'I never thought he was capable of this': Horror of woman who 'heard wailing as her fiancé raped and strangled girl, nine'







Girl's father: I don't blame police

But furious mother says officers 'blew her off' after she reported neighbour



Fiancée: I heard screams... but thought it was just a neighbour arguing with their child



Suspect 'sat down to dinner with fiancée just minutes after beating schoolgirl to death in basement'



Detectives discovered blood-soaked clothes in suspect's bedroom

Girl's badly-beaten body was found dumped in a bin



Charged: James Troutman allegedly raped and strangled the nine-year-old daughter of a neighbour then threw her body in a dumpster

The fiancée of a man accused of raping and strangling a nine-year-old girl has revealed she overheard the attack.



Heather Clemens was in the apartment directly overhead as young Skyler Kauffman was killed in the basement - allegedly by Miss Clemens' fiance James Lee Troutman.



She said heard a female voice 'wailing', along with screams, crashing sounds and someone crying, 'Nooooo!' according to a police complaint.



'I thought maybe it might have been a parent arguing with a child, and the child was going 'Nooooo,' like, 'Why are you taking my toy?'' Miss Clemens told KYW-TV.



'I thought any number of things at that point except what this turned out to be.'

She told the station that she felt disbelief and shock when Troutman was arrested.



'I was horrified that they actually said that he was the one who did it,' she said.



'Never in a million years did I think he was capable of doing this.'

She told another station: 'I felt like I was living with a stranger, a monster, maybe even a demon.'



The badly-beaten body of nine-year-old Skyler Kauffman was found wrapped in a blanket and thrown into a rubbish bin behind her apartment block in Souderton, near Philadelphia, after she failed to come home for dinner.



Police arrested 24-year-old James Lee Troutman when a detective spotted blood on his trainers, and allegedly found blood-soaked clothes stuffed into a hamper in his bedroom.

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Victim: Skyler Kauffman pictured at Christmas, left, and at her eighth birthday party, right. Her neighbour has been arrested after allegedly raping her, strangling her and dumping her body in a rubbish bin



Innocent: Skyler Kauffman, nine, was found strangled in a bin behind the apartment complex where she lived in Philadelphia

'I was living with a monster': Heather Clemens claimed she had no idea that her boyfriend was capable of murder

Yesterday Skyler's mother, Heather Gebhard, said she believed the tragedy could have been avoided if police had listened to her. She said: 'They blew me off.'

She called police on April 18, after her daughter and a friend came home saying Troutman had locked them in his apartment, and only let them go when they started screaming.

Surrounded by hundreds of mourners at a vigil for her daughter yesterday, Miss Gebhard wept as she said police 'twisted everything my daughter said, they didn't believe her.'

She described Skyler as outgoing and friendly, and said 'it's like a nightmare. She was loved by everybody.'

But the girl's father, Eric Kauffman, said he believed it wouldn't have made a difference if police had arrested Troutman at the time

'I guess either way it probably would have happened,' Mr Kauffman told The Associated Press yesterday from the home he shares with his parents in Harleyville.

Troutman admitted he strangled Skyler with his hands and said her head hit the basement floor 'a couple of times at least', according to the arrest affidavit.

He told investigators 'it was like white-out' and he 'snapped'. According to the affidavit he said: 'I got rid of her. Once I took her down [there], I knew she could get me in trouble.'

He allegedly wrapped her body in a blanket, carried her outside and threw her into a nearby dumpster, leaving a trail of blood behind.

Accused: James Troutman covers his face as he is led out of his apartment block in front of a jeering crowd following his arrest last year

Then he went back home, took a shower - and sat down to eat with his fiancée.

A huge search was launched for Skyler, described as an outgoing and friendly little girl, after she failed to come home for dinner.



Her mother called police at about 7pm, and they joined her family as they combed Souderton Garden Apartments, in a leafy suburb of Philadelphia.

Guilty: James Lee Troutman, 24, admitted he brutally raped and murdered 9-year-old Skyler Kauffman

Soon after they arrived, a neighbour called and said they had found a pool of blood in one of the building's communal basements.

According to Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, one of the detectives ran into Troutman and spotted what looked like blood on his right tennis shoe, which he claimed was from a nosebleed.

The officer searched his apartment and spoke to his fiancée, Heather Clemens, who said he had left home at around 5pm to 'play games on his cell phone.'

Just a few moments later, she heard a girl screaming, shouting and yelling 'no' over and over again.



Then she heard a wail, 'crashing sounds' and someone falling to the ground, Patch reports.

Miss Clemens told police she called Troutman, but he didn't answer.

He eventually called back and said he'd been out exercising at a nearby school, and told 'everything would be ok', according to the affidavit.

When Troutman arrived home, he appeared to be covered in mud, which he blamed on playing football.



