PENN HILLS (KDKA) — A man is now facing charges after his mother and step-father were found dead inside their Penn Hills home on Tuesday.

Frederick Harris III is charged with two counts of criminal homicide and two counts of abuse of a corpse.

KDKA’s Harold Hayes Reports:



Harris, 47, was walked out of Allegheny County Police headquarters around 3 a.m. Wednesday in handcuffs. He was then escorted to the Allegheny County Jail where he was initially being held for a probation violation out of Westmoreland County.

Sources say he was charged with aggravated assault for an incident that happened in 2011.

It all began around 2 p.m. Tuesday when a concerned daughter called police to check on the couple. When officers arrived, they couldn’t find the elderly residents, now identified as 73-year-old Olivia Gilbert and 76-year-old Lamar Gilbert.

Instead, the woman’s biological son was at the home. According to the criminal complaint, Harris was found by officers in a locked read bedroom lying unresponsive in bed. He was taken out on a stretcher. He was examined at Forbes Area Medical Center and then taken to county police headquarters.

The couple’s bodies were found inside the home. However, police did not release further details.

When questioned whether blood, a weapon or even human remains were found in the home, Lt. Andrew Schurman, from Allegheny County Police, couldn’t say because they had not yet examined the inside.

However, he speculated by saying, “We think there’s something amiss in the house.”

Overnight, crime lab technicians removed several items from the home, including what appeared to be several garbage cans.

KDKA’s Amy Wadas Reports:



Now, police say the victims had been dismembered. Authorities are still looking for missing body parts.

Autopsies were performed Wednesday. According to the criminal complaint, the cause of death for the man has been listed as “multiple stab wounds to the trunk, and the manner of death was listed as homicide.” The woman’s manner of death has also been listed as homicide; however, her cause of death has been listed as death by a sharp instrument.

The criminal complaint reports police have surveillance video from the Home Depots in Wilkins Township and East Liberty that allegedly shows Harris buying four garbage cans and putting them in his mother’s Toyota.

Police say they also found receipts in the home for the recent purchase of garbage cans. According to the criminal complaint, investigators also found dried blood, as well as “three bottles of bleach and a bottle of anti-bacterial kitchen cleaner.”

Neighbors are in disbelief.

“It’s a quiet street and it’s hard to believe something like that can happen,” said neighbor Robert Irish. “I just moved up here, but the neighbors on both side of me knew the couple well. I know it’s devastating for them and the other neighbors around here.”

Neighbor Curtis Bell hoped late Tuesday night that the couple would be found safe. He lives a few doors away on Suncrest Drive and said the couple is quiet and that they wave at him when they drive by.

KDKA’s Brenda Waters Reports:



“I think it’s crazy, because that doesn’t happen around here. This whole area, we don’t get none of that around here, it’s new to me,” neighbor Jim Taylor said.

The daughter said she had not heard from her mother in three days.

This is not the first time police have questioned Harris.

Back in 2011, police in Murrysville arrested him after he was found living in a $625,000 home that had been burglarized. A handyman later found that he has made himself at home.

According to the criminal complaint, Harris had also been recently kicked out of his father’s home because he had allegedly “attacked him and attempted to choke him.”

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