A missing person case took a darker turn this weekend in Philadelphia. and ended up being a murder investigation. What was supposed to be a fun evening out for a commuting student who had just started at Temple University ended up with her being brutally murdered. The student, Jenna Burleigh, 22, went missing on Thursday after visiting a Philadelphia bar, popular with students, close to the campus. When she didn't arrive home that night, she was reported missing by her father on Friday. On Saturday she was found to have been brutally killed. The suspect, seen on CCTV surveillance footage as accompanying her when leaving the bar, has since been arrested and charged with murder.

University student leaves bar with murder suspect

Burleigh had been seen on surveillance footage leaving the popular bar, close to the Temple campus, on Thursday with the suspected killer, Joshua Hupperterz, 29. Hupperterz is a former student at Temple and the couple was also seen on surveillance footage to head to his apartment.

Burleigh was a commuter student who traveled to the Temple campus from Lower Salford Township. On Friday, she was reported missing by her father but was eventually tracked down to a Wayne County home, some 140 miles from Philadelphia.

She had been brutally killed.

A police source quoted a neighbor of Hupperterz as saying they heard screaming from his apartment at about 4 a.m. on Thursday. On investigating Hupperterz’s apartment, police found blood spatter and a stash of marijuana which they valued at around $20,000.00.

Student’s body found in a lakefront home in Wayne County

Burleigh’s body was found in a lakefront home belonging to Hupperterz’s grandmother on Saturday. Police believe Hupperterz killed Burleigh in his apartment in Philadelphia and then moved her body to the property in Wayne County.

Suspect arrested and arraigned on murder charge

Police arrested Hupperterz on Saturday relating to Burleigh’s death. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that at the time of his arrest, Hupperterz had scratches on his face. He told police he cut his face on a broken bowl. However, Philadelphia Police Capt. John Ryan of the homicide unit said Hupperterz did confess to some “elements of the crime,” and they expect him to be charged in Burleigh’s death. As reported by Penn Live, Hupperterz was arraigned on Sunday on a murder charge as well as tampering with evidence and the abuse of a corpse.

Richard Englert, President of Temple University, said Burleigh had only a week before transferred to Temple University from Montgomery County Community College.

She had planned to study film and media arts at Temple. Englert went on to extend the University’s sympathies to Burleigh’s family and classmates both at the University and also at Montgomery County Community College.
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