The murder of Alice Hufnagle by Jeffrey Ivan Vample is featured on the latest episode of The Killer Beside Me on Investigation Discovery.
Hufnagle and Vample met each other while working at the Giant Foods supermarket on Route 202 near Blue Bell. Hufnagle was a pharmacy technician and Vample worked as a clerk. As the time past, Vample became obsessed with her, an obsession which ultimately took a deadly turn.
On the morning of November 23, 2002, Vample broke into Hufnagle’s home in the 2900 block of North Whitehall Road in East Norriton, Pennsylvania. He climbed through the bathroom window and severely cut his right arm, leaving blood stains behind.
Vample, who was dressed in a black cape and a mask, put duct tape over the 67-year-old’s head and neck to keep her quiet before forcefully pushing her on the bed and sexually assaulting her. When his mask slipped off, he strangled the mother and grandmother to death so that she wouldn’t reveal his identity.
Later that morning, the victim’s estranged husband entered the home to fix a broken toilet and found her partially nude body in an upstairs bedroom.
Following an eight-month-long investigation, police arrested Vample at his home. He was charged with first-degree murder, rape, robbery, burglary, and other related offenses.
He was held at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Lower Providence without a bond.
Vample later confessed to killing his co-worker, claiming that it wasn’t his intention to murder her. He said he only wanted to have sex with her, and that it was only supposed to be a crazy adventure.
When detectives searched his home, they found a bloody mask, similar to the one seen in the movie Scream, and Hufnagle’s underwear was found underneath a futon. He told officials that he took them because there was blood on them.
In 2004, he pled guilty to murdering his co-worker to avoid the death penalty, and he was later sentenced to life in prison.
The Killer Beside Me — Screaming Terror, airs at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery.