Pennsylvania State Police discovered a homemade video of murder suspect Gregory Graf having sex with his stepdaughter's remains, Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said Friday. 
 
 Morganelli said he believes necrophilia was Graf's primary motive to shoot Jessica Padgett in the back of the head Nov. 21. Morganelli alluded to a sexual motive when Graf was first charged Nov. 26, but did not elaborate on the motive until Friday. 
 
 State police investigators found the video Thursday on a computer in Graf's Allen Township home, Morganelli said. 
 
 "There was a videotape that the defendant made that shows him abusing the victim's corpse sexually," he said Friday afternoon. 
 
 Investigators said Graf admitted to the killing after police linked him to Padgett's car and found inconsistencies in his story. Graf left her work at a Northampton day care center around 12:50 p.m. Nov. 21, but surveillance cameras filmed someone else returning her car 15 minutes later. 
 
 Graf's pickup truck was seen leaving the borough shortly afterward. Graf had an employee leave his truck in town for a tune-up, police said, but his mechanics said Graf never made an appointment with them. 
 
 "I believe she was dead already" when Graf left the house, Morganelli said. 
 
 Morganelli said Graf's alleged behavior shows a disturbing layer of complexity but authorities have found no evidence that he committed similar crimes in the past. 
 
 "The thought always passes your mind, but I have no evidence of that at the present," he said. 
 
 Investigators serving a search warrant found Padgett's remains buried behind a shed in Graf's back yard. His wife -- Padgett's mother -- was in Florida at the time, according to state police. 
 
 Morganelli said he has instructed state police to file an additional charge of abuse of a corpse against Graf, who is already charged with criminal homicide and possession with the intent to deliver marijuana. Investigators discovered a large amount of the drug in Graf's basement before recovering Padgett's body that day. 
 
 Earlier Friday, Morganelli said he will not pursue the death penalty against Graf because state law does not permit it. Capital cases in Pennsylvania can only be triggered by recognized aggravating factors, such as killing a police officer or child. 
 
 If Graf had sexually assaulted Padgett before her murder, it may be a death penalty case, Morganelli said, but abusing a body does not qualify it. 

 An Allen Township man accused of murdering his stepdaughter, Jessica Padgett, videotaped himself having sex with her corpse — a recording that was recovered on his computer, Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said Friday. 
 
 He said the video, in the possession of state police, offers categorical confirmation of what Gregory R. Graf already told investigators on the day he was charged with homicide last month: that he wanted to have sex with Padgett, and that he did so after she was dead. 
 
 "He videotaped it," Morganelli said, "so there's a videotape of him abusing the corpse sexually." 
 
 Morganelli said he has concluded that Graf took Padgett's life in order to have sex with her body. 
 
 "I believe it was a direct motive, in my opinion," Morganelli said, "and that's what we're going to be arguing." 
 
 The disturbing revelation came as Morganelli said he has authorized the filing of an abuse of corpse charge against Graf, 53. A misdemeanor, it means that Morganelli will be unable to seek the death penalty for Graf, considering that the alleged sexual abuse occurred after — and not before — Padgett was killed. 
 
 Police say they are investigating if a man killed his stepdaughter to have sex with her corpse. Based on statements made from Gregory Graf, the stepfather accused of the murder, they are investigating necrophilia as a motive. Police say they are investigating if a man killed his stepdaughter to have sex with her corpse. Based on statements made from Gregory Graf, the stepfather accused of the murder, they are investigating necrophilia as a motive. SEE MORE VIDEOS 
 
 Under Pennsylvania law, a murder in perpetration of a felony is an aggravating factor that allows prosecutors to pursue capital charges. Rape rises to that level, but the sexual desecration of a corpse does not, as case law has established, Morganelli said. 
 
 "It is not a capital case. We've reviewed the aggravating factors," Morganelli told President Judge Stephen Baratta during a court hearing Friday morning involving Graf, his first public appearance since his arrest. 
 
 The existence of the video was disclosed by Morganelli on Friday afternoon during an interview with The Morning Call. He declined to discuss specifics of what it showed, other than to say that Graf committed a variety of sexual acts against Padgett, a 33-year-old Whitehall Township woman who had once described him on social media as like a second father. 
 
 The video makes "absolutely clear" that Padgett was dead at the time, as Graf claimed to state police on Nov. 26 during an interrogation at the barracks in Bethlehem, Morganelli said. 
 
 "The acts are clearly consistent with what he said," Morganelli said. 
 
