MOUNT HOLLY – Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina announced that a 54-year-old Lawnside man was convicted today in Superior Court of dumping the body of a woman who had fatally overdosed in his vehicle on the side of a Southampton road in late 2018.
A jury found Daniel Waterfield guilty of Desecrating Human Remains (Second Degree). The Hon. Gerard H. Breland, J.S.C. ordered Waterfield to be detained in the Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly pending sentencing, which was scheduled for April 24.
The investigation revealed that on Halloween night in 2018, Waterfield left the body of a Paulsboro woman on the berm of Purgatory Road near the intersection with Route 70. Kerri Ann Stetser, 36, who had fatally overdosed hours earlier inside Waterfield’s pickup truck, was pronounced dead at the scene. She was not carrying identification and was later identified by her fingerprints.
“Whatever problems Kerri Ann Stetser faced in her life, she was a person with a family who loved her and whom she loved,” Prosecutor Coffina said. “She deserved some measure of dignity in her death even if her passing presented an inconvenience to the defendant. No human being deserves to be discarded on the side of the road like Kerri was, and we are gratified that the jury’s verdict offers justice for her and her family.”
Charges remain against a co-conspirator who Waterfield contacted for help disposing of Stetser’s body. Amanda Seth, 36, of Camden, is presently a fugitive.
The case was investigated by New Jersey State Police detectives from the Troop “C” Criminal Investigation Office, Crime Scene Investigation Unit, and Homicide South Unit.