Different circumstances mark the cases of three former Erie residents recently killed in Florida, but the cases share similarities as the new year starts.
Three separate hearings in January will help determine what happens next with three defendants accused of murdering the victims.
The topic of each hearing is the same: Whether the defendant is mentally competent to stand trial after undergoing court-ordered treatment.
Stephanie Crone-Overholts was killed in 2021
The oldest of the three cases concerns the death of Stephanie Crone-Overholts , 47, whose dismembered body was found in an an inlet of Tampa Bay in November 2021 . She moved to Florida from Erie in 2020.
The man accused of killing Crone-Overholts is Robert L. Kessler, 72, of Lutz, north of Tampa. He is charged with first-degree murder and abuse of a dead human body.
Kessler had been scheduled to go to trial in June, but it was put on hold when a judge granted a defense request that an expert examine Kessler to determine if he is mentally fit for trial. A hearing on his competency is scheduled for Jan. 6 at the Hillsborough County Courthouse in Tampa, according to court records.