Police say Altoona man killed neighbor, lived with the corpse for 3 days

An Altoona, Blair County, man is under arrest after police say he killed his neighbor and then lived with the corpse for three days.

According to WTAJ, police were called to an apartment along Eighth Avenue around 3:49 p.m. Wednesday for a report of a robbery involving Raymond Oechsle Jr., 51.

Upon arrival, they discovered the door to the apartment, had been damaged. Inside they found the body of Oechsle’s neighbor, Christopher Helsel, and blood in the living room and kitchen.

Police had been called to the building earlier that day to perform a welfare check on Helsel who had not shown up for work for several days but were unable to contact him at the time, WTAJ said.

After discovering the body, police then located Oechsle and took him to police headquarters, where they said he confessed to killing Helsel.

Oechsle said he stabbed and killed Helsel with a folding knife around 4 a.m. April 23 after they got into an argument outside of his apartment, adding that Helsel acted “like a b****,” and said, “Don’t kill me, bro.”

Oechsle then drug the body into his living room and covered the dead man’s face so he wouldn’t have to look at it. He then attempted to use adult diapers to clean up the blood, the news outlet said.

He also told police he had friends over at his apartment while the body was there, turning off lights and keeping visitors away from the living room, according to the criminal complaint.

Oechsle was denied bail and is currently in Blair County Prison. He is facing felony charges of first and third-degree murder, aggravated assault, burglary, and criminal trespassing as well as misdemeanor charges of possession of an instrument of crime, theft, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse.