Man Allegedly Drives Around with Dead Woman in Passenger Seat

Upper Darby police are investigating a bizarre case in which a man claims to have driven around with the body of a woman before leaving her – and the car – at a Drexel Hill apartment complex.

Charles Deloatche, 23, of the 5500 block of Oxford Street in Philadelphia, turned himself in to Upper Darby police around 3 p.m. yesterday afternoon for the murder of Camilla Stephenson, 18, who was found dead of gunshot wound to the head in the passenger seat of a 2006 Chrysler 300 parked in an isolated part of the Creek Road Apartments.

Stephenson’s last known address was on the 2500 block of South Felton
Street but police say there was clothing and other evidence that she was living out of
the Chrysler.

Deloatche said that he had been in the backseat driving around the City Line area of Philadelphia with Stephenson and her boyfriend, identified only as L., when Stephenson allegedly pulled a gun and began waving it around in the car. Deloatche said he struggled with her for control of the gun and it went off, striking Stephenson behind the left ear and killing her.

L. allegedly fled from the car and Deloatche drove around the City Line area with Stephenson’s body in the passenger seat, at some point throwing the murder weapon out of the car’s window. He then made his way to the Creek Road Apartments and left the car in an isolated parking spot.

Police say that Deloatche turned himself in due to increasing police and media pressure. The car was registered to his sister and was also being investigated in conjunction with an Oct. 3 home invasion in Abington.

They continue to search for the third person who may have been in the car at the time of the shooting.