Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Beautiful young teacher Rachel DelTondo ambushed in her mother's driveway, killed in a hail of bullets on Mother's Day

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Beautiful young teacher Rachel DelTondo ambushed in her mother's driveway, killed in a hail of bullets on Mother's Day · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:06
Speaker 1: How does a beautiful young girl who has just ordered
0:10
Speaker 1: a designer wedding gown end up debt shot dead and
0:15
Speaker 1: her parents driveway? What a twisted turn of events? Crime
0:27
Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace. I Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories.
0:37
Speaker 1: First of all, take a listen to our friends at
0:39
Speaker 1: CBS Pittsburgh. It was Mother's Day night, just before eleven
0:43
Speaker 1: o'clock when al Equippa police got a nine one one
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Speaker 1: call about shots fired on Buchanan Street near Broadhead Road.
0:49
Speaker 1: They found thirty three year old Rachel del Tondo outside
0:53
Speaker 1: her home in the driveway. She had been shot several times.
0:56
Speaker 1: Neighbors say they heard as many as ten to twelve shots.
0:59
Speaker 1: Family members say del Tondo was returning home from getting
1:03
Speaker 1: ice cream with a friend when she was shocked. It's
1:05
Speaker 1: very sad. You have a very quiet, very quaint neighborhood.
1:09
Speaker 1: The al Quippa name gets thrown out there a lot,
1:12
Speaker 1: and it should not. This was a very nice, quiet neighborhood.
1:15
Speaker 1: And to have this invade any family as sad, you
1:18
Speaker 1: know that sheds a whole new light on it. Another
1:21
Speaker 1: wrinkle to be discovered and figured out. Multiple shots, It's
1:27
Speaker 1: not like a an accident drive by. This girl was
1:34
Speaker 1: targeted with me an all star panel. Ashu Willcott, judge
1:39
Speaker 1: and trial lawyer, Court TV anchor. You can find her
1:41
Speaker 1: at Ashe Wilcott dot com. Doctor Bethany Marshall, psychoanist joining
1:46
Speaker 1: us out of Beverly Hills. You can find her on
1:48
Speaker 1: Instagram at doctor Bethany Marshall. James shell Nutt twenty seven
1:51
Speaker 1: years Atlanta Metro major Case swat Now lawyer, Joseph Scott Morgan,
1:57
Speaker 1: Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University, an author of Blood Beneath
2:01
Speaker 1: My Feet on Amazon and special guests joining us. John Paul, journalist,
2:07
Speaker 1: founder of How do I pronounce it correctly? I don't
2:10
Speaker 1: want to mess this up, John Paul, Beaver County en
2:13
Speaker 1: dot com The Beaver County Okay. I can't believe I
2:16
Speaker 1: got it on the first drive. But first to Joseph
2:18
Speaker 1: Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics, there's a big difference, and I
2:22
Speaker 1: may have to go to our shrink, doctor Bethany Marshall
2:24
Speaker 1: on this. When somebody is shot once, like in a
2:27
Speaker 1: bar fight, I just always use that example. And somebody
2:31
Speaker 1: that's shot multiple times seemingly it's not necessarily a drive by,
2:37
Speaker 1: Joe Scott, because with a drive by, you don't think
2:41
Speaker 1: of the person who's stopping and shooting. A drive by
2:45
Speaker 1: is more like a high and bye, you're dead, but
2:47
Speaker 1: multiple shots is an entirely different scenario. Joseph Scott Morgan. Yeah,
2:52
Speaker 1: that can go to kind of two states of mind, Nancy.
