Rhoads

BEDFORD — A Huntingdon County man will face criminal homicide charges in a Bedford County court after waiving his right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday in Central Court.

Charges against Alec Paul Rhoads, 27, were dropped in July 2022 by then-District Attorney Lesley Childers-Potts, who reported DNA found on a crossbow used in the killing did not match Rhoads.

However, District Attorney Dwight Diehl recently took another look at the case and said Wednesday he found that there wasn’t enough DNA evidence at the crime scene to exclude Rhoads as a suspect.

With that new information, the charges against Rhoads were refiled last month. He is being held in the Bedford County Correctional Facility without bail. He is charged with criminal homicide, murder of the third degree, aggravated assault, involuntary manslaughter and recklessly endangering another person.

Rhoads was the initial suspect in the case and is accused of using a crossbow to fatally shoot Daren Lingenfelter, 53, of Claysburg, on May 23, 2021.

According to court documents, Rhoads was handling a loaded crossbow at a Liberty Township home when Lingenfelter was struck by an arrow.

Diehl said “he had just reviewed the whole case” and that the case to exclude Rhoads was built on DNA evidence gathered from the crossbow. But “there was never enough DNA to make a profile.”

Rhoads’ DNA couldn’t be excluded, Diehl said, because there was “nothing to compare it to. … There wasn’t enough DNA to get a sample.”

During the original investigation into the fatal shooting, witnesses placed Rhoads at the scene, with one saying he had taken the bow from the bedroom and wanted to shoot it.

Lingenfelter and a female witness were in the bedroom when the arrow struck Lingenfelter in the throat, killing him, reports state.

Rhoads allegedly fled the scene before police arrived, and when he was located later that day, he said he was mowing grass and had never been in the home where Lingenfelter was killed. However, surveillance footage showed Rhoads fleeing the scene, according to court documents.

At the time, state police said Rhoads presented several different stories about what happened that day.

A witness also told police she was with Lingenfelter when he was shot and tried to help him. She then confronted Rhoads, who claimed Lingenfelter shot himself.

After the charges were initially dropped, Rhoads allegedly reached out through Facebook to another witness, telling her he hoped she believed that it was an accident, according to court documents.

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.