Latest murder different from past two Centre County killings

Homicide doesn’t happen often in Centre County, but in the past six months, it has happened an almost unheard of three times.

All women.

Suspects in each of the two previous cases — Alois Aaron Kudlach, 50, and Vladimir Podnebennyy, 65, both of State College — have been charged with murder.

Both were taken into custody on the days their spouses were killed.

Both have confessed to killing their wives, police say.

Both appeared in court, handcuffed, this week.

Just six days ago, the body of Jean Tuggy, 60, was discovered in her Pine Grove Mills home. On Friday, Centre County Coroner Scott Sayers ruled Tuggy’s death an intentional homicide.

But that’s where the similarities to the other crimes end. Unlike the first two homicides, police have not named a suspect or a motive and no one has been arrested.

Arrests in the other cases came easy. Kudlach called 911 himself after the incident that ended in wife Nuria’s shooting. Kazakhstan native Podnebennyy, who speaks Russian, called his daughter in Florida, who in turn called police to lead them to the parking lot outside the couple’s College Township townhouse where Natalya Podnebennaya’s body lay in her car.

After those crimes, people were sad and confused to see such a violent crimes happen in their area, but they weren’t worried about how it happened and what would happen next.

In Pine Grove Mills, however, the community is on high alert, Tuggy’s family and friends are mourning and her neighbors on Irion Street say they are scared.

Police have still not released much information regarding the investigation and while they remain mindful to not compromise the investigation, people want answers.

It’s been one week since the last person known to have seen Tuggy alive talked to her.

Her neighbor, Todd Wheeler, said he saw her in the days leading up to her death and that she seemed happy and things seemed normal.

“It puts you on the edge a little bit, it puts me on high alert; I’m watchful now, keeping my eye out the window,” he said.

Tuggy’s glass storm door was closed Tuesday, but behind it, the view from the street into her home was unobstructed, showing boxes and plants and light streaming in from a side window. Her dark blue Honda Civic sits in the driveway. Snow runs down the hood and across both bumpers.

It hasn’t moved in days, a sad reminder that she’s gone.

Police were back in the neighborhood Wednesday, blocking the entrance to Irion Street.

Wheeler learned of Tuggy’s passing when he came home from work and saw four police cars parked outside of her home.

“I’d like to know what happened to her and how she died, because in this area, this is unheard of,” said Wheeler.

“We are deeply saddened by the news. Jean Tuggy had been a district bus driver for 16 years, and she will be missed here,” wrote Chris Rosenblum, State College Area School district spokesman, in an email.

And some of the students she transported absolutely adored her.

“She was my bus driver. She was a nice person and I work with her all the time. She always said hello to me and waved at me,” said Carlson Mbeseha.

Tuggy used to work at Wegmans.

Jimmy Bellis, State College store manager, said, “Jeannie Lamb Tuggy last worked at our State College store in October of 2014. She was very kind-hearted and well-liked by her co-workers and customers.”

Bellis added that it was his understanding that Tuggy left due to health problems.

“She was my neighbor. She had been there since I was a young kid,” said Wheeler. “She battled cancer a couple of times. She just overcame it for the second time. She was a wonderful lady and would always say hello. It’s just very sad.”

When asked about who might want to hurt Tuggy, Wheeler shook his head and said he didn’t know.

“She was just a very sweet lady, who loved listening to Christian music and who would help anybody if she could. She was a once-in-a-lifetime neighbor,” said Wheeler.

If murders are rare in Centre County, murders without suspects are even more so. In 50 years, Centre County has had only two unsolved murders: Penn State student Betsy Aardsma in 1969 and Philipsburg native and Penn State student Dana Bailey in 1987.

The Tuggy case represents only the fifth murder investigation in the county since 2010, according to the district attorney’s office.

This story was originally published January 27, 2016 at 3:31 PM with the headline "Latest murder different from past two Centre County killings."