2:55
Speaker 1: You can have an individual that's unfamiliar with weapons that
2:58
Speaker 1: will just fire in a rapid succession, particularly with a
3:02
Speaker 1: semi automatic handgun, where it's ejecting the shells immediately. Or
3:06
Speaker 1: you can have an event where an individual much like
3:09
Speaker 1: a much like an over kills with a stabbing or beating,
3:13
Speaker 1: where they just keep firing and firing and firing and firing,
3:16
Speaker 1: and one of the singular motivations is that they're very
3:19
Speaker 1: angry at that point in time. So you've got those
3:21
Speaker 1: two things to kind of choose from them. Also, when
3:23
Speaker 1: you think of a drive by, you think of somebody
3:26
Speaker 1: just Willy Neely bam bam, bam bam. If you hit
3:29
Speaker 1: your target multiple times, and I mean even more than once,
3:33
Speaker 1: that means you have stopped, you have aimed kind of
3:36
Speaker 1: sniper ish at this particular person. That is a much
3:42
Speaker 1: more complex crime you know, I was mentioning to you
3:46
Speaker 1: about Rachel Deltondo having ordered a wedding dress. I want
3:52
Speaker 1: to go to a discussion of that, because, as it
3:56
Speaker 1: turned out, that became centerpiece of the investigation, the ordering
4:03
Speaker 1: of the wedding dress. But who is her fiance? Take
4:07
Speaker 1: a listen to our friends at CBS forty eight hours.
4:10
Speaker 1: I've known her since we were kids. Rachel was dating
4:15
Speaker 1: a wonderful young man. Crank was engaged, but they both
4:19
Speaker 1: agreed to break up with a significant others and came together.
4:25
Speaker 1: They quickly became al Equippa's eight couple. Frank the son
4:29
Speaker 1: of a retired police officer, was building an empire and
4:33
Speaker 1: trucking cable and energy, so successful that a local online
4:37
Speaker 1: magazine dubbed Kadropa the Wolf of al Equippa. Rachel was
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Speaker 1: a teacher with a soft heart who liked to help
4:45
Speaker 1: troubled students and at first were you happy with the relationship? Yes,
4:51
Speaker 1: Frankie was generous. What drew you to her? Obviously, she's
4:55
Speaker 1: a pretty girl. She's nice, genuine, big hearted. She was
4:59
Speaker 1: a good girl. In love with Rachel. Yeah, one time,
5:01
Speaker 1: I was absolutely you're hearing Frank the fiances had to
5:06
Speaker 1: deal with the murder of Rachel Deltondo. But now let's
5:10
Speaker 1: get to the designer wedding dress. Take a listen to
5:14
Speaker 1: again to our friend Aaron Moriarty. Wedding plants commenced immediately,
5:18
Speaker 1: and so did a Shakespearean battle over who was running
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Speaker 1: the show. You know how you get engaged and you
5:26
Speaker 1: let the woman take over. Frank, you didn't want to
5:30
Speaker 1: do that. He was in charge of banner everything. Want
5:34
Speaker 1: to go to the hall, wanted to see the flowers,
5:37
Speaker 1: wanted to I mean, if he could have saw her dress,
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Speaker 1: he'd be happy. There was just a lot of outside
5:42
Speaker 1: interference with some of her family, particularly her mom. Yes,
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Speaker 1: Lisa bought her daughter a ten thousand dollars wedding dress
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Speaker 1: and a pair of three thousand dollars shoes. Never got
5:56
Speaker 1: to wear him now brand new. Frank asked for a
5:59
Speaker 1: prenuptial agreement, and I said, you know, how do you
6:02
Speaker 1: feel about that. She's like, I'm fine with it. I'll
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Speaker 1: sign it. I don't want him to think that I
6:06
Speaker 1: want him just for his money. But in the end
6:10
Speaker 1: Rachel refused. In the end, she refused the pre nup.
