Derry mother on arrest in daughter's 2007 death: 'I didn't think I would see this'

Carol Polo waited years to hear the news she received this week.

“I didn’t think I would see this,” Polo said Thursday at a news conference held the day after police arrested and charged a Derry Township man in the 2007 murder of her 22-year-old daughter.

Police said Samantha Lang was beaten and stabbed to death in her Derry Township home by Charles Earl Ream as part of a dispute over money and drugs.

Ream, 53, was charged with criminal homicide, burglary, robbery and theft. He is being held in Westmoreland County Prison without bond as he awaits a preliminary hearing scheduled for Aug. 9.

For Lang’s family, Ream’s arrest was a long time coming.

“We’ve just been waiting for this all these years, and it brings us peace to know that it is finally happening,” said Lang’s niece, Alexis Malletz.

Polo described her daughter as a friendly young woman whose death she still grieves.

“She had a lot of friends. If you met her once, you could never forget her. Her laugh, her smile, she was very outgoing. She was for the underdog. If you were new at her school or whatever, she was your friend; she was the first one you would meet. I don’t know, she was just that type of child, a good kid,” Polo said.

State Trooper Tristan Tappe said Ream was taken into custody Wednesday at his workplace but declined to disclose circumstances of the arrest or additional details about the investigation.

District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli said she has met with Polo over the past year and said solving Lang’s murder has been a priority.

“To look into (Polo’s) eyes and see the pain that she has felt every day was all the more reason that I remained vigilant to this case and every investigator did and every member of my team,” Ziccarelli said. “We are one step closer in the process, and we’re committed to this case.”

Authorities said Ream had been a suspect in the killing for years, but it was not until an unnamed informant spoke again with police last year followed by two others this year — one in May and another in July — that police believed they had enough evidence to charge him with Lang’s death.

According to the criminal complaint, the informants claimed Ream confessed to Lang’s murder.

Police said Lang was killed at a home she shared with her father and brothers on Route 982 near the Derry Township village known as Peanut. Her throat had been slit, and she was found about 9 p.m. in a pool of blood between the kitchen and living room. Details of an autopsy report in a criminal complaint filed against Ream indicate she also had been beaten and one of her fingers was broken.

According to the criminal complaint, Ream told a witness he knew Lang had drugs in her home and came into the residence with his face covered. The plan was for Ream to torture her in an effort to identify where she kept the illegal substances and then steal them.

The witness told police Ream claimed he had to kill Lang after she recognized him. The witness said Ream hit her over the head with an object and, when he realized she was still alive, stabbed her. Investigators said the informant claimed Ream left with only a small quantity of drugs and money.

Another female witness told police Ream again confessed to Lang’s killing and claimed it was a mistake.

“I have a daughter now. I don’t want to get in trouble for something I was involved in from the past,” the witness reported Ream told her during a May interview.

Earlier this month, another female informant told investigators Ream claimed he was angered when he opened a safe in Lang’s home and found it empty and later had a friend dispose of the suspected murder weapon.

Tappe said the investigation is ongoing.

“It’s been 16 years and three months of family that is aching and grieving the loss of a daughter, a friend, a sister and an aunt. We urge and encourage the public … if you have any information on this case, with regards to this case, if you witness anything or if you heard anything, to please contact the state police immediately,” Tappe said.

Ream was on the police’s radar almost immediately after Lang’s body was discovered.

According to court records, Lang was spotted as a passenger in a vehicle stopped by police on Route 981 in Derry on March 30, 2007, three days after the killing. Court records indicated that the vehicle’s driver claimed Ream asked her for a ride and, as they approached their destination, he told her to speed off when they noticed they were being followed by police.

Ream was detained and eventually pleaded guilty to possession of drug paraphernalia and was sentenced to one year on probation.

In 2009, Ream was charged in connection with allegations that he broke into a Derry Borough home and sold methadone pills to its occupants. He pleaded guilty to theft and trespassing counts and was sentenced to serve 13 days to one year in jail, according to court records.

Both criminal cases were closed in 2019 after Ream paid outstanding fines and costs.