BALTIMORE — Investigators probing the death of a federal prosecutor from Baltimore whose battered body was found repeatedly stabbed and dumped in a Pennsylvania creek suspect the killing was the result of a personal relationship that turned violent and was not linked to his work, a law enforcement official said Friday.
Authorities were expected to work through the weekend assembling evidence in the grim mystery of how Jonathan Luna, 38, wound up dead in rural Pennsylvania shortly before dawn Thursday after going to the federal courthouse in downtown Baltimore late the night before to complete some paperwork for a plea agreement.
But the official said authorities could announce as early as Monday that the slaying was unconnected to Luna’s job and was expected to be handled as a state murder case by the local prosecutor in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County — not as a case of federal kidnapping nor the killing of a federal law enforcement officer.
Two other sources close to the investigation said Friday that authorities had largely discounted any link between Luna’s slaying and the defendants in the drug conspiracy trial where he was serving as the lead prosecutor this week in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. The defendants in that case — a Baltimore rap artist and his one-time business associate — pleaded guilty Thursday morning to distributing heroin from the studio of their upstart music label, Stash House Records.
Luna, a married father of two boys, was reported missing when he failed to appear in court for a 9:30 a.m. hearing. One of his last contacts was with a defense lawyer in the drug case, whom Luna told that he was returning to the federal courthouse late Wednesday evening to complete paperwork for the plea agreements.
Court records made public Friday said there was blood in the car, along with cash scattered inside the vehicle. Luna’s body was found lying facedown nearby.
A Pennsylvania coroner said Friday that Luna died from drowning and suffered multiple stab wounds in the neck and chest. But contradicting earlier reports, the coroner said Luna was not shot. A federal law enforcement source said Luna was stabbed 36 times, and that some of the wounds were "defensive," indicating he had tried to fight off his attacker.
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