived at a farm where Martin worked, which is about a half-mile drive from the Bechens home.

The trooper said he has not yet received forensic lab reports on case evidence.

He said a hair sample that was insufficient for testing was also among the reasons for not filing the sexual assault charges at the same time as the homicide charge.