6:14
Speaker 1: Let's go out to journalist and founder of Beaver County
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Speaker 1: and dot com John Paul, John, I want to focus
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Speaker 1: right now on that wedding dress. A ten thousand dollars
6:23
Speaker 1: wedding dress. Now, ladies don't judge me, but when David
6:28
Speaker 1: and I got decided to get married, we decided on
6:31
Speaker 1: a Tuesday that we would get married on Saturday. That's
6:34
Speaker 1: how that went down. I ordered a wedding dress in
6:37
Speaker 1: two different sizes from a catalog and it came just
6:41
Speaker 1: in time. I thought about wearing my boots, my cowboy boots,
6:45
Speaker 1: which I wore twenty four seven, three sixty five, but
6:48
Speaker 1: in the end bowed to peer pressure and got a
6:51
Speaker 1: beautiful pair of shoes, gorgeous Jackie at DSW. I think
6:55
Speaker 1: that's designer shoe outlet warehouse, right. So I'm having a
6:59
Speaker 1: hard time, John Paul, trying to get my mind around
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Speaker 1: a ten thousand dollars dress and a three especially at
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Speaker 1: three thousand dollars pair of shoes. But the mother, Rachel
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Speaker 1: Deltona's mother insisted on it. It was going to be
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Speaker 1: a fairytale wedding. Just my first question, John Paul, and
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Speaker 1: I don't know if you've been asked this yet. What
7:15
Speaker 1: pair of shoes cost three thousand dollars. They were designer
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Speaker 1: shoes that the mother purchased, and she was proud of them.
7:24
Speaker 1: I mean, Rachel Deltano was her only daughter, and she
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Speaker 1: was the center of their life, and they adored her,
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Speaker 1: and they're kind of a traditional Italian family and this
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Speaker 1: was a major milestone, not just in her life, but
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Speaker 1: in the life of her parents. And they're not people
7:45
Speaker 1: of extraordinary means, and buying the shoes was no doubt
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Speaker 1: an extravagance, but I think it was a loving mother's
7:52
Speaker 1: way of letting a daughter know that she was proud
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Speaker 1: of her. John Paul, John Paul, you're making me think
7:59
Speaker 1: of Cinderella and the glass slippers. And to you, doctor
8:03
Speaker 1: Bethany Marshall. Just last night, you know my daughter is
8:06
Speaker 1: just turned twelve. Well, she went online and she found
8:10
Speaker 1: out about a face mask, as if she, at age twelve,
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Speaker 1: needs a face mask, and it was like eighteen dollars.
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Speaker 1: But I know this is nothing compared to a three
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Speaker 1: thousand dollar pair of shoes, But I just want her
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Speaker 1: to have the things that she wants. I mean, I
8:24
Speaker 1: didn't even know what a face mask was till I
8:26
Speaker 1: got out of law school for Pete's sake. But I
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Speaker 1: get this mother and the three thousand dollars pair of shoes.
8:31
Speaker 1: I get it. Nancy, I get it too. Hey, I
8:33
Speaker 1: practice in the heart of Beverly Hills, and I'm thinking,
8:36
Speaker 1: oh Lord, what okay? So what brand of shoes did
8:39
Speaker 1: the mom get? I can only think Lubutans with Trovski crystals.
8:45
Speaker 1: That's I'm sure what she had, and they probably had
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Speaker 1: to order them. I'm sure there's no Lubutan that store
8:51
Speaker 1: there in Aliquippa. But back to the psychology. When you
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Speaker 1: buy a pair of shoes like that, it's not the
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Speaker 1: shoes that you're buying. You're buying hopes, and you're buying
9:01
Speaker 1: the future. You're buying an idealized life founded on love
9:07
Speaker 1: and attachment. And you're thinking about grandchildren, right because the
9:11
Speaker 1: mother brought her, brought her the shoes. You're thinking about
9:13
Speaker 1: grandchildren in a home. And then all of that is
9:17
Speaker 1: cut short. And I think what's tragic is the grand
9:21
Speaker 1: and beautiful and poignant nature of the dreams juxtaposed between
9:26
Speaker 1: multiple shots in her daughter's chest. Oh, in the driveway
9:31
Speaker 1: and in her driveway. In the driveway, time stories with
9:51
Speaker 1: Nancy grace. Guys, we were talking about the unsolved murder
9:58
Speaker 1: of a young girl planning her way, And as you
10:01
Speaker 1: just heard from our new friend John Paul, journalist and
10:04
Speaker 1: founder of Beaver County and dot com, the parents were
10:07
Speaker 1: by no means wealthy, but this is their only daughter,
10:12
Speaker 1: so they go overboard and they buy her a Cinderella
10:16
Speaker 1: address for ten thousand dollars and a three thousand dollars
10:20
Speaker 1: pair of shoes. When you said, John Paul, their only daughter,
10:24
Speaker 1: it just broke my heart. It just broke my heart.
