In the summer of 2018, the quiet community of Larksville, near Kingston, Pennsylvania, was disturbed by a grim discovery. On July 24th, 64-year-old William Denman was found dead in his Washington Avenue home by his wife as she returned from work. The cause of his death was soon determined to be two gunshot wounds to the head, and investigators immediately ruled it a homicide. Neighbors remembered William as a kind man, often sharing produce from his garden.
His sudden and violent death sent a shockwave through the neighborhood.
The focus of the police investigation quickly turned to the victim's son, 20-year-old Ulysses Edward Denman. He was initially named a person of interest, and a search for him was launched. The day after his father's body was found, Ulysses was seen by a neighbor entering the family home, which was then surrounded by police. The following morning, as he walked out the front door with a handgun in his pocket, he was taken into custody.
During interrogations, Ulysses provided conflicting stories to the authorities. He first claimed he shot his father in self-defense, alleging that his father had pulled a gun on him during an argument about him moving out. He later changed his account, admitting that his father had been unarmed and asleep on the couch when he shot him. The motive, he claimed, was to protect his mother from his father, who he believed was going to harm her over a perceived infidelity. According to Ulysses, after the first shot, his father told him to shoot him again and then run.
Ulysses Denman was charged with homicide for the murder of his father. In 2019, he entered a plea of 'guilty but mentally ill' to a charge of third-degree murder. Psychological evaluations presented in court revealed the troubled state of his mental health. Experts testified that he was 'acutely psychotic' at the time of the killing, with one psychiatrist suggesting he might have been developing schizophrenia. It was also reported that he had ceased taking his antidepressant medication and had been using alcohol and marijuana before the murder. Following his plea, he was sentenced to serve 15 to 30 years in prison.
The tragic story took another turn on a Saturday in November 2021. Ulysses Edward Denman, then 24 years old, was found unresponsive in his cell at SCI Camp Hill during a routine headcount. Prison staff and emergency medical services attempted life-saving measures, but he was pronounced dead shortly after. The Pennsylvania state police opened an investigation into his death.
