Feds: Oakmont native kidnapped, killed Bethel Park woman in Nevada desert ‘for her money’

An Oakmont native who confessed to killing a Bethel Park woman in the Nevada desert now faces federal charges of kidnapping resulting in death, court records filed Monday show.

John Matthew Chapman, who’s originally from Oakmont and more recently lived in Maryland, was arrested in connection with Jaime Feden’s disappearance by Bethel Park police in mid-November. He told investigators at the time that he had bound Feden to a sign post and taped her nose and mouth until she was unable to breathe, then abandoned her body in the desert, records show.

Federal prosecutors said in newly filed court records that Chapman admitted to killing Feden “for her money.”

Chapman told investigators he tricked Feden into believing he was taking her to Las Vegas in September for a vacation and to potentially buy a home there, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in the U.S. District Court of Western Pennsylvania.

“However, Chapman had a plan to kill (Feden) before they left Pennsylvania, and he had a kill kit ready before their departure to Nevada,” the complaint said.

The so-called “kill kit” included a backpack filled with the zip ties and duct tape Chapman used to bind Feden to a sign post and watch her die from suffocation, the complaint said.

Remains believed to be Feden’s were found in Lincoln County, Nev., about 170 miles north of Las Vegas, in early October, but the condition of the decomposing body prevented the coroner’s office from identifying them as hers until late November.

Feden was 33.

In his interview with Bethel Park police, Chapman said he and Feden drove to Nevada, and on Sept. 25, they went to the desert for what he told her would be a bondage-themed photo shoot, the complaint said.

Chapman told police he bound Feden’s hands and feet, taped her mouth and nose and “affixed” her to a sign post until she stopped breathing.

Chapman then is accused of logging onto Feden’s Facebook accounts and sending messages under her identity. Family members told police they suspected that Feden was not writing the messages, according to the complaint.

Chapman also is accused of using a phone number masking application to contact them via text message, pretending he was Feden, the complaint said.

Although Chapman and Feden were romantically linked, he is married to another woman, Maureen Chapman, who lives in Oakland, Md., about 135 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

Attempts to reach Chapman’s family members and Feden’s friends have been unsuccessful.

Feden’s friends and family members told police that the pair had a “tumultuous relationship.” They said it’s likely that Feden didn’t know that Chapman was married.

Feden was a 4-foot-tall, 70-pound woman who suffered from VATER syndrome, which among other things limited her mental capacity, police wrote in the criminal complaint against Chapman. Because of her condition, Feden’s uncle had control of a trust for Feden, police said in the complaint. The uncle has declined comment.

Prosecutors and the public defender’s office have said in court that they expect Nevada authorities to file homicide charges against Chapman for Feden’s killing.