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Speaker 1: Joining me, Ashley Wilcot, judge, trial lawyer, court TV anchor
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Speaker 1: and mother of one girl, I happen to know that
10:36
Speaker 1: for a fact, like me, Ashley, you know, I would
10:39
Speaker 1: never spend that kind of money on myself. Forget it.
10:43
Speaker 1: I mean, I get my shoes resold, but for Lucy,
10:47
Speaker 1: I might just put it on a credit card. I mean,
10:49
Speaker 1: I don't see myself buying a three thousand dollars pair
10:51
Speaker 1: of shoes, but I would do something much more extravagant
10:54
Speaker 1: for her than I would ever dream of doing for myself. Absolutely,
10:57
Speaker 1: that's how we do for our kids. And so while
10:59
Speaker 1: it sounds outlandished to think you'd spend that much money,
11:02
Speaker 1: you know, keep in mind the description of terms of
11:05
Speaker 1: their community, right, and so maybe as a parent, you're
11:08
Speaker 1: gonna do whatever it takes to make that day shine
11:11
Speaker 1: for your daughter. I think it's extravagant too, But let
11:13
Speaker 1: me just mention Clark Howard that I listened to about
11:16
Speaker 1: money and spending. Do you know how many parents and
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Speaker 1: young ladies take out loans to cover extravagant expenses like
11:25
Speaker 1: these because weddings are so important to them. You know,
11:29
Speaker 1: it reminds me of senior year. We went on a
11:32
Speaker 1: senior trip and I came home and my dad actually
11:36
Speaker 1: had tears in his eyes. I mean, they did not
11:39
Speaker 1: have this kind of money. And he had bought me
11:41
Speaker 1: a car. It was Toyota Corolla Tudor skyblue metallic blue,
11:49
Speaker 1: and I just it was the biggest thing that ever
11:51
Speaker 1: happened to us, For me to get a car, It's
11:54
Speaker 1: just unheard of. And he was so proud what parents
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Speaker 1: to do for their children. But then everything went sideways.
12:03
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our friends at kd KA Pittsburgh.
12:07
Speaker 1: This is Marty Griffin. When Rachel got engaged, mom took
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Speaker 1: over planning a big time wedding including a nearly ten
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Speaker 1: thousand dollar gown to be handmade by a New York designer.
12:16
Speaker 1: There was a custom dress had to be made to
12:19
Speaker 1: her measurements. The family put down a deposit of more
12:23
Speaker 1: than four thousand dollars that, according to the contract, was
12:27
Speaker 1: nonrefundable and non transferable under any circumstances. Lisa del Tondo
12:32
Speaker 1: says she got that from day one. I was told
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Speaker 1: that this is binding. I knew what this thing said.
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Speaker 1: They bought the dress and and Gregory for the bride.
12:40
Speaker 1: In doormant Rachel del Tondo was measured. The family put
12:44
Speaker 1: down nearly half. It's made to order and there's no
12:47
Speaker 1: exchanges and by about no refonds. I understood that. Four
12:51
Speaker 1: months after the contract was signed, the wedding was called off.
12:54
Speaker 1: Lisa del Tondo called the New York designer to see
12:57
Speaker 1: if they had started on the dress and asked for
12:59
Speaker 1: a fun I called New York. I did yeah. He
13:02
Speaker 1: told me it couldn't be done. Del Tondo says. She
13:04
Speaker 1: told the local bridal salon she'd pay the balance and
13:07
Speaker 1: take delivery of the dress. I wanted to gown so
13:10
Speaker 1: I could sell it. Deltondo says the salon never delivered
13:13
Speaker 1: the dress and refused to refund her money, so she
13:16
Speaker 1: took the owner two small claims courts. Wow, all this
13:19
Speaker 1: the mom is trying to sort through to John Paul, journalists,
13:22
Speaker 1: founder of Beaver County and dot com, John Paul in
13:26
Speaker 1: a nutshell, And I know you don't run the column
13:29
Speaker 1: for the love lorn, But why did they break up? Um?
