Man charged in Pena case admitted to mental health facility, lawyer says

The man who admitted dumping a Philadelphia woman’s body on the side of Plainfield Road has checked himself into a mental institution, according to his attorney.

“He’s an inpatient right now. Yesterday he had a nervous breakdown, after speaking to police, and I haven’t spoken to him since,” James Bryant, Robert Moir’s attorney, said Wednesday.

Moir, 59, is charged with abuse of a corpse, a second-degree misdemeanor, court records show. He lives in Patton Township in a house on Scotia Road where he says he found Corinne Pena dead on the bathroom floor Feb. 13.

According to an affidavit, Moir told police he found Pena’s lifeless body next to a spoon and needle.

Police believe Pena died of a drug overdose. Centre County Coroner Scott Sayers is awaiting toxicology results before a final cause of death is determined. Those results may take weeks.

Court documents say Moir told police he met Pena in the Philadelphia area and brought her back to State College.

“We will probably waive his preliminary hearing scheduled for March 23,” Bryant said..

Pena’s body was found in the early morning hours of Feb. 14, on one of the coldest nights of the year. She was unidentified for a week while Ferguson Township police and the Centre County District Attorney’s Office made appeals to the community for information, using images of her tattoos to try to find her name.

This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 1:25 PM with the headline "Man charged in Pena case admitted to mental health facility, lawyer says."