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Neighbor Says Girl Accused Of Killing Father Confided In Her

ELIZABETH TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- New information has surfaced in the case of a 13-year-old girl charged with killing her father.

Team 4 has learned the teen confessed to a neighbor and revealed for the first time details of the alleged abuse she suffered.

After the shooting, Suzanne Gruber climbed into an ambulance with the girl and was at her side for the next nine hours while she was questioned by police and examined at Children's Hospital.
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WTAE Channel 4 Action News is not identifying the girl by name because there have been allegations of abuse connected to her case.

At first the girl told police robbers shot her father. But then, while officers were questioning the girl's brother, she told her neighbor a different story.

Team 4's Paul Van Osdol sat down with Gruber one-on-one.

Van Osdol: "She basically confessed to you before the police?"

Gruber: "Yes."

Then, the 13-year-old told Gruber why she shot her father, Matthew Booth.

Van Osdol: "What exactly did she tell you about her history with her father?"

Gruber: "That she was sexually assaulted by her father since she was 7, and he beat her and her brother a lot, and she didn't know which bruises were from which fights because of the consistency of the abuse."

Gruber said she had seen the girl and her father at a neighborhood party earlier that night. There were no signs of tension, but the girl told her that changed after the party was over.

"She did admit to me after everybody was gone," said Gruber. "Nobody could see. Her father pulled her by the hair into the house."

Gruber said at that point, after years of abuse and no action taken by police or CYF, the girl felt she had no other options.

The girl is accused of shooting her father after he fell asleep or passed out.

"She was definitely at a breaking point where she didn't know what else to do or where else to go, because the police and everybody was there so many times and nothing was ever done about it," Gruber said. "Who would you trust if nothing was ever done?"

Gruber said she would do whatever she can to help the girl.

There will be a bond hearing on Thursday as the girl's lawyer tries to get her moved from jail to the Shuman Center for Juveniles.