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Police ID woman whose body was burned

Jessica Lockwood

Hazleton police identified the Schuylkill County woman whose body was found burning along Club 40 Road in Hazleton Sunday morning.

She is 39-year-old Jessica Lockwood, who was reported missing from Frackville, according to a release from the Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce’s office.

Acting Luzerne County Coroner Kaitlin Keating ruled her cause of death as blunt force trauma and a gunshot wound, following an autopsy by Dr. Charles Siebert at the Luzerne County morgue in Wilkes-Barre on Tuesday.

On Sunday morning, Hazleton firefighters responded to a report of a possible mannequin on fire along Club 40 Road, just east of East Broad Street and across the highway, Route 93, from Lehigh Valley Hospital-Hazleton.

They instead found human remains on fire and requested city police, who began an investigation along with the state police criminal investigation unit.

Hazleton police searched a Muir Avenue home in the city’s Heights section Sunday.

According to an online obituary, Lockwood was a volunteer firefighter, an ambulance technician and mother of two children.

The Harwood Fire Co., where she was a firefighter and trustee, announced her “sudden and devastating loss” in a social media post Thursday afternoon.

“Jess went beyond for anything that was asked of her. She was dedicated to a life of selflessness, compassion and charity. She will be greatly missed and fondly remembered by all the lives she touched,” the post read.

Several other volunteer fire companies in the Hazleton area also posted condolences to family, including the Sugarloaf Fire Co. which called her death “a sudden and horrific loss for all who knew and loved Jessica.”

A celebration of life is planned May 13 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Harman Funeral Home on West Butler Drive in Drums.

A GoFundMe account to support her children, Wyatt and Isabella Petrill, has been set up and raised more than $14,000 as of early Thursday afternoon.

Hazleton City police and the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office have indicated that the incident was isolated, and do not have information that would lead them to believe there is any risk to the public.

The investigation remains active and ongoing. Anyone with information on the case is asked to call the Hazleton City detectives’ tip line at 570-450-2080 or contact them through the Hazleton Police Department Crimewatch page.

The scene on Club 40 Road where the body of Jessica Lockwood was found burning on Sunday morning. COPYRIGHT LARRY NEFF/SPECIAL TO THE TIMES NEWS