A Body in the Basement: Disappearing Act on ID - What was the Pennsylvania family's gruesome secret?

A Body in the Basement points to a hidden truth that sat under a farmhouse floor for years. The secret was the 1983 killing of Willis Casteel and the burial of his body in the basement of a Penn Township home. Patricia Sloan and her teenage daughter, Bonnie Neely, later faced prosecution after the remains were uncovered in 1999. Investigators said Casteel had been stabbed and shot, then buried under clay.

The episode Disappearing Act reaired on Investigation Discovery on Sunday, October 1. The episode reviews the decades-old Pennsylvania case, outlining the discovery, investigation, and resulting court decisions.

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A Body in the Basement case background

In 1986, new owners began to renovate a farmhouse on Frye Road near Jeannette, Pennsylvania. Thirteen years later, on August 9, 1999, digging for a concrete slab led to the discovery of human bones, boot tips, and cord. The remains were later identified as Casteel, who was 62 years old.

Basement digging for a concrete slab revealed bones and boot tips in 1999 (Image via Unsplash)

Court records describe how forensic teams recovered clothing and documented knife cuts and shotgun damage on the fabric and bones. A federal memorandum and a magistrate judge’s report state that experts recovered dozens of shotgun pellets from the left chest area and documented multiple stab injuries.

Neighbors had long recalled late-night arguments at the address. Police reportedly heard that Casteel had “taken off,” and there was no missing person report at the time, which delayed any inquiry. Those details surfaced again when the case reopened in 1999, per the Post-Gazette.

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A Body in the Basement: investigation and discovery

After the basement find, investigators interviewed past occupants. Forensic anthropology work and mitochondrial DNA testing compared samples to Casteel’s sister and supported the identification, according to the federal filings. Detectives also noted coins in the clothing dated no later than 1983, which helped anchor the timeline.

Mitochondrial DNA comparisons to a family member supported the identification (Image via Pexels)

During questioning, Neely gave a taped statement and implicated Sloan. Police said Sloan then gave a recorded confession describing a confrontation in the home and a shooting that followed, as summarized in the court documents.

Claims about long-running abuse and control were raised, yet those points were contested at trial and on appeal. The federal decisions later recounted these statements while upholding the state court outcome.

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Trial and sentences

In December 2000, a Westmoreland County jury found Sloan guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy. She received a life sentence in February 2001. Neely pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and was sentenced to seven to twenty years in state prison. TribLive reported the sentencing details and quoted the judge’s remarks on Neely’s role in both the killing and the concealment.

Bonnie Neely received a seven to twenty year state prison sentence (Image via Pexels)

Appeals followed. Pennsylvania’s courts rejected challenges to the confession, the use of DNA evidence, and other claims. A later federal habeas petition was dismissed, with the judge adopting the magistrate’s recommendation to deny relief and a certificate of appealability. Those rulings left the convictions in place.

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A Body in the Basement airs on Investigation Discovery and is available to stream on Discovery+ and the Discovery+ Amazon Channel.

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