In the weeks before her death, 17-year-old Samantha Heller told friends and family that she was pregnant, court documents show.

She even hinted that the baby didn't belong to Ben Klinger, her longtime on-and-off-again boyfriend, the documents show.

Klinger, 19, came to hear of those revelations — and documents indicate the pregnancy perhaps was his motive to kill Heller.

On Dec. 4, police allege, Klinger intentionally crashed his car on Route 283 in Rapho Township with the aim of killing the McCaskey High School senior. When the crash didn't stop Keller's breathing, Klinger did by sitting on her head and torso, police allege.

Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman said Thursday that an autopsy revealed that Heller wasn't pregnant.

Also Thursday, Stedman said a first-degree murder conviction will be sought against Klinger.

Stedman wouldn't comment on whether the believed pregnancy was a definite motive, but Klinger's arrest affidavit seems to insist on that.

The pregnancy is mentioned in several paragraphs of the lengthy affidavit.

Klinger told emergency personnel after the crash that he had Heller lay down in the back seat, unbelted, because she was pregnant and more comfortable while traveling, the affidavit shows.

Klinger lied about that; evidence showed Heller was in the front seat at the time of the crash.

In the affidavit, Klinger is portrayed as a jealous, controlling and abusive partner to Heller.

Investigators acknowledge the believed pregnancy as a possible motive, but didn't elaborate. Nor did they reveal specifics about what Klinger and Heller discussed in the car — if they are known — before Klinger veered into a guardrail at speeds of more than 100 mph.

On Friday, Klinger became the first person in Lancaster County to be charged with straight homicide for a vehicle crash-related death.

And Stedman says the plan is to prosecute the case as first-degree murder.

"He is charged with criminal homicide, generally," the district attorney said Thursday, "but we will prosecute the case as first-degree murder for having the intent to kill."

Klinger, of Elizabethtown, is charged with crashing the car, then smothering Heller when he realized she survived the crash.

An autopsy determined that Heller died of multiple traumatic injuries and asphyxia — the latter consistent with Heller being sat on, a forensic pathologist found.

Klinger, a 2011 Lancaster Mennonite graduate, is being held at Lancaster County Prison without bail.

He's charged with homicide, homicide by vehicle and a number of related offenses. Typically, drivers are only charged with homicide by vehicle — not the catch-all count of homicide — when found culpable in a fatal crash.
bhambright@lnpnews.com