Woman charged in death of 18-year-old whose body was found in South Philly basement

A 26-year-old woman has been charged in the death of 18-year-old Erin Schweikert, whose body was found in the basement of a South Philadelphia home earlier this year.

Maddison Leidy was charged with first-degree murder and drug delivery resulting in death seven months after police found Schweikert’s body inside a small storage space in the basement of Leidy’s twin on the 2100 block of Porter Street.

A spokesperson for the Medical Examiner’s Office said the cause of death has been listed as drug intoxication, and a person close to the family said fentanyl was found in Schweikert’s system. The manner of death remains undetermined, the spokesperson said, meaning the investigation could not conclude how the situation led to death.

Leidy, who was originally arrested in January and charged with abuse of corpse, obstruction, and other offenses, was being held Thursday without bail at the Riverside Correctional Facility.

Schweikert’s family could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Schweikert, mother of a toddler daughter, was last seen by family last Sept. 27 after she left her South Philadelphia home to hang out with friends. Friends and relatives had built a GoFundMe page to hire a private investigator to find her, and were holding out hope that she would return home.

On Jan. 16, sheriff’s deputies and officers with the Police Department’s Special Victims Unit went to Leidy’s home to arrest her on a probation violation. Police later said that the Special Victims Unit had gone along with deputies because they had received a tip that a missing 18-year-old woman might be inside.

Officers who entered the home were met with a strong odor that would have been impossible for anyone inside to ignore, then-acting Police Commissioner Christine M. Coulter said at the time.