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MINERSVILLE, Beaver County — A woman has been arrested and charged with murdering a man identified as her husband on social media pages.
Victoria Elyse Woerth, 28, of Minersville, was charged Monday in 5th District Court with aggravated murder and criminal solicitation, first-degree felonies; and conspiracy to commit aggravated murder, a second-degree felony. Her charging documents were sealed by a judge and a warrant issued for Woerth's arrest. The criminal case against Woerth was changed from private to public on Tuesday.
She was booked into the Beaver County Jail Monday night, according to the jail's website.
Court documents allege that Woerth conspired with Mike Allen Miller, 25, to have Shane Michael Davis, 38, killed and make it look like an accident so that Miller and Woerth could be together. According to court records, all three live in the same home in Minersville.
Miller was arrested and charged with murder on Sept. 27 in Davis' death. On Tuesday, those charges were amended in 5th District Court so that Miller is now also charged with aggravated murder and conspiracy to commit aggravated murder, first-degree felonies.
According to Woerth and Davis' Facebook pages, the two were married earlier this year. Miller and Woerth may have also been in a relationship at one time, according to their social media pages.
The fatal incident happened just before 2:30 a.m. on Sept. 26. Beaver County sheriff's deputies were dispatched to 388 W. 100 South in Minersville on a report of a shooting. The shooting victim, Davis, was located in the garage area, according to a police booking affidavit.
"The male was semi-responsive and had told several medical staff that he did not shoot himself," the affidavit states.
Davis died from his injuries shortly after being taken to a local hospital.
Others in the home told deputies that Miller and Davis had been arguing earlier in the day. About 7:45 a.m., deputies spotted Miller a few blocks away from the shooting scene and took him into custody. He claimed the shooting was in self-defense, the affidavit states.
"An interview was performed with Miller later on this day and Miller admitted that he had shot the male victim, noting that he thought he was protecting other residents in the home. Miller admitted that he did not initially feel any remorse for his actions," according to the affidavit. "Miller also told me that the victim was closing a door and possibly holding onto the wrist of his spouse at the time of the shooting.
"Miller also told us that he was not going to allow the male victim to go into his own residence. After interviewing Miller, it was found that there was no immediate threat of serious bodily injury or death involving this incident. Miller admitted that there were other options that he could have used other than deadly force against the male victim," the affidavit says.
But not long after the shooting, Beaver County sheriff's detectives were tipped off to look at Woerth's Snapchat account. A witness told police that he overheard Woerth telling someone else in the house that "the only way that Mike can marry her is if Shane is dead," according to her charging documents unsealed Tuesday. That witness claimed Woerth sent a message on the social media app stating, "Once he is gone, we can get married."
Detectives served a search warrant on Woerth's Snapchat account and found "numerous" messages between the username "rebelprincez," who was determined to be Woerth, and "devil_daddy13" which was determined to be Miller's username, the charges state.
One of the messages Woerth sent to Miller stated, "Some days I just wish he would get in an accident and die or son thing so I didn't have to do this but I'll never let anyone do it to kill him," according to the charging documents.
Some of the messages Miller sent to Woerth included: "It can be done if done right and it wouldn't be hard to do either but that's just me;" "Getting caught wouldn't be an issue. Guilt I've got enough guilt for things more important that I've done. Killing doesn't carry guilt with me when the person has no hold on me;" and "There's a lot of things that could be done to make it look like a natural cause or suicide based off his depression and all that's going through his head," the court documents allege.
During one conversation, Miller seems to indicate that he had previously done something to make his father very ill by using either rat poison or bleach, according to the charges. In another conversation, Miller seems to talk about potential alibis, stating, "If he dies he can't defend himself we can all say he's been acting hella different and buying (stuff) that no one knew about and he's almost always in his room so who knows what he does behind closed doors," the charges state.
In yet another conversation, investigators allege that Miller and Woerth appear to discuss whether they could tamper with the brakes on Davis' vehicle to make it look like he'd gotten into a fatal crash.
Woerth states in the conversation to Miller, "I'd rather it look like an accident it's the only way Imma keep house and keep us all safe and not trapped honestly," the charges state.
Woerth also expresses her love for Miller in the messages and states that she has considered "hitting him in his sleep" — allegedly referring to Davis — that she has been contemplating it for a long time and that she won't back out if Miller goes through with it, according to the charges.
Deputies wrote in charging documents that "It is apparent after reviewing the messages that the promise of remuneration is the house."
