A Latrobe man with a long record of violence toward women has been arrested on accusations that he stabbed and killed 59-year-old Pamela Puskar inside her Loyalhanna Apartments home. Police say 54-year-old Glenn James Whittier left her to bleed to death early Saturday before quietly slipping out of the building.
Whittier was charged Wednesday with homicide and tampering with evidence. Latrobe police and Westmoreland County detectives say he became the primary suspect within hours. According to court filings by county detective Ray Dupilka and Latrobe police Lt. Michael Wigand, another resident of the Jefferson Street complex told investigators that Whittier had been drinking with him on Friday night, Pittsburgh-WTAE reported.
Puskar stopped by during the gathering and later took Whittier to her apartment to get cigarettes. Whittier never returned, and attempts to reach Puskar went unanswered for hours. The resident told police that when he called her at around 2:40 a.m. Saturday, Whittier picked up her phone. Investigators say Whittier told the caller he intended to engage in a sex act with Puskar, while she was heard in the background saying, “you’re not touching me.”
Calls placed to her between 3:57 a.m. and 10:23 a.m. were ignored. Witnesses said knocks on her door also went unanswered. Puskar’s body was discovered around 8 a.m. Sunday in her kitchen, with cans of Canada Dry ginger ale strewn nearby. Police say she suffered multiple stab wounds to her torso, hands, legs and back.
Video surveillance later showed a man identified as Whittier leaving the building around 7:10 a.m. Saturday. He was carrying a ginger ale box and appeared to be hiding items beneath a sweatshirt that belonged to Puskar. Those images were released publicly on Monday. When police searched Whittier’s Ligonier Street home, they could not find Puskar’s sweatshirt, the ginger ale box or the clothing he had worn the night of the killing.
As officers led him from the station on Wednesday, Whittier denied knowing Puskar before that night. “That was the very first time we met through a friend,” he said on his way to the arraignment. He was denied bail and is being held at the Westmoreland County Prison. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for December 8.
Whittier’s background includes two previous violent cases involving women. In 2015, he was sentenced to up to five years in state prison after attacking and imprisoning a woman, beating her with a hammer and pouring bleach into her eyes. In 2021, he pleaded guilty to lesser charges after a mistrial in a case where a woman testified he choked her and repeatedly forced her head into couch pillows when she tried to end their relationship.
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