A radio broadcaster who grew up in the Philadelphia area was murdered last weekend in his New York City apartment.
Police found the body of George Weber, 47, who had been stabbed dozens of times, on the morning of March 22 after a fellow staffer at ABC News Radio, where Weber worked as a freelance anchor, grew concerned when he did not show up for work.
Police arrested 16-year-old John Katehis of Queens for the murder in upstate New York earlier this week.
Paul Browne, New York Police Department spokesman, said Katehis had been hiding out in Middletown, N.Y., where police apprehended him at about 11 p.m. March 24.
Browne said police have not determined a motive but that Katehis “has made statements implicating himself.”
Katehis told police he answered an ad that Weber had placed on Craigslist.com requesting a partner in “rough sex.” The pair met up on the night of March 20 in Brooklyn and went to Weber’s apartment, where the two drank vodka and inhaled cocaine together, the suspect told police.
Browne said the murder took place sometime after 6 p.m.
“[Katehis] met the victim online through Craigslist and they met up at the victim’s apartment, where he was stabbed approximately 50 times in the neck, the upper torso and arms and the victim also had defensive wounds on his hands,” Browne described.
Police found Weber in his bedroom, half-naked, with his feet bound together by duct tape.
Although the teen admitted to stabbing Weber, he said he “blanked out” during the attack.
According to some news reports, Katehis said Weber initially brandished a knife at him, but Browne said he could not comment on that allegation.
Katehis allegedly attempted to clean up after the murder and left the water running in both the bathtub and a sink.
The murder weapon has not been found.
ABC News Radio vice president Steve Jones contacted police at about 12:30 a.m. March 24 after Weber failed to report for work the previous night and did not answer his home phone. Police were dispatched to Weber’s apartment but left after finding nothing suspicious.
Jones contacted police again later that morning and they returned, this time entering the apartment and finding the murder scene.
“We are shocked and deeply saddened by the death of our colleague and friend George Weber, who was the victim of what police have deemed a homicide at his home in Brooklyn,” Jones said in a statement. “Our condolences and prayers go out to George’s family and friends at this very difficult time.”
Weber had worked at WABC-AM in New York as a news reporter for several popular shows, such as “Curtis and Kuby,” but the station let him go last year amid budget cuts. Since then, Weber had done freelance work for the national network.
Weber described on his Web site that he’d been fascinated with radio since a young age, “so much so I took over the basement of my parents’ home to set up a makeshift radio station.”
He landed his first position in the field at age 15 at the Centennial School District’s WCSD-FM in Warminster.
According to his site, while still in high school, Weber “talked [his] way” into a job at WBUX in Doylestown, a position he held for about three years before he accepted a job as a news reporter at WAEB in Allentown.
Weber spent about two-and-a-half years at the station but left for a station in Denver in 1985.
Prior to moving to New York, Weber also worked at stations in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
On his Web site, Weber compiled a list of his most memorable radio moments, which included a brief encounter with former President Jimmy Carter during his days at his school’s radio station; the San Francisco Earthquake of 1989 and the Oklahoma City bombing. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, ranked first on Weber’s list.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who used to host a weekly radio show on WABC to which Weber contributed, said Weber was a consummate professional.
“George was the kind of professional who could give you the news and his views without one getting in the way of the other,” Bloomberg said. “On or off the air, and especially during our commercial breaks, his views were incisive and insightful. He will be missed by millions of radio listeners, including me.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].