Then the officer discovered a bundle of blood-covered clothes in his bedroom. He arrested Troutman, and shortly afterwards a colleague discovered Skyler's battered body inside the rubbish bin.



Blood was streaked over a water heater and along a path leading to from the basement to the dumpster.

Souderton Police Chief James P. Leary told the Philadelphia Inquirer: 'The child obviously struggled.'

A post-mortem showed Skyler died of asphyxiation, blunt-force trauma and sexually-related lacerations.

Yesterday it emerged Miss Gebhard had reported Troutman to police on April 18, after Skyler and a friend told her he had locked them in his apartment when they knocked on the door and asked to use the bathroom.

Party girl: Friends and family have paid tribute to Skyler Kauffman, nine, who they said was 'loved by everybody'



Inconsolable grief: Skyler's mother, Heather Gebhard, wept at a vigil last year as she described her daughter

The girls said the walls were covered with photos of naked women, and Troutman said he would 'show them his bird'.

He allegedly only let them go when one began screaming, the Inquirer reports - but police failed to arrest him.

Yesterday the district attorney defended the decision not to arrest Troutman.

She said: 'You have to have a crime take place in order to file charges. Everyone did what they were supposed to do and unfortunately it wasn't enough to prevent the death of this child.'

According to Patch, she said: 'This is one of those terribly disturbing situations where it seemingly happens out of nowhere.

Horrific end: Detectives investigate the area around the bin where Skyler's badly-beaten body was found

Outraged community: A huge crowd yelled obscenities at Troutman as he was led to the courthouse for his arraignment last year

'No criminal history to speak of, and certainly none of the typical history that we see many times in cases with these kind of allegations.'

Troutman's only previous conviction was for shoplifting.

Skyler's death has badly shaken members of the tight-knit community, many of whom have children.

One, Corey Wagner, told the Inquirer: ' Things like this just don't happen here. I just don't know what to think.'

'The last thing I would have thought is that they would find this child dead.



'This is a safe little community,' said Wendy Hansen, a 47-year-old mother of three girls who lives nearby.



'We're not going to tolerate this... It could have been any of our kids.'

Investigation: Police cordon off the area surrounding the dark basement where Skyler Kauffman was raped, strangled and beaten

In mourning: Hundreds of neighbours gathered outside Souderton Garden Apartments yesterday to hold a vigil for Skyler Kauffman, nine

Around 50 neighbours gathered to yell and jeer as Troutman, who wore a bullet-proof vest,was escorted in and out of his arraignment at a courtroom across the road yesterday.

He hid his face with his hands as the crowd shouted obscenities at him. One man yelled: 'Burn in hell.'

At the hearing, Troutman did not enter a plea or speak, except to acknowledge the charges. He is being held without bail.

Josh Piston, a neighbour, said Troutman had moved into the complex with his fiancée two or three months ago but he did not know them well. He said: 'They were quiet, kept to themselves,'

Failure to act? Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman defended the decision not to arrest Troutman three weeks ago

At the prayer vigil, many paid tribute to Skyler, who was described as a little girl who 'loved to play' by her father, Eric.

One family friend, Seward J. Foland, said:'She just had a smile that would not end.'

Her mother said: 'She's in heaven now. That's all I can say. She's safe.'

Skyler and her mother had lived with the Kauffman family most of the girl's life but moved to an apartment complex in nearby Souderton, in suburban Philadelphia, in January.



Troutman moved to the complex a short time later.

Skyler's paternal grandmother, Carol Kauffman, said the girl often visited the stairwell near where Troutman lived because she had a friend there. She called Skyler outgoing and fearless, traits she said may have worked against her.

'She was very trusting, but she absolutely spoke her mind,' the grandmother said. 'Maybe he took her into the basement just to talk to her and scare her and then he realized this little kid was not to be quieted down.

'No way he was going to be in trouble either for what he did a few weeks ago or what he started to do Monday,' Mrs Kauffman said.

She said her granddaughter had talked about the incident, but the girl was mostly enthused about calling 911. She did not report feeling any serious or sexual-type threats, although Mrs Kauffman was baffled that she had gone near Troutman's apartment again.



Photos of the Kauffmans' only grandchild fill their large suburban house, which they bought to accommodate their son's family after Skyler was born.

The photos show a gap-toothed, brown-haired girl with an impossibly wide smile in a witch's costume, playing jump rope, wearing a Brownie's sash, sitting with Santa.

'So here we are with a big house - and no Skyler,' Spencer Kauffman said.

Skyler's father, who was treated at a hospital Tuesday for a panic attack, said a photo of the man accused of killing his daughter is forever etched in his brain.

'I'm just getting more and more punished as each day goes by because some idiot couldn't take his anger out on something else,' he said.