Pa. triple murderer won't get rape charges erased

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - January 16, 2013 (WPVI) -- A central Pennsylvania man who shot and killed his estranged wife and two daughters won't get two rape charges expunged from his record.

Ernest R. Wholaver Jr. was convicted of murdering his wife and two of their daughters, ages 20 and 15. Police found the victims shot to death in their Middletown home on Christmas Day in 2002. He was also charged with raping his daughters, but was acquitted on those counts.

The Patriot-News of Harrisburg reports the court has denied his petition for expungement.

Prosecutors argued the rape charges should not be expunged because they represented the motive for the killings, which happened less than a month before Wholaver was to be tried on charges of sexually assaulting his daughters.

Wholaver is serving three death sentences.

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homicide, rape, pennsylvania, local/state

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