Kayla Dunlap

EMLENTON, Venango County — State police in Butler investigating the death of Kayla Dunlap say they want to question an Emlenton man arrested earlier this week on charges of operating a meth lab at a home in Venango County.

Police say Shaun M. Long, 49, of 1003 Eakin Road, Scrubgrass Township, was arrested on Oct. 3, after troopers executing a search warrant for his phone and vehicle found suspected drugs in plain view inside his home.

The troopers, who were inside speaking with Long at the time, said they obtained another search warrant for the home and found “multiple items that indicate drug manufacturing, processing, delivery, possession and use.”

Among those items were numerous unused stamp bags and other supplies commonly used to package, cut, mix and distribute heroin and fentanyl, as well as a ledger tracking drug sales and amounts.

Cpl. Timothy Morando said that Long, who had been questioned in September as part of the department's investigation into the death of Kayla Dunlap, 28, of Rimersburg, Clarion County, requested an attorney almost immediately after he was arrested this week. That left investigators with unanswered questions about Long's relationship with Dunlap, whose body was found along a road behind Oneida Valley Dam on Sept. 17 and police say was last seen alive at Long's home the night before.

“When he was arrested he wanted an attorney, so all questioning ceased,” Morando said. “We would like to question him about Ms. Dunlap's activities with him.”

Investigators have said that they believe Dunlap was alive when she was dumped along the road in Oakland Township. Her body was found at about 10:30 a.m. by a woman walking her dog.

Since her death, investigators have worked to piece together Dunlap's final hours alive, but the closest they have gotten came during an interview with Long on Sept. 18, when he told troopers that Dunlap was at his home on Sept. 16 when he left sometime between 8 and 9 a.m. that day.

In court documents police say that interviews with other people corroborated Long's account, and they have established that Dunlap was at the Eakin Road home sleeping on Sept. 16 “until early morning hours,” making Long's home the last place Dunlap was seen alive.

Investigators looking into Dunlap's death have termed it “suspicious,” and said that she was found with fresh wounds on her face, bruises around her left eye, and what appeared to be a defensive wound on her right hand. However, state police Lt. Eric Hermick said the department has not ruled out the possibility that Dunlap suffered a drug overdose before she died.

Long, who has not been charged in connection with Dunlap's death, is in Venango County Prison on $100,000 bail. He has been charged with two felony counts of manufacture, delivery, or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver a controlled substance; one felony count of operating a methamphetamine lab; and one misdemeanor count each of possession of a controlled substance and use or possession of drug paraphernalia.

According to court documents, Long is scheduled to go before a Venango County district judge for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 18.