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Two Face Homicide Charges One Year After Man Went Missing

COALDALE — A man and a teen are now accused of homicide. The charges come after the remains of the victim were found in September in Schuylkill County, bu...

COALDALE -- A man and a teen are now accused of homicide.

The charges come after the remains of the victim were found in September in Schuylkill County, but the man had been missing since January.

We learned on Monday that police blame a fight among friends for a homicide in Schuylkill County a year ago this month.

Charges were filed Sunday night against a man and a teenager for strangling and beating their friend to death and leaving him in the woods in Coaldale.

Corey Samuels went missing a year ago next week. His remains were found in some woods in Coaldale in September.

On Sunday, arrest papers indicated that the man and a juvenile accused of killing him both admitted to the crime. One of them said they just wanted to tell the truth.

For almost exactly a year, there have been questions about what happened to Corey Samuels in the woods of Coaldale. His remains were found in September, shortly after that the coroner ruled the veteran of the U.S. Marines was a victim of homicide.

Now, we've learned police believe Oliver Trizarri, 21, and Stanley Kralik, 17, killed him.

Those arrest papers say Trizarri told police Sunday he wanted to tell the truth.

In arrest papers, it says Trizarri told police he and Kralik lured Samuels into a wooded area off East Miner Street under the guise of them going drinking. Instead, they beat him with a shovel, strangled him to death, and left his body in the woods.

Trizarri said they did it to get back at Samuels for an alleged assault against a female friend.

"I was totally shocked, as a matter of fact, when I saw it on Channel 16 news. I've been shocked ever since," said Ruth Weiss.

Weiss owns Tommy's Restaurant in Coaldale, just up the street from where Samuels and Trizarri lived.

She said she saw Trizarri in the restaurant all the time.

"If you would know this boy, you would never, ever think he could do anything like that, never ever."

She said the victim, Samuels, was there a lot, too.

"I couldn't say anything about either of them. Corey was a sweetheart and so was Oliver. It's just so surprising. I guess you just never know."

"Why would they do that? I mean not to report it and make the family suffer," said a neighbor who lives in the apartment building where both Samuels and Trizarri lived.

She knew Samuels as a man who served his country and is stunned with the reported details of his death.

"He was 22, 23. He was young. He didn't even get to enjoy his life."

The two charged in this case said they killed Corey Samuels because of an assault on their friend. There's no record that Samuels was ever charged with any assault.

State police identified Stanley Kralik as a juvenile, but he was charged with criminal homicide as an adult.

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