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Police this week charged the boyfriend of Stephanie Waters, the 21-year-old Roaring Spring woman shot to death Jan. 8 in Woodbury, for setting up the alleged drug deal that authorities say ended in Waters’ murder.
In a news release, state police said Benjamin Holsinger, 22, of Roaring Spring would face charges for delivering marijuana and making criminal use of a communication facility. Holsinger allegedly sent Waters, his girlfriend at the time, to sell marijuana to two teenagers on his behalf.
Those teenagers – Deauntay Moye of Woodbury, then 17, and Ryan Hardwick of Martinsburg, then 15 – shot Waters inside a car in a Woodbury parking lot during the deal, police said. They then allegedly killed her dog and drove throughout the region for hours with Waters’ body still in the car.
“Holsinger set up the drug deal with Deauntay Moye and was planning on selling marijuana to Moye,” police said in the release Wednesday. “Waters delivered the drugs and was robbed and killed.”
In a police interview shortly after his arrest, Hardwick told investigators the boys planned the deal with Holsinger via text message. They had expected Holsinger to arrive in person, he allegedly said.
District Attorney Bill Higgins noted Wednesday that Holsinger declined to alert police after his girlfriend’s disappearance. While telling police he’d sent her for a drug deal likely wouldn’t have saved her life, Higgins said, it could have directed officers to the suspects more quickly.
“He had a connection with these guys,” Higgins said, referring to the teenagers. “They knew to call him when they wanted marijuana.”
In a phone interview Wednesday, Waters’ mother, Sally Harr, said Holsinger would have to face justice if he was involved in the deal that led to her daughter’s death.
“All I can tell you is, we want justice, period,” Harr, a Tioga County resident, said.
Harr said she believed Holsinger had continued working since Waters’ death, finding a new girlfriend and maintaining only limited contact with others who knew her. Holsinger had attended a public church service in Waters’ honor two weeks after she died.
Police apprehended Holsinger on Monday. He remains in Bedford County jail in lieu of $20,000 bail, according to online court documents.
A defense attorney isn’t yet listed in court documents. Holsinger’s preliminary hearing is set for Wednesday.