MIDDLETOWN TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — The Bucks County man accused of killing and beheading his father in their Levittown home was taken into custody on a Pennsylvania National Guard base, where he was trying to mobilize them to take up arms against the federal government, law enforcement officials revealed Friday morning.
Police were called to the home on Tuesday after a woman found her husband dead and dismembered on the bathroom floor. Investigators said the couple’s 32-year-old son, Justin Mohn, shot and beheaded his father, then posted a 14-minute-long video to YouTube, calling his father a traitor while issuing threats to the federal government.
At a press conference Friday morning, officials released new details in their investigation. Police said Mohn lived with his parents at their home on Upper Orchard Drive. After the killing, he stole his father’s car and fled about 100 miles away.
He was found trespassing around the Pennsylvania National Guard base in Fort Indiantown Gap, Lebanon County. Prosecutors said he was trying to mobilize guardsmen to help kill federal workers — a call to arms he outlined in the YouTube video. Prosecutors said he was also planning to try to recruit Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Investigators said Mohn holds up his father’s severed head in the video and goes on anti-government rants. The clip, which was titled “Mohn’s Militia - Call to Arms for American Patriots,” remained public for several hours, garnering more than 5,000 views before it was taken down.
Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn called the video very concerning. “It’s quite horrifying how many views we understand it had before it was taken down.”
In it, Mohn describes himself as the “commander” of his own militia and espoused many anti-government threats and extremist rants. He called on “American patriots” to join him in his plan to take down the federal government by killing federal workers — some of them he called out by name.
Mohn accused these federal workers of “betraying their country”
His father, Michael Mohn, was a federal employee, as his son indicated in his YouTube video. The elder Mohn worked for the Philadelphia District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Prosecutors said the U.S. Marshals Service worked quickly to make sure anyone named in the video was safe and protected.
Middletown Township police had three prior contacts with Justin Mohn, but they were described as minor. Schorn said he had no prior documented mental health issues and legally bought the gun he’s accused of using to kill his father with the day before the murder.
Prosecutors said he legally bought the gun used to kill his father on Jan. 29, the day before the murder.
What else we know about beheading case
Police say woman came home and found decapitated husband
Police were first alerted around 7 p.m. Tuesday by the victim’s wife, Denice Mohn. She called and said she found her husband, 68-year-old Michael Mohn, dead in the bathroom. At the house, police found a bloody mess, including a machete in the bathtub and a large kitchen knife.
Denice Mohn told police she had been gone for a few hours, and Justin and Michael Mohn were the only ones in the house.
Prosecutors said Michael Mohn was shot in the head before being dismembered.
According to the criminal complaint, the man’s head was in a plastic bag. The bag was placed inside a cooking pot, which police found in a bedroom next to the bathroom.
Officers found bloodied rubber gloves in another bedroom. Justin Mohn was also wearing bloodied gloves in the YouTube video.
The younger Mohn, however, was not in the house when officers arrived. Police said he took his father’s car and drove off.
Justin Mohn arrested 100 miles away on National Guard base
Middletown Township police discovered Justin Mohn’s phone was pinging about 100 miles away in the area of Fort Indiantown Gap, Lebanon County, which is just north of Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Police found the stolen car near the National Guard Training Center, which serves as the headquarters for the Pennsylvania National Guard, but Justin Mohn wasn’t in it.
Police got another ping of his cellphone from the property. Investigators said he had hopped a fence and was walking around the base. He was armed at the time, but authorities arrested him without incident.
Officials noted Justin Mohn was never a member of the National Guard.
Justin Mohn is charged with first-degree murder and abuse of corpse.
A history of anti-government threats and conspiracies
In the YouTube video, Justin Mohn claimed to be thought of as the messiah while blaming immigration, the federal government, “woke” mobs, and affirmative action for the downfall of America.
But it wasn’t just the 14-minute YouTube video where Justin Mohn expressed his worldview and grievances. In a 2020 online pamphlet, he tried to make the case that there should be a “bloody revolution” against those who were born before 1991 — the year he was born. He also encouraged the killing of family members and public officials.
In addition, the 2014 Penn State University graduate was unsuccessful in trying to sue the federal government a few different times over his student loans, claiming mental and physical anguish over having to pay them back.
While living in Colorado in 2018, he sued his employer, Progressive Insurance, claiming he was fired because he was a man who was overqualified and overeducated. The company said he was let go because he kicked open a door. A federal judge ruled that he did not have sufficient evidence to show that he was discriminated against because he was a man. An appeals court upheld the ruling.