Montgomery County man charged with kidnapping and killing his coworker in 2021

A Montgomery County man was charged Friday with kidnapping, robbing, and killing a coworker in the fall of 2021.

Michael Stark, 49, of Royersford, faces multiple charges in the death of Matthew Branning, 50, including first-degree murder and kidnapping, Bucks County First Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said at a news conference Friday. The two worked together at Enchlor Inc., a manufacturing company in Silverdale, Pa.

Prosecutors said Stark waited for Branning one day after work in October 2021, and abducted, robbed, and killed him.

Stark’s arrest, authorities said, resolves the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Branning, who had not been seen or heard from since October 2021.

Branning’s body has not been recovered..

An attorney for Stark was not listed in court records.

Branning, whose employer said he was never late to work, disappeared on Oct. 15, 2021, leaving his family scrambling for answers.

“This is a man who was very much loved and loved his family, Schorn said. “So this is a man who was abducted, never to be seen from again.”

Investigators later learned that Branning and Stark were seen working the day Branning disappeared, though Stark had been absent for several days before, Schorn said.

The next day, on Oct. 16, Branning’s sister filed a missing person’s report with Perkasie Borough Police Department. She was concerned that her brother had not returned home from work the previous day, according to court records.

Officials believe that Stark had waited for Branning after he finished his shift, forced him into his car, and made him withdraw $500 from an ATM.

Stark’s DNA was later found on the car’s steering wheel.

Investigators traced Branning’s Lexus on a path to New Jersey. They learned that his bank account was used at a gas station in Somers Point at 7:05 p.m. .

Branning and Stark’s cell phones were tracked to a Wawa in Cape May two hours later, where Stark was seen on surveillance footage making a purchase at 9:27 p.m. Branning is not seen in this footage.

Stark then drove north and then west on the Atlantic City Expressway. He wasn’t seen again until Nov. 13, when he was spotted at a Michigan pawn shop.

Branning’s Lexus was recovered in Falls Church, Va., in December 2021. On the night of Branning’s disappearance, Stark’s cell phone data tracked him to the Kensington area.

Stark was arrested in April in Wayne County, Mich., on a warrant out of Monroe County, Pa. He was extradited to Pennsylvania in late July and was arraigned Thursday and is being held in the Bucks County Correctional Facility without bail.