1-time patient charged in brutal killing of Bucks County chiropractor

Dr. James Sowa ran a solo practice in southern Bucks, and as a volunteer in his community helped hand out ballots for the June 2020 primary election during the coronavirus pandemic.

Suspect Joseph R. O’Boyle dropped out of college and battles mental illness, has a history of drug use, and is described by a friend as fascinated with Bucks County quadruple murderer Cosmo DiNardo and having fantasized about acting out a violent video game in real life, according to court records.

Sowa and O’Boyle’s paths crossed last Sept. 18 when O’Boyle, of Bensalem Township, went to the chiropractic office in Sowa’s township home for help with a chronic jaw problem that O’Boyle’s family believes is linked to his mental illness, court records say.

Upset the treatment had only caused more pain, O’Boyle returned to Sowa’s office the morning of Nov. 2 and attacked Sowa by hitting him on the back of the head with a blunt object, District Attorney Matt Weintraub said in a news release based on a grand jury presentment. While Sowa was incapacitated on the floor, O’Boyle repeatedly struck or rammed Sowa’s jaw area with a blunt object, investigators allege.

After several unanswered calls, one of Sowa’s sons that afternoon went to the victim’s home and found him dead in the kitchen. Bloodstains led to the kitchen from Sowa’s business office that separates the treatment rooms of his practice from the residence Sowa shared with his wife. Several of Sowa’s teeth and a large pool of blood were found in the business office, and an autopsy found he’d been killed, with the cause of death ruled blunt-force trauma to the head.

Video surveillance showed a subject, identified by authorities as O’Boyle, walking up the driveway to Sowa’s home, disappearing from sight and less than a minute later running back down the driveway before driving off, according to the release from Weintraub’s office.

The video footage linked the fleeing subject to O’Boyle’s car, and detectives obtained and served a search warrant Nov. 10 at the home O’Boyle shared with his parents and younger sister, the release states. Detectives said they found on the floor of O’Boyle’s bedroom a suitcase packed with clothes, and that his family had been planning to take him for inpatient mental health treatment.

O’Boyle is accused of lunging without provocation at one of the detectives, David Nieves, and violently punching him in the head during the warrant service, court records say. O’Boyle had also attacked his father Aug. 20 during a fight over taking medication prescribed to treat his mental illness, authorities allege.

O’Boyle had been locked up in Bucks County prison since the alleged Nov. 10 aggravated assault on police.

He was charged Friday with homicide and related charges in Sowa’s death, and ordered imprisoned without the possibility of bail.

Based on interviews with his family, investigators say O’Boyle admitted to having killed Sowa then recanted his admission.

A call for comment to his public defender was not immediately returned.

A preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled Jan. 20 to determine if there is sufficient evidence to send the charges toward trial in Bucks County Court.

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