A woman who had told her dad that she was going out to help a neighbour set up for a New Year’s Eve celebration was abducted by a man she thought was her friend, before being raped, stabbed and burnt alive.

Two men who initially faced the death penalty following the barbaric killing of a learning-disabled woman instead received life imprisonment after striking a plea agreement that involved pleading guilty to their apalling acts.

The appalling tale began to emerge during the opening days of January 2014, when a runner enjoying a New Year jog discovered a pink Ugg boot, partially concealed in mud, whilst traversing a secluded area of Pennsylvania woodland. Several paces further, they spotted another unusual item – a small pink handbag.

The inquisitive jogger examined the contents of the handbag, discovering an identification card belonging to 23 year old Ashley Kline. Ashley, who had suffered brain damage from lead poisoning during childhood, had been reported as missing on December 30.

Relatives described her as “happy and loving but naive and overly trusting,” with a mental age in her mid-teens.

She had voluntarily entered a vehicle with family acquaintance Ryan Matthew Schannauer, trusting that he would escort her to watch a film. However, Schannauer and his co-conspirator Adam Morning Star Lynch instead inflicted a brutal ordeal upon Ashley – battering, stabbing, and incinerating her to death.

Despite pleading guilty, neither man could provide a reason for their brutal murder of the innocent young woman. When questioned in court about why he had killed a woman he had known since childhood, Schannauer quietly responded: “I don’t have an explanation for it.”

Assistant District Attorney Christopher Lechner told a Lancaster County court that Ashley’s trust in Ryan Schannauer had led to her death: “I hope that Mr. Schannauer thinks about that every single day of his life,” he said.

Ashley’s father Michael had believed his daughter had left the house on December 30 to help her friend Lana Briar prepare her house for a New Year’s Eve party, but in reality she had agreed to meet with Schannauer, 20. When she didn’t return that night, Michael Kline had assumed she was having a sleepover at Lana’s house – something she did often.

Schannauer had reportedly been attracted to Ashley but she had told him that she preferred to remain friends. It was in that spirit that she agreed to go to the cinema with him but after she got in his car Ashley was driven to the nearby Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area.

There Schannauer and Lynch, 21, forced her from the car, stabbed her repeatedly and then set her on fire.

“Schannauer admitted he doused her with petrol and she was breathing when he did it,” Lechner told the court.

Later questioned by police, Schannauer and Lynch accused each other of the murder. “They point the finger at each other in terms of who did what,” Lechner said.

Lynch, who already had a criminal record for offences such as theft and robbery, was arrested after CCTV footage showed a man matching his description filling a jerry can with petrol at a service station near the crime scene.

During interrogation, he quickly pointed the finger at his friend Schannauer for the murder, asserting that he only got involved post-event to assist in disposing of the victim’s body. However, when Ashley’s lifelong friend was questioned, he placed the blame squarely on Lynch.

Incriminating evidence was discovered inside Lynch’s car, including a broken necklace belonging to Ashley found under one of the seats, and the distinct imprint of one of her pink Ugg boots on the inside of a window.

But the decisive breakthrough came when police interviewed Lynch’s girlfriend. She revealed that she had been in the car when the pair returned to the crime scene on January 8 to make a second attempt to incinerate Ashley’s remains.

Based on the eyewitness testimony, prosecutors presented to the court how Ryan’s frustration over Ashley’s rejection of his advances developed into jealous fury.

Before abducting the unsuspecting young woman on 30 December, it emerged, Schannauer and Lynch had been planning her murder for months.

Schannauer had sexually assaulted her inside his car before dragging her out of the vehicle where he and Lynch repeatedly stabbed and beat her, then doused her in petrol and set her alight. 

A post-mortem examination revealed that Ashley had soot in her lungs, indicating she was still alive when she was initially set on fire.

Both men were charged with homicide, arson, abuse of a corpse, kidnapping and conspiracy. District Attorney Craig W. Stedman described the case as “one of the most horrific crimes we have had in our history.”

Eleven years later, both men remain incarcerated, with no chance of parole.