The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

August 27, 2008

Ex-private eye indicted on firearms charges

By Joe Pinchot

DELAWARE TOWNSHIP — The ex-private eye convicted of hampering the probe into the disappearance of Sandra Kay Baker was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury of possession of two unregistered firearms.

Clifford S. Aley Jr., 50, formerly of Ambridge, possessed a short-barrel Army San Marco 20-gauge shotgun and an SWD 12-gauge Street Sweeper, a semi-automatic shotgun with a rotating magazine, between Sept. 8, 2005, and Feb. 22, 2006, in Washington County, according to court documents.

Federal officials obtained an arrest warrant for Aley, but will not have to look hard to find him. He’s in the state prison in Frackville serving a 22- to 60-month sentence on three counts of hindering apprehension or prosecution in the Baker case, and threatening Mercer County sheriff’s deputies and jail guards.

Aley told state police two different stories in interviews about his dealings with William T. Crea Jr., the former Delaware Township man whom police have identified as a suspect in Ms. Baker’s May 25, 2000, disappearance, police said.

At Aley’s sentencing on the hindering charges in March 2006, Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas R. Dobson said Aley’s lies prevented police from investigating the case more aggressively, and substantially destroyed the opportunity to bring someone to trial.

Ms. Baker was living with Crea when she was last seen by him at Sheetz in Pymatuning Township, police said. Her body has not been found.

Aley had investigated Ms. Baker’s background for Crea and discovered she was still married to a Florida man while she and Crea were planning to wed, police said.

Aley told police Crea admitted strangling Ms. Baker and burying her body not far from where they were living. Crea has not been charged.

If Aley is convicted of the federal charges, he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and state police conducted the federal probe.

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