American serial killer suspected of murdering Brit tourist given death sentence

An US serial killer suspected of murdering a British tourist has been given the death penalty.

Tracy Petrocelli, 67, is thought to have killed Stephen Scane, from Somerset.

His weathered skull was found in Utah 35 years ago.

Although a lack of evidence meant Petrocelli was never prosecuted for Mr Scane's murder, he has been convicted of a trio of murders across three states in 1981.

He was given the death sentence in 1985 – but two years ago it was overturned by an appeals court.

The death sentence, however, was reordered by a jury in Nevada last month where members rejected Petrocelli’s plea for life in prison without parole.

Yesterday, Mr Scane’s uncle Derek, speaking from his home in Frome, told Somerset Live : “Why should he draw breath when he has committed all these crimes?

“100 per cent he should be executed, for Stephen and for the others.”

Mr Scane was aged 26 when he went missing from a town called Evanston in Utah in 1981.

Three years later, his skull and collarbone were discovered by hikers in a national forest park, 32 miles away. On reopening the case 14 years ago, detectives identified Petrocelli as a murder suspect after it emerged Mr Scane’s ID was found on the killer on his arrest in 1982.

But the case went cold when Petrocelli, who denied killing Scane, could not offer more information on interview in prison.

In December, Summit County Police said in statement: “He [Petrocelli] remains a suspect in the murder of Stephen Scane.”

Petrocelli was convicted of murdering car salesman James Wilson  in Reno in Nevada and his 18-year-old fiancée, Melanie Barker, in Seattle in 1982, receiving the death sentence.

Then, in 2009, Petrocelli pleaded guilty to the murder of surfer Dennis Gibson with a judge sentencing him to 15 years to life in prison.

Last year, the death sentence for killing Mr Wilson was overturned by an appeals court before, last month, the jury at the re-sentencing hearing placed him back on death row.

It brings comfort to Mr Scane’s uncle Derek, who was close to the then-teenager growing up in Frome and attending Frome Selwood School. He lost contact when the carpenter moved to Wyoming in 1981 for a new life.

Derek Scane said: “Stephen got wrapped up in the wrong situation at the wrong time. He was a lovely kid, but over there he got caught up in the wrong crowd and I don’t know how it all ended.

“It is very sad.”

Somerset coroner Tony Williams concluded Mr Scane had died from unlawful killing in December. His remains, returned to the UK in 1987, are believed to have been now buried in Somerset.

Source: Read Full Article