Feasterville, PA — A former supervisor at Valley of Fear, the Bucks County haunted hayride, is charged with strangling and indecently assaulting an employee who was working alone on the attraction’s opening night, September 25, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said. Valley of Fear fired him the next day, and on Wednesday judges ordered him held without bail.
Edward A. Eisenhard, 37, of Springfield Township, had worked at Valley of Fear for 10 seasons and was the employee’s supervisor, according to the district attorney’s office. In the Valley of Fear case, he is charged with strangulation, simple assault, indecent assault, harassment and disorderly conduct.
The Valley of Fear Charges
According to the criminal complaint, Eisenhard approached the employee during his break, grabbed her by the throat so tightly that she had difficulty breathing, pinned her wrists above her head against a wall, made sexual comments and indecently assaulted her over her clothing.
The employee came forward after Eisenhard’s first arrest, on October 1, in a separate case. Prosecutors announced the new charges on Tuesday, October 27.
Charges in Two Other Cases
Hilltown Township police first arrested Eisenhard on October 1. He is accused of indecently assaulting an employee he supervised at a Five Below store in Hilltown Township on September 27, the day after Valley of Fear fired him.
After that arrest, two more victims came forward, the district attorney’s office said: the Valley of Fear employee and a 12-year-old girl. In the Springfield Township case involving the girl, Eisenhard is charged with four counts each of aggravated indecent assault and indecent assault, and one count each of corruption of minors and harassment.
Held Without Bail
District Attorney Joe Khan asked that Eisenhard be held without bail on the new charges. On Wednesday, October 28, Magisterial District Judges Daniel Baranoski and Gary Gambardella granted the request in both new cases, finding that the “safety of the community cannot be protected with conditions on the defendant due to several cases.” Eisenhard had been in custody since October 1, unable to post bail in the Five Below case.
“Serial sexual predators should not be able to buy themselves out of jail,” Khan said.
Detectives believe there are more victims, because the investigation has turned up additional allegations of similar behavior at both Five Below and Valley of Fear. The district attorney’s office asks anyone who may have been a victim to call Bucks County Detectives at 215-348-6354.
“Criminal charges are allegations subject to proof in court,” the district attorney’s office said, and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Assistant District Attorney Victoria Pollock is prosecuting the cases.
About Valley of Fear
Valley of Fear is in its 36th season at the Phoenix Sport Club, 301 W. Bristol Road, in Feasterville, in Lower Southampton Township. It runs the Original Haunted Hayride and two haunted houses, Miles Manor and Escape Shipwreck Cove.
Top photo: The Bucks County Courthouse in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, in 2010. Photo: Smallbones, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
