Robert Bohart. PHOTO PROVIDED

A New York State man staying at the Liberty Lodge in Loyalsock Township had been jailed on homicide-related charges for allegedly stabbing to death another guest at the motel possibly some time Saturday, according to state police.

Robert B. Bohart, 46, of Erin, about 12 miles northeast of Elmira, was taken into custody at the motel and charged in the death of 53-year-old Shannon Bowes, who was staying in a room next to Bohart, police said.

Bowes, who was living at the motel, was found dead in his room about 10:15 a m. Sunday, Trooper Brian Moore, a criminal investigator, said in an affidavit.

Police had been called to the motel at 2021 E. Third St. to check actually on Bohart’s welfare because he was “making some concerning comments about a neighbor staying in the room next to his,” the affidavit stated.

While en route to the motel, troopers received information from the Mansfield barracks that troopers there were told that “Bohart may have stabbed someone in the room next to him,” Moore said in the court document.

When troopers arrived to question Bohart at his room, he “appeared to be intoxicated. He admitted to consuming alcoholic beverages,” Moore said.

One of the troopers then knocked on the door of the room next to Bohart’s, where Bowes was staying, the affidavit stated. Bohart made a remark that the guest would not be answering the door, police said.

The trooper asked him what he meant by that, and Bohart replied “He’s dead,” the court document stated.

Bowes had reportedly made comments to Bohart about child molestation, and this upset Bohart, police said.

“It’s obvious he’s a pedophile. He kept running his mouth, and he’s (now) dead,” Bohart told troopers at the motel.

Bohart was taken into custody and read his Miranda warning (constitutional rights). As Bohart was being placed in the back of a cruiser, a trooper noticed blood on Bohart’s right shoe.

Soon after arriving at the Montoursville barracks, Bohart took off his right shoe and “provided it” to the trooper, telling him “You may want this,” the affidavit stated.

“Bohart related that the blood on the shoe” was Bowes’, Moore wrote in the court document.

Within minutes upon arriving at the motel, troopers received information from an acquaintance of Bohart’s who reported that he got “a call from Bohart saying he may have killed someone” at the Liberty Lodge, police said.

Upon entering Bowes’ room with a master key, state police Cpl. Michael App saw Bowes “lying on the floor at the foot of a bed, covered in blood and not moving,” the affidavit stated. A knife was recovered next to the victim, police said. “Additional blood droplets were located on the floor around the victim,” it was stated in the court document.

Lycoming County Coroner Charles E. Kiessling Jr. responded and pronounced Bowes dead at the scene.

During their investigation, police interviewed on Sunday afternoon a New York State female acquaintance of Bohart’s identified in the affidavit as Elizabeth Joy Oakley-Craven.

In a telephone conversation she had with Bohart on Saturday evening, “Bohart sounded choked up when he began to speak about what he did. She related that he told her he killed a male who was living in the hotel room next to him. The woman related that Bohart told her that he punched and stabbed the male with a knife,” the affidavit stated.

Oakley-Craven told police she was losing cell service so the conversation ended. However, the two talked again on the telephone about 30 minutes later.

In the second conversation, Bohart told Oakley-Craven that he “thought he left the knife in the man”s skull . She also recalled Bohart telling her he stabbed (the victim) 32 to 34 times,” it was stated in the court document.

In text messages to the woman, Bohart told her “that he may never be free again. He texted about a murder charge and said ‘I am (expletive). I know this. I accept my responsibility and my actions,'” Moore wrote in the affidavit.

During questioning, Oakley-Craven said she received a text from Bohart early Sunday, telling her that “he was going to turn himself in that day. At 9:42 a.m., Bohart asked her if she called the cops, and at 10:44 a.m. she told him that she had,” police said.

What time Saturday Bowes was fatally stabbed has not yet been determined.

“At this time we are still working on confirming exactly what time the crime was committed,” a police spokeswoman said Monday afternoon.

Bohart was arraigned before District Judge Kirsten Gardner on one count each of criminal homicide, possession of an instrument of crime and abuse of corpse. In the criminal complaint, Moore said Bohart allegedly left the corpse to lie “for an extended period of time.” Bohart was denied bail and placed automatically in the Lycoming County.