The death of a 90-year-old Lancaster County woman who had a heart attack two days after being robbed at gunpoint has been ruled a homicide, according to police and the county coroner.
Anna M. Sensenig's heart attack was "directly" caused by the home invasion, officials said Thursday.
However, no charges will be filed against the accused robber, Travis Meints of Terre Hill.
The 21-year-old Meints killed himself in South Carolina four days after the home-invasion robbery at Sensenig's home on Kurtz Road in Earl Township. Meints also is accused of robbing two eastern Lancaster County businesses prior to the home invasion. He committed a similar home invasion in South Carolina before he shot himself, police say.
County officials contacted Thursday, including District Attorney Craig Stedman, couldn't recall a similar case here. Neither could New Holland police Detective Jonathan Heisse, lead investigator of the robbery-turned-homicide.
"At the time, we think it's a home-invasion robbery," Heisse said. "Two days later, we were in the middle of a homicide investigation."
Heisse said Sensenig's death led to his department's first homicide investigation since 43-year-old Ashley Boyce was shot outside a fitness center in February 2004.
Sensenig's death was ruled homicide after an autopsy and follow-up police work, officials said.
County coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni said Sensenig's heart "ruptured" as a result of chemicals emitted into her bloodstream — caused by high levels of stress.
"The damage to the heart occurred as a direct result from stress that (she) experienced during the robbery," Diamantoni said Thursday from a medical convention in San Diego. "Chemicals were released into the bloodstream as a direct after effect."
The coroner said the condition is diagnosed in a "very small percentage" of death investigations.
Sensenig was robbed June 18 when Meints allegedly approached her front door and claimed his car had broken down. The so-called car trouble was a ruse, however, to get into the woman's home. Once inside, the robber took cash while holding the woman at gunpoint.
Sensenig was admitted to Ephrata Community Hospital the next day. She wasn't physically injured, but told doctors she was "under stress," police said. Sensenig died the next day.
Investigators likened her heart attack to "broken heart syndrome" — which usually involves the death of a spouse. The stress caused by the loved one's death — or in Sensenig's case, the home-invasion robbery — leads to heart failure.
Heisse said several pieces of evidence tied Meints to the three local robberies.
Among them were vehicle descriptions, suspect descriptions and the matching methods of operation used during the robberies.
Also, Heisse said, the gun used in the Earl Township home invasion was identical to the one wielded during the South Carolina robbery and one of the other local robberies.
Heisse learned that when he connected a broken hand grip left behind at one of the store robberies to the weapon that was recovered in South Carolina. South Carolina authorities mailed the weapon — actually a plastic BB gun — to Heisse.
"And lo and behold, the piece fit," Heisse said.
E-mail: bhambright@lnpnews.com