13:34
Speaker 1: I have anything to do with her not signing the prenup.
13:36
Speaker 1: I think their relationship had been described to me is
13:40
Speaker 1: kind of on again, off again for a very long
13:42
Speaker 1: time anyway, So they would they would be real close
13:46
Speaker 1: and then they kind of distance and then date. And
13:49
Speaker 1: so the lack of signing the pre nump at the
13:52
Speaker 1: time I think was an impetus for them to kind
13:55
Speaker 1: of break apart some But they continue to see each
13:57
Speaker 1: other after that. They continue to date, so it's not
14:00
Speaker 1: like they went their separate ways in life at that point.
14:04
Speaker 1: And to correct myself something real quick, I might have
14:07
Speaker 1: mistakenly earlier said that she was hurt their only child.
14:11
Speaker 1: She was their only daughter. They have a son that
14:12
Speaker 1: they're also very proud of. Just to be clear, right,
14:15
Speaker 1: only daughter, just like me, just like ask you. We
14:18
Speaker 1: have one daughter and then all those nasty little boys.
14:21
Speaker 1: So let me ask you a question. To doctor Bethany Marshall,
14:25
Speaker 1: the reason I'm focusing so much on the fiance is
14:28
Speaker 1: because that's who you look to initially in everybody. You
14:32
Speaker 1: know what, Sorry, Bethany, let me throw this to James
14:34
Speaker 1: shell Nutt, twenty seven years Metro major case swat Now
14:39
Speaker 1: lawyer James shell Nutt. No offense to all the husband's ex'es, lovers,
14:43
Speaker 1: boyfriends out there. But that's where the investigation has to start.
14:47
Speaker 1: Bottom line. That's what you sign up for when you're
14:50
Speaker 1: in a relationship. If that significant other goes missing, you're
14:53
Speaker 1: the first one police come. So why is that, shell Nutt? Well,
14:57
Speaker 1: the reason is is because those other people who often
15:01
Speaker 1: commit the crimes against women who come up missing her debt.
15:05
Speaker 1: You start as an investigator with the most logical suspects,
15:08
Speaker 1: which generally are the people closest to the victim. That's right. Statistically,
15:12
Speaker 1: it's overwhelming that the perpetrators typically someone very close to you,
15:17
Speaker 1: if not romantically linked. Okay, so the wedding is called
15:20
Speaker 1: off and that's not an aspersion on either one of them.
15:23
Speaker 1: Weddings are postponed, people turned down engagements all the time
15:27
Speaker 1: for very intricate reasons that we may not understand. But
15:31
Speaker 1: take a listen now to KDKA Marty Griffin. She took
15:35
Speaker 1: the owner two small claims court and it says disposition
15:38
Speaker 1: default judgment for plain of court. Papers indicate the salon
15:41
Speaker 1: owner did not appear for the hearing. As a result,
15:44
Speaker 1: he was ordered to pay the del Tondos more than
15:46
Speaker 1: forty six hundred dollars. He had thirty days to write
15:50
Speaker 1: us a check or file a pill and he did not.
