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Suspect revealed in case involving fatal Rostraver Township shooting

By Mike Jones newsroom@heraldstandard.Com 4 min read
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The suspect charged in the sealed case involving the fatal shooting of an Indonesian man in Rostraver Township earlier this month has been identified in a judge’s court order sealing the case, although few other details about his arrest are public.

Keven Van Lam, 55, was arrested in the case on unknown charges Nov. 6 — a day after 49-year-old Boyke Budiarachman was shot to death in the Rostraver Square parking lot — and he is being held at the Westmoreland County jail.

The charges filed against Lam and facts of the case were not made public in the sealing order signed by Westmoreland County Court of Common Pleas Judge Christopher Feliciani. A reporter on Tuesday went to the Westmoreland County Courthouse in Greensburg and requested to view the order at the Clerk of Court’s office, which was granted but revealed little information besides the suspect’s name and case docket number.

The case was sealed at the request of Westmoreland County Assistant District Attorney James Lazar, who cited Rule 513 of Criminal Procedures that allows the affidavit of probable cause and other facts to remain sealed until a defendant’s preliminary hearing. But some information that is sealed appears to go beyond the scope of Rule 513, such as a date for Lam’s preliminary hearing, according to Melissa Melewsky, an attorney with the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association.

Lazar told a reporter he did not know the date of Lam’s preliminary hearing and referred questions about it to the office of District Judge Wayne Vlasic, who arraigned the suspect Nov. 7. A secretary at Vlasic’s office in Monessen said they could not comment on the sealed case and directed all questions to District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli’s office, which did not respond to a request for comment.

No information about Lam’s case or the preliminary hearing date were in the Westmoreland County Court Administrator’s office database when a reporter visited Tuesday afternoon. Phone calls to the Westmoreland County jail requesting information on his bond status and the charges he’s facing were not returned.

Authorities have declined to release many details about Budiarachman’s killing including his identity, which was only revealed through memorials and condolences posted on Facebook. In response to an opens records request, the Westmoreland County coroner’s office said Tuesday the cause and manner of Budiarachman’s death is pending upon further investigation, but declined to confirm his identity.

Budiarachman, who was living at a Jasmine Circle home in Rostraver at the time of his death, worked at Fourth Street Foods in the Charleroi area and was also president of Eastern Real Estate Services Investment company. A funeral service was held for him Friday in Philadelphia and he was buried Monday in a cemetery in his homeland of Indonesia.

Lam, the suspect in the case, has home addresses that alternated between Rostraver Township and Philadelphia, according to multiple traffic citations filed in Huntingdon, Somerset, Washington and Westmoreland counties in 2020 and 2022. South Strabane police cited him shortly before midnight Nov. 4 for failing to obey a traffic control device on Route 19 in the township while driving a pickup truck owned by Philadelphia-based Prompt Management Services, according to the ticket filed at the magistrate’s office. The ticket lists his address at Gawain Circle in Rostraver Township.

Lam was accused in the early 2000s for failing to pay employment taxes for his leasing companies, according to federal charges filed in Philadelphia in 2007. He pleaded guilty in 2009 to nine counts in the case and was sentenced to probation and pay $764,604 in restitution.

During his probationary period, his attorney filed several motions that were granted for him to travel back to Vietnam to visit his ailing mother, according to court documents. As of 2014, when he was released from probation, he still owed $735,000 in restitution.

Staff writer Karen Mansfield contributed to this story.

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