TOWANDA (AP) - A pathologist has testified that a woman killed almost two years ago in northern Pennsylvania died of strangulation, not from a blow to the head.
Fifty-five-year-old Emily Bellows-Shaffer of Crystal Springs, Fla., is charged with criminal homicide in the September 2010 death of 65-year-old Carol Hickok in Canton.
Bradford County prosecutors say the defendant told investigators last month that she went to the victim's home to visit the son she shares with Roger Hickok but got into a fight with his wife and the other woman hit her head on a dresser.
But Samuel Land, of Lehigh Valley Medical Center in Allentown, testified Wednesday that the head trauma was not enough to kill the victim.
Prosecutors are to continue their case today.
