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William Carey, 46, carried out the deadly attack on his girlfriend, Jessica Zipkin, 34, at their Gravel Pike apartment in Perkiomen, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele announced on Saturday, Nov. 2.
Police were called to the apartment around 2:10 a.m., after receiving a 911 call saying there may be a deceased person at the location, DA Steele said. A responding Pennsylvania State Police trooper found Zipkin face down on the bedroom floor of one of the units, and a bloodied hammer next to her body, according to the affidavit for probable cause.
The property owner told police that the unit where Zipkin’s body was found was rented by William Carey, as detailed in the affidavit. The landlord also told the police that Carey had been at the Duck Inn, where he worked, in the early morning hours but came back and went to his apartment.
“Carey returned a short time later and stated his girlfriend was deceased in the apartment,” the affidavit reads.
That’s when the landlord called 911 and police made the horrifying discovery and a homicide investigation was launched.
An upstairs neighbor told police he heard a woman screaming around 2:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 1, police wrote in the affidavit. He then heard a man screaming, “at which time he turned the volume of his television up,” the affidavit says.
Surveillance footage showed Carey at the Duck Inn the day before, wearing a black Duck Inn t-shirt. An hour later, he is seen throwing clothing in a trashcan located in the Duck Inn basement, according to the affidavit. He then took the trash out to the dumpster in the parking lot.
Carey texted a woman named in police papers asking her to take him to Target to get new shoes around 3 p.m. When they got to the store, Carey stayed inside the vehicle appearing to be “spaced out” and crying, police papers say. He later said he threw out his old shoes and clothing because they “stunk.”
The discarded shoes were later found to have blood on them, police explained.
Carey was subsequently charged with first-degree murder, third-degree murder, and possessing an instrument of crime. He was arraigned on Saturday, Nov. 2 and remanded to the Montgomery County Jail.
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