Keith Burley Jr

UNION TWP, Lawrence County — A man is accused of repeatedly stabbing his girlfriend's 8-year-old son, while apparently telling the boy to “die,” authorities said. The alleged child killer, Keith Burley Jr., 43, of Edinburg, Lawrence County, has been formally charged with several felony counts including criminal homicide and kidnapping, according to KDKA.

Late Monday night, Union Township police found the boy dead on the floor of a home on High Street in the township, a little west of New Castle. The grisly discovery touched off a nearly 10-hour manhunt that ended Tuesday morning when U.S. marshals captured Burley.

He was placed in the Mahoning County Jail on an arrest warrant for homicide and other charges obtained by state police in New Castle. Police said Burley was released on parole after serving a lengthy stint in state prison for a 1999 homicide in New Castle.

Authorities initially began looking for the defendant around 10:35 p.m. Monday following a domestic dispute with his 36-year-old girlfriend in New Castle over their cell phones. The quarrel began after the woman had picked up Burley at a home in New Castle, and then her two children, ages 8 and 7, at a different location.

Burley subsequently became violent, according to charging documents, and hit his girlfriend in the face near her eye. She eventually pulled into the New Castle Fire Department parking lot.

But when she got out of her 2019 Buick Encore to look for help, police said, the suspect drove away with her children in the sport utility vehicle.

Investigators noted that Burley is not the biological father of either child.

Around 10:50 p.m., the Union Township Police Department was called to a home on High Street for a possible stabbing. They found the 8-year-old dead on the first floor. The child had “multiple stab wounds” to his body, investigators said.

In a driveway adjacent to the home, they found the SUV belonging to the boy's mother. The investigation soon turned up two eyewitnesses — a 15-year-old boy and an 8 year-old boy — to the stabbing, police said.

Those two boys live at the house and were home playing video games Monday night when police alleged Burley showed up with his girlfriend's children.

The boys who live there knew Burley “from past meetings he had with their mother,” documents said.

According to the 15-year-old boy, the defendant was holding a gun when the teen saw him in the house. The suspect told the boys to look for the magazine for the gun.

The two went into their mother's bedroom to look for the magazine. The older boy told investigators that when he left the bedroom, he thought he saw Burley hitting the 8-year-old victim, police said. But before running out of their house, the boys apparently got a better look and realized the defendant was stabbing the boy with what one of them described as a “pink camouflaged knife,” documents said. Additionally, the teen recounted that “he heard Burley saying 'die' while stabbing the victim,” according to the affidavit of Trooper David Naberezny, the investigating officer.

The boys who live at the home ran to a neighbor's house and asked the residents to call 911 about the stabbing. The younger child of Burley's girlfriend also made it out of the house with no reported injuries. The boys later saw the defendant run from the house.

Burley is charged with homicide, two counts each of aggravated assault, kidnapping and unlawful restraint, three counts of terroristic threats, one count of simple assault, and four counts of reckless endangerment. He is awaiting extradition.

In the 1999 homicide case, Burley pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and possession of a firearm without a carry license, court records showed, and was sentenced to 18 to 36 years in prison. He served about the minimum and was paroled March 28.