Pittsburgh-Area Woman Charged In Bar Owner's Sledgehammer Death

LATROBE, PA — A Latrobe woman has been arrested in connection with the brutal beating death last year of a Cambria County bar owner.

Tami Shafer, 53, is accused of killing Lance Ross, 65, the owner of the Johnstown Freight Station, in February 2023. According to court documents, she has been charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and evidence tampering.

Ross was discovered severely beaten in the atrium of his business and taken to the hospital, where he later died. Shafer told police the two of them had gone out the night before he died from multiple blunt force injuries to his head and neck, WJAC-TV in Johnstown reported.

Shafer told police that Ross had fallen down steps. But investigators found evidence that contradicted her story, including a blood-splattered stairwell and a bloody sledgehammer.

It is unclear why police waited nearly two years after Ross' death to arrest Shafer. She is being held without bond in the Cambria County Jail.