CALIFORNIA, Pa. — Newly released body camera footage shows a California Borough police officer breaking a window of a Jeep Cherokee parked near the public library and finding the body of 18-year-old PennWest California student Karoline Heintz.
Authorities released the video Thursday, three days after Magisterial District Judge Charles Tenny ordered Heintz’s boyfriend and his mother to stand trial on all charges in her killing. The footage, entered as evidence at this week’s preliminary hearing, shows what officers found in the first minutes of the case.
Royce Moser, 18, of North Strabane Township, is charged with criminal homicide, two counts of tampering with physical evidence, two counts of abuse of a corpse, and obstructing the administration of law, court records show. His mother, Rachel Moser, 56, of Beallsville, faces those charges except homicide, plus felony hindering apprehension and criminal use of a communication facility.
Police were dispatched around 12:24 a.m. Aug. 20 to Wood Street after Heintz’s family requested a welfare check, state police said. An officer says on the video that her father reported an AirTag in the car.
“I’ve got an unconscious female in the back of this car right now,” an officer radios, calling for an ambulance. Moments later: “I broke the window. We got access to the car.”
“Yeah, that ain’t good, bro,” one officer says. “I don’t want to touch it.”
After canceling a Charleroi police unit, an officer says, “I’m going to need PSP here.”
Heintz’s father was en route. “I haven’t talked to the dad yet,” an officer says. “I don’t even know how to tell him that.”
State police allege Royce Moser stabbed Heintz in the chest with a kitchen knife on Aug. 19 outside his father’s home, then drove her body to his mother’s house in Beallsville, where investigators say the two cleaned the vehicle before leaving it near campus. He told investigators he had a “demon take over” and tell him to stab her, according to the affidavit.
An attorney for Royce Moser declined to comment on the charges. Both were denied bail Aug. 20 and are held at the Washington County Prison. Formal arraignment is set for Oct. 13 before President Judge Valarie S. Costanzo.
Heintz was a 2026 graduate of Peters Township High School and a freshman on the PennWest California women’s soccer team. Her family called the killing “a parent’s worst nightmare” in a statement and asked for privacy.