Between Life and Death: A Few Missing People: Sandra Baker: Children want her declared dead

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Sandra Baker: Children want her declared dead

I did not remember hearing all of these details, such as the possible burial location or the threats against the guards.

Article from http://www.sharonherald.com/local/local_story_347222022.html:

Published December 13, 2007 10:20 pm - Sandra Kay Baker has not been seen
or heard from since she went missing 7 1/2 years ago and a judge could determine
that she’s considered dead.
Children seek ruling of Sandra Baker’s death
By Monica Pryts
Herald Staff Writer
DELAWARE TOWNSHIP —
Sandra Kay Baker has not been seen or heard from
since she went missing 7 1/2 years ago and a judge could determine that she’s
considered dead.
Ms. Baker’s two children, who live in Florida, petitioned
the Mercer County Court of Common Pleas to determine their mother’s death, said
their attorney, Ted Isoldi of Mercer.
Ms. Baker’s children want her death to
be officially established so her estate can be processed, for which a death
certificate is needed, he said.
A hearing has been set for Feb. 8 in front of
Judge Thomas R. Dobson, who will look at the facts of the state police
investigation about Ms. Baker’s disappearance, Isoldi said.
The investigation
is ongoing but police have said Ms. Baker is presumed dead. A notice of the
hearing filed by the court said police and the Mercer County District Attorney’s
office believe she was murdered on May 25, 2000, the last day she was seen
alive.
Ms. Baker was 46 and lived in Delaware Township when she went missing.
Her fiancé, William T. Crea Jr., whom she used to live with in his parents’
home, has been named a suspect in her disappearance. Crea, who now lives in
Ellwood City, hasn’t been charged.
Police said Crea reported Ms. Baker
missing May 31, 2000, and that he last saw her May 25 at Sheetz in Pymatuning
Township.
In January 2006, Clifford Stephen Aley Jr., 50, a private
investigator from Ambridge who performed a background check on Ms. Baker for
Crea, was found guilty of lying to police about her disappearance.
Aley was
sentenced in March 2006 to 18 to 48 months in prison and is serving in
Frackville. Aley appealed the conviction but it was denied in February in state
Superior Court. He’s also serving a 4-to-12-months sentence for threatening
Mercer County Sheriff’s deputies and Mercer County Jail guards.
While Aley
was on trial, he testified that on May 28, 2000, Crea told him he strangled Ms.
Baker May 25 after accusing her of having an affair. Crea told Aley he buried
her body in a container where no one would trip over it, about five to eight
miles from his parents’ home at 62 Folk Road, Delaware Township. Police have
searched that area but found nothing.
Aley admitted he lied to police about
Ms. Baker’s disappearance because Crea told him he would have Aley’s children
killed if he told police Crea confessed to killing Ms. Baker.