Rape case may continue

Sara Ganim

On her Myspace.com page, 21-year-old Racheal Lynn Perryman wrote that her first "like" is hunting. That's apparent in the photo gallery filled with shots of her doe, her grandfather's and father';s bucks, and a fox she stuffed herself.

Woman was alleged rape victim

Hunting is what police think she and another person were doing in a very remote area off Moshannon State Forest when she was shot and killed sometime Saturday.

District Attorney Michael Madeira said the fact that the Game Commission was on scene, “shouldn’t provide any insight as to what else is being investigated.”

Perryman, a 2006 Bald Eagle Area High School graduate, died of a gunshot wound to the chest fired by a muzzleloader on the last day of season for that type of firearm. Investigators haven’t identified the person they say she was out there with, and Coroner Scott Sayers hasn’t yet ruled on the manner of death.

Court records show Perryman’s boyfriend, Troy Tierney, 24, of Miles-burg, was appointed a public defender by order of President Judge David E. Grine on Monday. The order calls Tierney a “defendant,” but doesn’t specify a case.

Madeira wouldn’t comment on possible suspects.

“This is an ongoing investigation,” he said. “I have not recently met with the police on it. They have not brought anything to me on it.”

Perryman wrote on her Myspace page that she was living with, engaged to, and “madly in love” with her boyfriend, Tierney, who accompanied her to the police station when she reported seven months ago that she was raped by an acquaintance, Kyle A. Lingle.

Madeira clarified Tuesday that he hasn’t yet decided how he will move forward with rape allegations Perryman made against Lingle.

Madeira’s assistant assigned to the case, Steve Sloane, said Monday that he would “probably” withdraw the charges before the scheduled Nov. 23 jury trial.

“I’m not commenting on what Mr. Sloane said,” Madeira said Tuesday. “I’m the district attorney, and I have not yet made that decision.”

Madeira said he needs to explore his options for prosecuting the case without the main witness. It’s possible he could use the testimony Perryman gave at a preliminary hearing March 18, when she said Lingle, 21, pushed her down while they were watching television at his Milesburg home and raped her. It was several weeks before she reported the alleged attack.

When police confronted Lingle, he first denied sex, then said it was consensual, but admitted he knew that Perryman was “not into it.”

Her death, “doesn’t change the allegation,” Madeira said. “It does, however, change the way we present the case. That is what we have yet to consider.”

Lingle’s attorney, public defender Patrick Klena, said he anticipates the charges being withdrawn. He said Lingle was contacted and questioned by state troopers after Perryman’s death, but isn’t a suspect.

Lingle was working at the Bryce Jordan Center on Saturday evening, Klena said.

Along with hunting, Perryman wrote on MySpace that she liked reading, writing, guns, old cars, animals, 4- wheeling, mudding, spring, and “fishin.”

Among dislikes: spiders, heights, snow, storms, jerks, liars, and rapists.

Two comments were posted on her Myspace page Tuesday. One from a man who wrote, “Goodbye little cousin,” and another from a friend, Tara, who said, “I miss you, I’ll always love you ... and I’m sorry.”