Oxygen’s “Philadelphia Murders” covers the infamous murder cases across 10 episodes.

Several high-profile murders in the Philadelphia region will be the focus of a true crime series in a new Oxygen series premiering Saturday.

Philadelphia Murder will tell the stories of 10 murders that gripped the region in hour-long episodes featuring archival footage, detective interviews and cinematic entertainment. Hosting: Bucks County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Chris Mullen airs Saturdays at 9 p.m.

Crimes covered Philadelphia MurderThe first season will last several decades. Although the season will consist of 10 episodes, Oxygen has only revealed the first three episodes of the series, which feature the murders of a Chester police officer. City center X-Ray Technician and Chiropractor in Bensalem.

Here’s how The Inquirer and Daily News wrote about them:

“End of Watch”: the murder of Chester policeman Michael Beverly

On October 16, 2001, Chester Police Cpl. Michael Beverly was found shot dead in the Highland Gardens area of ​​the city. Beverly, an 11-year military veteran, was found 10 feet from his unmarked cruiser, his service weapon still in its holster, according to an Inquirer report at the time.

Beverly, 36, left behind a wife and five children, and was remembered as a “conscientious officer” and “a hard-nosed street cop who did good, clean raids,” Wendell N. Butler Jr., then Chester police commissioner. Branch, told The Inquirer a few days after Beverly’s murder. On the day of his funeral around 1,000 mourners representing more than 80 police departments from as far away as Ottawa, Ontario, paid their respects.

At the time of her death, Beverly was working as a night shift supervisor. The Inquirer reports this.was known as a “proceduralist”. However, he did not radio his location to headquarters before the shooting that took his life, nor did he tell colleagues what he was doing the night he was killed. As a result of the radio silence, Butler suggested in an interview about a month after Beverly’s death that the corporal “didn’t expect anything to happen.”

Investigators were faced with a frustrating lack of evidence early in the investigation. But Butler, who would later become mayor of Chester, told The Inquirer he refuses to accept the impasse.

“We won’t lose,” Butler said. “I won’t let this happen.”

And almost a year after Beverly’s death, on October 12, 2002, police found their man: Maurice Richard Day.

Investigators determined that Beverly stopped at a local restaurant to grab a bite to eat for Edwina Cottman, Day’s mother, with whom he had become friends. Day, who was allegedly involved with local drug gang the Boy Street Boys, faced criticism from his friends for how often Beverly visited his mother’s house, where he also lived. The Inquirer reports this.. So, prosecutors argued, Day took matters into his own hands and killed Beverly while the officer was delivering food to his mother to put an end to the “teasing, ridicule and ridicule” he was receiving.Deputy District Attorney James Mattera said..

Day was ultimately convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole in March 2004.

On the day of Day’s sentencing Beverly’s twin sister, Michelle, told The Inquirer that her family “agreed with the jury’s verdict.”

“The Devil of Central City”: Patricia McDermott, the latest victim of the Philadelphia serial killer

Patricia McDermott began her career on May 17, 2005, like any other. McDermott, 48, an X-ray technician who worked the morning shift at a Pennsylvania hospital, became infected SEPTA on the bus into town in the wee hours from her home in Elkins Park.

She took a shift that was scheduled to end by 1 p.m. so she could spend more time with her two children. The Inquirer reports this.. But after she got off the 33 bus and headed down Ninth Street, a man approached her from behind and shot her in the head. She was pronounced dead at 4:50 am. according to an Inquirer report at the time.

McDermott’s murder was captured on U.S. Post Office surveillance cameras, which showed her killer fleeing the scene. Police published a sketch of the person of interest and investigators found a shell casing from the shooter’s pistol, The Inquirer reports this..

However, investigators were unable to determine a motive. McDermott was not robbed, and friends and neighbors described no enemies who might harm her.

But after police received anonymous information in July 2005, the case was closed. On what would have been McDermott’s 49th birthday, they arrested Juan Covington, 43, of the Logan section of Philadelphia..

“I was thinking the other day that if anything was going to happen, it would happen on her birthday.” McDermott’s sister, Mary Moran, told the Daily News.. “I think she achieved it.”

Covington, a former SEPTA bus driver turned medical waste contractor, was identified as a potential suspect through an anonymous tip, and police arrested him July 12 after noticing him carrying a gun. He was allowed to carry a weapon, but his documentation was incorrect, allowing the police to detain him. A man matching Covington’s description The Inquirer reports this.was also seen on surveillance cameras at a Pennsylvania hospital “shortly” after McDermott was killed wearing the same clothes as the man in the surveillance footage. Covington has no criminal record.

Covington quickly confessed to killing McDermott, telling police he killed her because “she pushed the cart and activated the machine, which exposed him to radiation.” detectives told The Inquirer. He further confessed to two other murders, as well as two attempted murders dating back to 1998.

Charles Peruto Jr., Covington’s lawyer, argued that Covington suffered from schizophrenia. Psychiatric experts interviewed by the Daily News said he showed signs of a “schizopath,” on par with serial killers such as David Berkowitz and Jeffrey Dahmer. Covington, the Daily News reported, did not appear to take pleasure in killing, instead becoming obsessed with people he perceived as threats and eliminating them when he could no longer control his anxiety.

In March 2006, Covington pleaded mentally ill to three murders, including McDermott’s, as well as two attempted murders. The judge sentenced him to three consecutive life terms and two terms ranging from 20 to 40 years. The Inquirer reports this..

“A minute changes everything”: the murder of James Sowa in Bensalem

A popular chiropractor in Bensalem, James Sova operated his business office from his family home on Hulmeville Road near Street Road. But on November 2, 2020, doctors arrived at his home with a message about a medical emergency. arrived to find 64-year-old Sowa dead with severe head injuries.. The Bucks County coroner ruled Owl’s death a homicide due to blunt force trauma.

On the day of his death, Owl spoke to his wife around 8 a.m. but did not answer calls from family members or patients, causing his sons to worry, The Inquirer reported. That same day, one of Owl’s sons came into the office to find he had serious head and jaw injuries. The chiropractor’s life, according to District Attorney Matthew Weintraub, was “cruelly taken from him.”

“He is greatly missed,” Bensalem Mayor Joseph DiGirolamo later told The Inquirer of Sowa. “It was an incredible story with an ending that no one can believe because no one hated this man. He’s the type of person you’d want in your community.”

By January 2021, police had arrested and charged a former patient in connection with Sova’s death.

Joseph O’Boyle, 22, suffered from jaw pain for many years and began turning to Owl for treatment. The Inquirer reports this.. However, the treatment did not help and O’Boyle believed it may have made his pain worse. As a result, O’Boyle said he was considering suing Sova, his family told investigators.

But on the day of Owl’s murder, surveillance footage showed a Nissan Altima driving in and out of Owl’s parking lot. Investigators determined that the car was registered to O’Boyle’s mother.

When detectives questioned him, O’Boyle appeared agitated and lunged at one of the investigators, striking him in the head several times, The Inquirer reported.

His parents later told a grand jury that about a week after Owl’s death, O’Boyle told them he had killed the chiropractor – a fact they initially hid from police, The Inquirer reported. The friend also told the grand jury that O’Boyle told him in Snapchat messages that he was fascinated by Cosmo DiNardo, who killed four people on a farm in Solebury Township, Bucks County, in 2017.

In May 2022 O’Boyle pleaded guilty to murdering Owland an attack on a detective who was questioning him. He entered a general plea of ​​culpable homicide, admitting the killing of Owl but challenging the degree of murder applicable in his case.

The following month O’Boyle was convicted of third degree murderand was sentenced to 37 to 74 years in prison.