Suspect arrested in Menallen Township man’s beating death
Victim had been dead for a week before body was discovered Friday
A suspect was arrested Friday night hours after a missing man’s body was found bludgeoned with a hammer in a shed on his Menallen Township property.
Ryan Patrick Tribble, 29, was charged with homicide and accused of killing 60-year-old Allen Lee Newcomer, who had been missing for a week, following an argument over money and an apparent promise the victim had made to drive him to West Virginia.
Fayette County District Attorney Michael Aubele said Tribble beat Newcomer with the hammer during an argument on July 11 before the suspect took the victim’s car and cellphone. Aubele said the two men were in a relationship, and the attack occurred when Newcomer refused to give Tribble money and reneged on a promise he made to give him a ride to Beckley, W.Va.
“He took the victim’s car and went into South Union Township and was hanging out there for about a week,” Aubele said of Tribble.
Newcomer’s family reported him missing to Menallen Township police July 14, and his body was located by a relative in the shed at the property in the 300 block of Waltersburg Road on Friday afternoon, state police said. Tribble had apparently been living in the shed at the time of the attack, police said in court documents.
“The shed was made to be liveable,” Aubele said.
Investigators said Tribble drove Newcomer’s vehicle around the Uniontown area and made at least one call using his cellphone. The vehicle was found Friday afternoon at a store’s parking lot at 250 S. Mount Vernon Ave. in South Union Township, and Aubele said investigators think Tribble discarded the cellphone in a nearby creek.
State police soon located Tribble at a friend’s Brooke Street residence in South Union Township, and investigators took him to the barracks near Uniontown for an interrogation. While there, he allegedly confessed to killing Newcomer with a hammer following an argument over the money and car ride, according to court documents.
Tribble was arraigned on charges of homicide, theft and evidence tampering, and he is currently being held at the Fayette County jail. The criminal docket has not yet been made public on the online judicial website, so it was unclear whether Tribble had an attorney yet or whether the magistrate who arraigned him had offered him bond.
Editor’s Note: An earlier story incorrectly reported that Newcomer had died in a fire.