Oechsle

HOLLIDAYSBURG — An Altoona man facing first-degree murder charges in the stabbing death of his 38-year-old neighbor is now accused of stabbing two fellow inmates in the Blair County Prison.

More criminal charges are pending against Raymond Thomas Oechsle Jr., 51, who is accused of stabbing the inmates Thursday, prompting those inmates to be transported to UPMC Altoona.

Warden Abbie Tate said Friday that one of the victim inmates was already back in the county prison, while the other remained hospitalized for observation.

“There were no life-threatening injuries,” she said.

The victim inmates, however, may have felt that their lives were in danger because one was stabbed in the face, District Attorney Pete Weeks said Friday.

More details are expected to be released with the filing of criminal charges, probably next week, First Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith said.

Defense attorney Robert Donaldson said Friday that Oechsle was in an isolation cell at the prison until recently. He said he wasn’t aware that Oechsle was in a housing block until learning of the alleged stabbing.

“He was uncomfortable in (isolation),” Donaldson said. “It’s not a good place to be, but he was doing the best he could and he was actively participating in his defense of the first-degree murder charges which are slated for trial in the coming year.”

Donaldson said Oechsle was subsequently returned to isolation.

Oechsle’s first-degree murder and related charges were filed in April, after he was accused in the stabbing death of his 38-year-old neighbor, Christopher A. Helsel.

Oechsle and Helsel lived in the same apartment building at 2003 Eighth Ave. where Helsel’s body was found in Oechsle’s first-floor apartment about three days after Helsel died.

Criminal charges indicate that Oechsle told police he acted in self-defense. The investigation showed Helsel sustained 98 penetrating stab wounds to his body, including his head, face, chest, torso and back.

In August during Oechsle’s formal court arraignment on the murder charges, Weeks spoke of Oechsle’s criminal history, including a conviction for intent to commit murder after he stabbed a fellow inmate 22 times inside a federal prison in North Carolina.

Online records showed him to be a Philadelphia native.

On Friday, WTAJ-TV made an online posting of a letter alleged to have been written by Oechsle on paper that county prison inmates use in writing their versions of misconduct reports. The bottom of the handwritten letter indicates that Raymond Thomas Oechsle Jr. is the real name of the Frankford Slasher, a name given to a possible serial killer for unsolved murders between 1985 and 1990 in and around the Philadelphia neighborhood.

The one-page letter also references Helsel’s stabbing in April, the body of a woman found in March in Pittsburgh and two bodies found in 2020 in Montgomery County.

Weeks told WTAJ that his office has been aware of Oechsle’s claims to being involved with or having committed murders in the past.

“We have consulted with the appropriate jurisdictions relative to his claims and have passed the information onto them and are working with those jurisdictions,” Weeks said.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.