A Ross Township man who idolized serial killers will spend life behind bars for the 2013 kidnapping and murder of a co-worker.

Michael Horvath was sentenced to serve life without the chance of parole in the disappearance and murder of Holly Grim, a mother who lived in Lehigh County.

In June, Judge Margherita Patti Worthington found Horvath guilty of first degree murder – which carries a mandatory life sentence without parole. She also found him guilty of kidnapping and imposed the maximum, 10-20 year sentence.

“It was certainly warranted by the disturbing nature of his extended predatory stalking of the victim,” said Michael Rakaczewski, an Assistant District Attorney who prosecuted the case along with First District Attorney Michael Mancuso.

Grim disappeared from her home in Lower Macungie Township the morning of Nov. 22, 2013, shortly after taking her son to his school bus stop.

Three years later, police found her remains in a burn pile at Horvath’s house, and charged him with murder. Inside his house they would find evidence that he aspired to be like TV serial killers, and obsessively stalked Grim before her disappearance.

Grim dropped her son at his bus stop around 6:30 a.m. the day she disappeared. By 7 a.m., her mother, Jeanette suspected something was wrong because she was unable to reach her by phone. She went to Grim’s home in Red Maple Acres mobile home park, found that Grim had left behind her car, glasses, and asthma medication, and called police.

Jeanette Grim died in 2017 but lived to see Horvath arrested.

“Somewhere, Jeanette is happy today,” said Stephen Bergstein, an attorney who brought a wrongful-death lawsuit against Horvath on behalf of Grim’s relatives.

Police identified Horvath as a suspect early on in the case. They worked in the same department at Allen Organ Co. His DNA matched a bloodstain found on the back door of her trailer.

It would take more than five years to bring the case to trial. Horvath’s public defender said they lacked the resources to represent him. Eventually, a deal was made for the trial to proceed with a new lawyer. Prosecutors agreed to not seek the death penalty.

“I’m glad justice was finally done and it’s a relief to the family,” Bergstein said.