SEPTA facing questions after convicted murderer ends up in new outreach program

PHILADELPHIA - SEPTA is facing a new series of questions after a woman who has previously plead guilty in a murder case wound up as part of their new outreach program.

"What can I tell you about Erica Sanchez? That’s an investigation right now that I can’t speak about," explained Ken Divers, SEPTA’s Assistant Director of Transportation. 

Erica Sanchez made headlines in 2016 when she pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including third-degree murder, in the stabbing death of a former lover. Prosecutors say her boyfriend, a Philadelphia Police homicide detective, hid her away in a Rochester, New York hotel while his colleagues were looking for her.

Following Sanchez’s arrest, she and fired PPD Detective Ronald Dove were sentenced to jail. Sanchez was sentenced to 5-10 years. After she was released on probation, Sanchez eventually found a job working for one of the companies that SEPTA contracts to handle outreach on their trains and property.

Divers says she was removed from the SEPTA program as soon as he learned about her past.

Sources tell FOX 29 that Sanchez’s job with One Day at a Time, or ODAAT, had her going into SEPTA’s District 4 police headquarters at the Frankford Transportation Center daily and picking up a police radio.

She would go to SEPTA’s Kensington-Allegheny Station to preform her duties as an outreach specialist.

ODATT has not returned messages from FOX 29 regarding Sanchez’s employment.