Easton Patch's Most-Read Stories of 2012

Coverage of crime, Hurricane Sandy and the presidential election were among the most popular stories of the year.

And that was the case here in Easton, where our readers were drawn to stories about local homicides and other crime, the hurricane's effect on the city, and the Obama/Romney race.

Easton saw five homicides in 2012: 

• In April, a man named Matthew Kelly, a 20-year-old Nazareth native, was shot and killed in the West Ward. His death is still under investigation, although charges could be filed within the next few weeks.
• In early July, Easton resident William Thompson, 43, died after being stabbed several times on the 600 block of Ferry Street. Police have , with criminal homicide in Thompson's death.
• A few weeks after Thompson's death, West Ward resident George Jeter was shot and killed on S. 14th Street. Naheem Adams, 20, has been charged in his death.
• On Nov. 23, a man named Ervin Holton was shot and killed on the South Side. His death is still under investigation.
• Less than two weeks after Holton's death, 44-year-old Paul Murray was shot and killed a few blocks away from the Holton shooting.

The most high profile crime story of the year actually took place outside of the city limits, in Williams Township. That's where Mark Werkheiser, a 38-year-old father of four, was shot and killed in his home March 15. 

Elizabeth Collazo, the mother of Werkheiser's children, is scheduled to plead guilty to his murder Monday morning.

Williams Township was also the home of another suspicious death. Michael Muretta, 47, was found dead in his Morgan Hill Road home on Aug. 29. Authorities have yet to release his exact cause of death, although investigators have suggested he may have been beaten with a hammer.

Some police stories weren't as life-or-death, such as the case against "Nature Dave" Gorczynski, who faces terroristic threats and disorderly conduct charges for taking a "You're being robbed" sign into two downtown Easton banks.

Not everything was negative. If you opened a restaurant, that got a lot of readers, as we saw from stories about Maxim's 22 and Sole Mio. And our Readers Choice polls showed that Easton residents are serious about where they get their hair cut, and where they eat breakfast.

Other high profile stories included the death of District Judge Gay Elwell, the alcohol-related death of Lafayette College student Everett Glenn, and virtually anything that had to do with parking in downtown Easton and the layoffs in the Easton Area School District.