Broken Arrow Man Charged With Murder, Arson In NSU Professor's Death

A Broken Arrow man arrested this weekend after a nine-day manhunt, now faces murder and arson charges in the death of a Northeastern State University professor.

Court documents indicate Joshua Schneider met Tiffany Maher through a dating website, killed her, robbed her, then tried to set fire to her and her Tahlequah home.

Schneider, 33, is charged with one count of first degree murder, two counts of first degree arson, and three counts of larceny from a house.

Investigators have still not released the cause and manner of Tiffany Maher's death, but the probable cause affidavit filed Monday claims Schneider killed her intentionally, then set her body and house on fire.

It also claims he stole and tried to pawn a few items from her home, including, a Kindle Fire, an HP Mini Netbook computer, and a suitcase containing two orange boxes of karaoke CDs.

After her memorial service in June, those who knew her shared memories of Maher. One woman said she was a great listener and had a good singing voice.

"She was so fearless. She did so many things in this community. She liked to karaoke. She liked to knit. She'd go to drumming circles. She did monologues here at the university," said Amy Aldridge Sanford.

7/27/2013 Related Story: Tulsa Police Capture Person Of Interest In NSU Professor's Death

Maher's body was discovered in her home on May 31, after her friends asked police to do a welfare check.

According to court documents, on July 17, a woman told investigators she met with Joshua Schneider after talking to him on plentyoffish.com, and he visited her at her parents' home in Kansas, Oklahoma on May 27. She told investigators that Schneider left from there sometime after dark.

The day after that interview, July 18, Schneider led OSBI agents and police on a chase through Tulsa. He managed to get away and later ditched his car, with his 2-year-old daughter inside, in a wooded area in north Tulsa.

Schneider was then on the run with a woman the OSBI called his girlfriend, Heather Black, for over a week.

Black turned herself in on Saturday afternoon. Police then used search dogs and a helicopter to locate Schneider, who they found standing in a creek in a wooded area in south Tulsa.

Black and Schneider were both charged with child neglect in Tulsa County last week. Schneider was also charged with eluding a police officer.

According to the affidavit, Black told investigators she met Schneider in March and he moved in with her in Broken Arrow. She told them, while she was on the run with Schneider, he admitted that police might be looking for him to question him about Maher's death.

The affidavit shows Black said Schneider admitted to sleeping with Maher while he was living with Black. She also told police that he was not with her over Memorial Day weekend.

6/4/2013 Related Story: OSBI Identifies NSU Professor Found Murdered In Tahlequah Home

Black also reportedly told investigators that Schneider had, at the beginning of June, come home with a karaoke machine with CDs, a small computer, a Kindle Fire e-book reader, a DVD player, and a television.

Also missing from Maher's home was her car. It was found in the parking lot of a south Tulsa apartment complex after a viewer saw a News On 6 story about the professor's death and called police, days after her body was found.

6/3/2013 Related Story: Viewer Tip Leads Police To Murdered Tahlequah Woman's Car In Tulsa

The report shows investigators searched Maher's office computer and found that she visited dating websites like plentyoffish.com and okcupid.com.

A search of her phone records also turned up a cell phone number with the name "Big Daddy" entered.

Records from Amazon told investigators that the Kindle Fire was de-registered on May 28 and re-registered the same day to a "Big Daddy." That account had Schneider's information attached. Investigators were able to obtain his home address in Broken Arrow from that, as well as from multiple pawn shop records.

According to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, the 5-foot-2 Schneider has been convicted of stealing cars and second-degree rape.

Court documents show Schneider was 19 when he had sex with a girl who was younger than 16.

He was also wanted on two felony charges, including failure to register as a sex offender.

Joshua Schneider is currently in the Tulsa County jail.