Shaler Man Accused Of Burying Girlfriend In Backyard Appears In Court

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A Shaler man accused of killing his girlfriend and putting her body in a freezer he buried in his backyard had his charges reduced during a court hearing Thursday.

George Biegenwald, 57, will stand trial on charges he assaulted a woman who he partied with while the body of another woman was in a freezer that ended up buried in his yard.

It's the latest in a history of court actions involving Biegenwald and women, some of whom he met through an online dating site.

That homicide case has yet to go before a judge, and when it does, the defense will claim that it was accidental and self-defense.

Biegenwald would not answer reporters' questions about that Thursday.

In court, his lawyer got an aggravated assault charge involving another woman reduced to simple assault and reckless endangerment and waived the case to court. After the hearing, his lawyer claimed the murder case would be vigorously defended.

A criminal complaint in the murder case says he claimed it took him three days to dig a grave for the body of his girlfriend, 50-year-old Donna See of McKeesport, in his backyard.

That's where she ended up after a fight during which he claimed she jumped on his back, hitting him with a back massage and that she fell hitting her head on a dresser.

"It was accidental/self-defense," said defense attorney Phil DiLucente. "I say that for a reason that I can't get into now, but certainly at the preliminary hearing it will be understood."

The woman allegedly assaulted in the case at issue today, even after See's body was put in a freezer, is part of a history that's made its way through the court system.

In 2011, still another woman filed a protection from abuse claim against Biegenwald.

In that case, the woman claimed he got upset with her for looking at a computer and started yelling punching and kicking her repeatedly for two days.

DiLucente represented Biegenwald in that case, too. Biegenwald got probation.

In the homicide case, his lawyer says the issue is the way he reacted to the result of the fight.

KDKA's Harold Hayes: "So, is he claiming that the burial is more panic than anything else?"

DiLucente: "Look, he's not claiming anything at this juncture, but, I can tell you, someone who's not used to having someone that had an accidental/self-defense death reacts to it differently."

The preliminary hearing in the homicide case is scheduled for next week.

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