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WILKES-BARRE — A Kingston man accused of fatally beating his girlfriend whose body was found in a vehicle behind his residence will face a criminal homicide charge in Luzerne County Court.
Kingston police and Luzerne County detectives alleged Dana Ganjeh, 39, fatally beat Linda Frick, 56, on Aug. 3 into Aug. 4.
Frick’s body was found under a blanket on the passenger seat of a Toyota Rav4 behind Ganjeh’s residence at 71 Price St. An officer unlocked the door and pulled the blanket down, exposing Frick’s badly bruised face, court records say.
Detectives allege a surveillance camera from another house recorded the Toyota being driven several times in an alley behind Price Street throughout the morning hours on Aug. 4. A surveillance camera at a Kingston convenient store recorded Ganjeh in the parking lot from 6:23 a.m. o 6:26 a.m. the same day, authorities say.
Soon after Frick’s body was found, detectives learned she resided with her brother, Larry Frick, in Dreher Township, Wayne County.
During an interview, Larry Frick and his girlfriend, Anna Marie Davis, claimed they last saw Linda Frick inside a sliding glass patio door at his residence at about 6:15 p.m. on Aug. 3. When they returned two hours later, Linda Frick was gone and they found smudges of blood near the patio door, which was knocked off the bottom rail, court records say.
Police responded to Ganjeh’s residence when his brother, Danesh Ganjeh, called 911 saying his brother had suicidal tendencies.
Danesh Ganjeh told detectives his brother called him crying saying he did something “bad.” When Danesh Ganjeh asked his brother what he was talking about, Ganjeh replied, “You’ll find out” and “take care of mom,” according to court records.
Ganjeh’s preliminary hearing, which was to be held Oct. 26, was re-scheduled to Thursday before District Judge Thomas Malloy of Wilkes-Barre.
Prosecutors sought to present their case before another district judge other than District Judge James Haggerty, who presides over civil and criminal matters in Kingston and Edwardsville.
In a court filing seeking to transfer the case to another district judge, prosecutors claimed Haggerty made comments when Ganjeh was preliminary arraigned on a criminal homicide charge on Aug. 8. At the preliminary arraignment, Haggerty quizzed prosecutors to why bail shouldn’t be imposed on Ganjeh.
Under the Pennsylvania crimes code, those charged with an open count of criminal homicide are not entitled to bail.
Ganjeh’s preliminary hearing was held Thursday when Haggerty attended a mandatory education program for district judges.
Malloy sent Ganjeh’s case to Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas. Ganjeh remains jailed at the county correctional facility without bail.