15:53
Speaker 1: He didnither. Salon owner Gregory Jericho in an email he
15:57
Speaker 1: told me, December got by me with two deaths in
15:59
Speaker 1: the Emily. We will be sending a certified check out
16:02
Speaker 1: to Deltondo. Thanks for your efforts. His attorney sent us
16:06
Speaker 1: a letter stating, mister Jericho denies that Anne Gregory owed
16:09
Speaker 1: any money to miss Deltondo. As she was given the
16:12
Speaker 1: purchase contract, had an opportunity to review the terms of
16:16
Speaker 1: the contract, which unambiguously advised her that the custom order
16:20
Speaker 1: for her bridal gown could not be refunded. The reason
16:23
Speaker 1: this is significant to John Paul, founder Beaver County and
16:26
Speaker 1: dot Com, it's because the engagement the break off and
16:31
Speaker 1: the dress brew haha ends up on local TV with
16:37
Speaker 1: one of those consumer report specialists. Is that that true,
16:41
Speaker 1: John Paul? The case was featured on the local news
16:45
Speaker 1: and everybody in that metro area saw Rachel Deltondo, saw
16:50
Speaker 1: the dress and learned the wedding was called off. Is
16:54
Speaker 1: it that true, John Paul? Yeah, it was certainly. It
16:57
Speaker 1: kind of a I guess a novel to use the
16:59
Speaker 1: word at the time, and obviously this is before her murder,
17:01
Speaker 1: and you know, novelty is not the word I would
17:04
Speaker 1: use anymore, but at the time it was like a
17:05
Speaker 1: novelty and something everyone kind of spoke about. And Frank
17:08
Speaker 1: Tropa described it as something of an embarrassment at the
17:11
Speaker 1: time because he was a successful businessman by any major
17:16
Speaker 1: and to have this sort of consumer report feature on
17:20
Speaker 1: the local news about disputes over his ex fiance's wedding
17:25
Speaker 1: dress was a little humiliating. He said, exactly, so you've
17:29
Speaker 1: got all that brewing to doctor Bethany Marshall's psychoanalyst of
17:32
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills, Bethany, why are we so there's even be
17:35
Speaker 1: in a movie Runaway Bride? Remember that? And then when
17:39
Speaker 1: what was her name? Jackie Jennifer. I'll think of it
17:43
Speaker 1: in a moment. The real runaway bride that took off
17:45
Speaker 1: and claimed she was abducted. Blah blah blah. That was
17:48
Speaker 1: a big line the night before her wedding. Why are
17:51
Speaker 1: we so obsessed with calling off the wedding? The runaway
17:55
Speaker 1: bride jilted at the altar? Why? Why? Why do people
17:59
Speaker 1: love that so much? I don't get it. I can
18:01
Speaker 1: tell you why, because when you have a fairytale wedding
18:04
Speaker 1: and you have a princess, you put that person on
18:07
Speaker 1: a pedestal, and if you've seen pictures, long brown hair,
18:11
Speaker 1: each photo has beautiful makeup, high heels, sequin and bellish dresses.
18:17
Speaker 1: So she is a real life, real life princess in
18:20
Speaker 1: a very small town. So when we see Prince Charming
18:25
Speaker 1: and his bride, we all inject ourselves into the story
18:29
Speaker 1: because we want those kinds of lives for ourselves. And
18:32
Speaker 1: then when they break up, it sparks all kinds of fantasies.
18:37
Speaker 1: For those who are envious, they're happy that they broke up.
18:40
Speaker 1: For those who are living through them, they're heartbroken and
18:43
Speaker 1: they go digging for clues, and then all kinds of
18:46
Speaker 1: you know, urban myths and stories start to swirl around
19:04
Speaker 1: crime stories. With Nancy Grace, guys were talking about Rachel
19:09
Speaker 1: del Tondo, who had just broken off a very public
19:15
Speaker 1: engagement to the it guy in town. It was all
19:19
Speaker 1: over the news, the dispute regarding her special made wedding
19:24
Speaker 1: dress ten grand made in New York City. The mom
19:28
Speaker 1: took it to the local TV consumer specialist and it
19:31
Speaker 1: hit the airwaves. What if anything, does that have to
19:34
Speaker 1: do with the unsolved murder of this girl Rachel del Tondo?
19:39
Speaker 1: And we were talking about with doctor bethany how people
19:43
Speaker 1: fixate on other people's romantic problems. You guys, remember when
19:48
Speaker 1: Princess Diana and Prince Charles got a divorce. It was
19:53
Speaker 1: the news for so long. Remember that, Ashley, Oh gosh,
19:56
Speaker 1: are you kidding me? I absolutely remember that. Nancy was
20:00
Speaker 1: forever I totally blamed him. I'm thousands of miles away,
20:04
Speaker 1: but I was so furious because of everything you learned
20:07
Speaker 1: about as affair and everything else. And let's just think
20:09
Speaker 1: about all the celebrities that people on Twitter. I mean,
20:12
Speaker 1: that's what people do want to talk about forever. And
20:16
Speaker 1: then she turns up dead right after this. Okay, take
20:19
Speaker 1: a listen to our friends at CBS forty eight hours.
