Arrest made in April fatal stabbing of 15-year-old Upper Darby High student

A Clifton Heights man has been arrested and charged in connection with two stabbings last year in Delaware County, investigators said Wednesday, including a fatal attack on a 15-year-old boy that rocked the Drexel Hill community and resulted in urgent calls for information from the victim’s friends and loved ones.

Marson Weh, 24, was charged with first- and third-degree murder in the death of Michael Garr, a 10th grader at Upper Darby High School who was killed in April as he was walking home from his girlfriend’s house. At the time of his arrest, days later, Weh was wearing thermal underwear still stained with Garr’s blood, according to the affidavit of probable cause filed for Weh’s arrest.

Despite identifying Weh as a suspect early on, police could not charge him with Garr’s murder until December, when DNA testing helped connect him to the killing, according to Upper Darby Police Superintendent Tim Bernhardt.

In a statement, Garr’s family said they “are very grateful for all the hours the police and detectives worked on this case.”

“How could our family ever repay them?” they said. “It’s a sad day, but we are happy for this development.”

Through investigating Garr’s death, Upper Darby police connected Weh to another knife attack in February, in which he slashed the throat of and stabbed a pregnant woman during a carjacking outside of her apartment. In that case, Weh has been charged with attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault, robbery and related offenses.

Weh remains in custody in Ohio, where he had been extradited in the spring on an outstanding warrant after police took him in for questioning days after Garr’s death. There was no indication he had hired an attorney.

Bernhardt said Wednesday that the motive for the stabbing remained unclear. There was no connection between Weh and Garr.

He credited technology and dogged policework in being able to piece together the crime, particularly the department’s new real-time crime center that relies on surveillance feeds and other technology.

“The ability to bring him to justice for this heinous crime is a huge opportunity for crime fighting and data analysis,” Bernhardt said.

Weh was seen in surveillance footage shadowing Garr for an extended period on the day of the fatal stabbing, at some points sprinting to catch up with him, the affidavit said.

As the two approached Brunswick Avenue near Bridge Street in Drexel Hill, Weh attacked Garr, stabbing him multiple times, including in his neck, according to police. Garr tried to flee, flagging down a passerby before collapsing.

When police arrived at the scene, they found the passerby holding a towel over Garr’s neck wound in an attempt to stop the blood flow, the affidavit said. Garr went into cardiac arrest and died at the scene.

That same surveillance footage that recorded Weh pursuing Garr helped investigators identify him through facial recognition software, according to the affidavit. Officers then conducted surveillance on Weh’s home over the next few days and observed him at various times wearing clothing matching what was seen in the video.

On May 2, officers stopped Weh as he left his home, taking him into custody in connection with his active Ohio warrant for assault and stealing a car. During an interview, Weh admitted to having gone out for a walk on the day of Garr’s murder to clear his head after an argument with his girlfriend, the affidavit said. He denied any involvement in the teen’s death.

But in processing Weh, officers noticed a large, dried bloodstain on the thermal underwear he was wearing. It later tested positive for Garr’s DNA.

Weh’s DNA, submitted for testing in Garr’s death, came back as a match for a Feb. 7 stabbing and carjacking at the Bishop Hill Apartments in Secane, the affidavit said.

In that case, a pregnant woman was approached from behind by a masked man after parking her car and walking toward the building. The man slashed the victim’s throat with a knife, causing her to turn to face her attacker, according to the affidavit.

The attacker then stabbed the woman multiple times in the abdomen before stealing the keys to her Lexus ES350 and driving away.

That Lexus was later recovered in Clifton Heights, with the victim’s credit card still inside. Dried blood from inside the car was later tested and was a positive match for Weh, police said.

Weh was sentenced in Ohio to 9½ years for the incident there, prosecutors said, and will be returned to Delaware County in the coming weeks to face his cases here.