 The development makes definitive what Morganelli had only suggested as a possibility before: that the allegations against Graf include necrophilia, a prospect the district attorney had repeatedly hinted at. 
 
 When Graf was first charged, Morganelli said Padgett was killed with a "sexual assault motive" that may have been realized either "prior, during or after" she was slain. Then, on a cable news show, Morganelli said investigators were exploring whether Graf was driven by "a desire, perhaps, to have sex with a deceased body." A day later, Morganelli called the case "bizarre" and said necrophilia hadn't been excluded. 
 
 "I said from the beginning this was before, during or after," Morganelli said Friday. "I've now concluded this was after." 
 
 Graf is accused of shooting his stepdaughter in the back of the head on Nov. 21 and hiding her body on his nearly 7-acre property on Covered Bridge Road while family and friends searched frantically for her. 
 
 Padgett went missing that day after she left Duck Duck Goose Child Care in Northampton and never returned to her job there. A police affidavit places the shooting roughly 10 minutes after she was last seen, though her body wasn't recovered until five days later. 
 
 Morganelli said the video, which he had not viewed, was found by police on Thursday. It was made somewhere in Graf's home, where he is believed to have killed Padgett, Morganelli said. 
 
 Reference to the video was not made during Graf's brief court appearance Friday, in which he was brought before Baratta after requesting a public defender and being denied because of his wealth. 
 
 Graf, whose voice at one point appeared to catch with emotion, told Baratta he had asked for a taxpayer-funded lawyer to avoid spending money that his family could otherwise use. He said his assets are held jointly with his wife, Danelle, the mother of Padgett, and he did not wish to deplete them. 
 
 "Like I said, I just don't want to take away the funds from the family," said Graf, the owner of a fencing company. 
 
 His stance was blasted in court by Morganelli, who said Graf's own financial disclosures to the public defender's office showed he can afford an attorney. 
 
 "Mr. Graf has just basically told you that he'd rather waste the taxpayer money on his defense than his own [money]," Morganelli told Baratta. 
 
 But with Baratta saying that Graf will have to pay for a lawyer one way or the other, the defendant said he will now look to hire one. If not, Baratta said he had planned to appoint an attorney to represent Graf, who would then be responsible for reimbursing the county for the cost. 
 
 "You're not going to be able to escape paying for the resources of an attorney," Baratta told Graf, who is being held without bail in Northampton County Prison. "I just can't allow that." 
 
 "It doesn't sound like you're giving me a lot of choices," Graf said in conceding that he will have to find a lawyer. 
 
 After the hearing, Chief Public Defender Robert Eyer would not disclose the assets Graf reported. Eyer said he has discretion in determining whether a defendant has enough money to pay for counsel, and concluded that Graf did, even considering the seriousness of the homicide charge he faces. 
 
 Graf owns Distinctive Fence, a company located at his address in Allen Township, and he and his wife were building another home in Florida. Morganelli has said Graf also had a marijuana-growing operation at his house that was discovered by police as they searched for Padgett. 
 
 According to a search warrant return filed Thursday in county court, police seized 13 bags of marijuana, $42,000 in cash and envelopes containing marijuana seeds from in a safe in the basement of Graf's home. Police found evidence of a "former marijuana grow" at an exterior building on the property, and also confiscated a marijuana horticulture book, pipes and a vaporizer, and other paraphernalia. 
 
 The disappearance of Padgett, a recently married mother of three children, sparked an exhaustive effort to find her that included a "Help find Jessica Padgett" Facebook page that drew thousands of members. Her body was recovered hidden behind a shed, state police saying Graf helped them find it. 
 
 Padgett's family has declined to speak publicly since Graf's arrest, when they released a statement in which they called her a "beautiful and vibrant young woman" and asked that their privacy be respected while they grieve.
– A man who is charged in his stepdaughter's murder filmed himself having sex with her dead body, prosecutors say. That has led a Pennsylvania district attorney to what he believes was the motive in Jessica Padgett's death: He says that Gregory Graf killed Padgett so that he could have sex with her, the Morning Call reports. Now, a misdemeanor charge of abusing a corpse will be added to Graf's homicide charge, Northampton County DA John Morganelli says. The video was found on Graf's computer and made in his home, Morganelli notes; it makes "absolutely clear" that Padgett was dead at the time. Had Graf sexually assaulted Padgett before killing her, the case could have led to the death penalty; since he's accused of doing it afterward, "it's not a capital case," Morganelli says. Graf has also been charged with drug possession, the Express-Times reports, after investigators allegedly discovered he'd been growing marijuana while they were searching for Padgett.