Lancaster Police has filed criminal homicide charge against a 19-year-old Pennsylvania resident for killing his 18-year-old girlfriend who studies at Millersville University.

Gregorio Orrostieta was arrested on Monday after an autopsy on his dead girlfriend, Karlie Hall, showed that she was beaten and strangled inside her dorm room in the university, Reuters reports.

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Orrostieta claimed she suffered a cardiac arrest and even phoned the campus police at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday at the state college he was attending to explain his absence from school.

When the police arrived at Hall's dorm, Orrostieta was even administering CPR on her. However, police noticed then that he had blood on his face and hands, indicators of a violent struggle, said Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman.

The pair had been dating for about a year since they were in high school. Orrostieta admitted they had a fight on Sunday night, resulting in Hall, a business administration student, slapping him at a party. The quarrel continued inside her dorm room with him pushing Hall, who fell and hit her head after he slapped her face.

When he noticed she was unresponsive, he called the police. Stedman said Hall was probably dead for several hours before he called campus security to report his absence.

Orrostieta is being held on a US$1.5 million bail for criminal homicide, which was upgraded from the initial aggravated assault charge after the autopsy report came out, reports New York Daily News.

What happened to Hall shocked the 8,000 students of Millersville University, which Communications Director Janet Kacskos describes as a bucolic, rural campus.

Tagshomicide, Pennsylvania