John Heemaneth Jr.
A former Tamaqua man is awaiting sentencing after admitting recently that he sexually assaulted two minor girls over a period of time dating back to 2012.
According to York County District Attorney Dave Sunday, John Heemaneth Jr., 53, of Penn Township, York County, entered a guilty plea last week on two counts of corruption of minors and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. Heemaneth previously lived in Tamaqua.
He’s due to be sentenced in October in York County.
Former Tamaqua Man Admits to Sexual Assault of 2 Minors
According to a report on this case from the (Hanover) Evening Sun, a pair of 13-year-old girls reported to York County authorities in April that they’d been victimized by Heemaneth over the course of several years.
One of the girls said the assaults on her started back in 2012 in Northampton County. Heemaneth told police it started in 2013, when the girl was 6.
The other girl told police, according to the Evening Sun report, that her assaults happened when she was in 7th or 8th grade. Heemaneth later admitted that those assaults happened between 2019 and 2020.
To each victim, Heemaneth told them that he’d kill himself if they ever told anyone about his conduct.
And that’s exactly what he tried to do back in April.
When a York County Children and Youth Services employee went to Heemaneth’s home in Penn Township, York County, to sign some documents after she’d learned of the accusations, she had trouble contacting him inside. At the same time, one of the victim’s mother received a text message allegedly from Heemaneth apologizing and “saying goodbye.”
So, the CYS worker notified Penn Township Police who entered Heemaneth’s home and found him in a bathtub with large self-inflicted knife wounds. Heemaneth was arrested and eventually admitted to sexually assaulting the two girls.
Photo via York County District Attorney’s Office/Facebook
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