In November 2009, a home invasion in Chesapeake City, Maryland, led to the death of a woman in the early hours of the morning. Terri McCoy was at home with her parents and her boyfriend when four teenagers broke in to rob them.
She got in the middle of the invasion, and one of the invaders shot her right away. Investigation Discovery’s show “Murder Comes to Town: The Dangers of Success” goes into great detail about the case, showing viewers exactly what happened in the early hours of that fateful day that changed the McCoy family for good. If you are interested in the case and want to know who did it and where they are now, we can help. Let’s just begin, then.
How Did Terri McCoy Die?
At 1 am on November 4, 2009, four teens with guns and masks broke into the home of the McCoy family at 3700 Augustine Herman Highway while they were sleeping. Terry McCoy, 63, was woken up by the noise. At first, she thought it might have been her daughter Terri Ann McCoy falling because her blood sugar was too low. But when he saw boys in masks with guns, he knew right away that someone was breaking into their home. He tried to keep the door to his bedroom, which he shared with his wife, Geraldine McCoy, closed. But the intruders beat him up, and one of them shot Terry in the eye, hurting him for good. Three strangers quickly broke in, and one of them held a gun to the head of a scared and shaken Geraldine. Terry was led to the living room by the other two thieves, who were looking for money and jewelry.
All of this noise woke up the couple’s 40-year-old daughter, Terri Ann McCoy. She went downstairs to find out what was going on so late at night. The fourth intruder was guarding the kitchen door, and he shot Terri five times when she was on the landing of the second floor. The thieves forced Terry to open the safes and then made him lie down on his back. Terry was lying on the ground when he heard gunshots. He had no idea that it was his own daughter who was being shot.
The thieves broke into the safe, stole $500,000 worth of jewelry, and then ran away. As the intruders ran away, Tara McCoy, 33, who has been with Terri for 10 years, ran to help her. People say that Terry rushed to her daughter’s side and heard her say, “I’m dying.” Terri was shot multiple times, so the police were called and emergency workers rushed her to the Christiana Hospital in Delaware, where she was pronounced dead.
Who put Terri McCoy to death?
Three of the people who broke in wore ski masks, but Seth Dallas Jedlicka, who was 16 at the time and the youngest of the group, wore only war paint. This is the chance Geraldine took when she carefully looked at Seth’s face, trying to remember every detail even as a dangerous home invasion was going on. According to court records, she had promised to remember the face so well that it helped the police make a composite drawing of Seth that was spot on. With this information and the fact that the thieves sold $30,000 worth of jewelry to a jeweler in Philadelphia, the police had four possible suspects in the home invasion. One of them was Seth from Middletown.
In February 2010, the police went to Seth’s house and found that he wasn’t there. His family told the police that they didn’t know where he was. On March 15, 2010, Seth and another of the four suspects were caught by police in Miami, Florida. Six witnesses are said to have named Seth as a participant, and he is said to have implicated himself on March 24, 2010, while talking on a jail phone that was recorded. With all of this evidence and the help of one of the burglars who took a plea deal, Seth was found guilty of killing Terri and stealing from her house.
Where is Seth Jedlicka at this time?
At trial, Seth’s family said that he was the meanest person and that he was always swearing, even as the victim lay on the ground after being shot several times. He took jewelry out of the bedroom safe with a “cocky smile.” VanCulin, the couple’s other daughter, even said that Seth made her father walk around the house in his underwear to make him feel less important. The State didn’t say that Seth was the one who shot, but they did want him to be found guilty of felony murder. The court said that his flight to Florida showed “a consciousness of his own guilt,” and he was found guilty of theft of over $100,000, armed robbery, first-degree burglary, use of a handgun in the commission of a felony, first-degree assault, first-degree felony murder, and conspiracy to commit the main crimes. Seth was given a life sentence for first-degree murder by visiting judge Christian M. Kahl, but all but 60 years of that sentence were put on hold. The court gave Seth another 60 years in prison for the other charges, which would run at the same time as his sentence for murder.
According to court records, he is in prison at the North Branch Correctional Institution in Cumberland, where he must stay for at least 30 years before he can be released. Seth asked for a shorter sentence on August 29, 2017, but his request was turned down.