20:22
Speaker 1: This is Aaron Moriarty. Lisa Deltondo was extremely close with
20:26
Speaker 1: her thirty three year old daughter, Rachel, was still living
20:29
Speaker 1: at home with Lisa and her father, Joe Deltondo. Every
20:33
Speaker 1: night she'd come in every night, sit at my bed
20:36
Speaker 1: and give me a synopsis of the whole day. That night,
20:40
Speaker 1: there would be no bedside report. After supper, Rachel went
20:44
Speaker 1: for ice cream with friends, and then just minutes after
20:48
Speaker 1: being dropped back home around ten forty five pm, Rachel
20:52
Speaker 1: was shot several times at close range. The information I
20:57
Speaker 1: have from law enforcement is that they do believe she
21:00
Speaker 1: knew her killer. They believe it to be a crime
21:01
Speaker 1: of passion. To Joseph Scott, Morgan forensics expert, Professor Forensics,
21:06
Speaker 1: jacksonal State and author, let's analyze the same. I know,
21:12
Speaker 1: Joe Scott, your expertise is forensics. I love that. I
21:17
Speaker 1: know you probably think I spent too long on the
21:19
Speaker 1: wedding dress, but I had to set up the moment
21:22
Speaker 1: because all of that matters too. Now you hit me
21:25
Speaker 1: with a forensics goat, I gotta tell you, no, I
21:28
Speaker 1: think the wedding dress is a fantastic idea, because my god,
21:31
Speaker 1: there are certainly motivation, there a lot of anger. But
21:35
Speaker 1: from the perspective of the forensics, you know, they mentioned
21:39
Speaker 1: that this is a close range event. That means that
21:42
Speaker 1: this individual was able to get close to her, and
21:46
Speaker 1: they're able to determine range of fire by just saying that. Okay,
21:50
Speaker 1: that's where that's coming from. So what we think, or
21:54
Speaker 1: what I would think appostulate putting forward is that there
21:57
Speaker 1: might be there might be powder and that is unburnt
22:01
Speaker 1: gunpowder on her person, and that would put the individual
22:05
Speaker 1: within possibly three maybe two feet away from this individual.
22:10
Speaker 1: So they're talking about close range. That's significant here, Nancy.
22:14
Speaker 1: How was this individual able to get so close to
22:16
Speaker 1: her at the side entrance of the house and then
22:19
Speaker 1: put this many rounds into her body at that moment?
22:23
Speaker 1: How many rounds? How many rounds? I don't know from
22:26
Speaker 1: what I've heard thus far. Do we know, John Paul,
22:28
Speaker 1: do you know how many times she was actually shot?
22:30
Speaker 1: The information for investigators is basically the entire handgun had
22:35
Speaker 1: been unloaded into her. Okay, that is rage she is targeted.
22:41
Speaker 1: And Joe Scott Morgan is speaking in highly technical terms
22:45
Speaker 1: as usual, but What are he's trying to say about
22:49
Speaker 1: gunshot powder? Is police say that it was a close range?
22:53
Speaker 1: How do you know that if it's point blank a
22:56
Speaker 1: shot to the head or the body. You see stipling
22:59
Speaker 1: or burn marks where the bullet comes out of the
23:02
Speaker 1: gun and it leaves almost like a tattoo on your skin.
23:07
Speaker 1: Close range gunshot powder residue g s R. When you
23:14
Speaker 1: fire a gun, it goes about can go about thirty
23:17
Speaker 1: six inches, which means if they found gunshot residue on
23:21
Speaker 1: her on her body, that means the killer was about
23:25
Speaker 1: was within thirty six inches to her body based on
23:29
Speaker 1: gunshot residue. Right, Joe Scott, Yeah, you're right. And if
23:33
Speaker 1: you yeah, and I've heard you use this analogy and
23:35
Speaker 1: this is a perfect in the past. Actually, when we
23:39
Speaker 1: think about a water hose when you press, when you
23:42
Speaker 1: press the nozzle on a water hose in the yard,
23:44
Speaker 1: and it kind of spreads out. The further you go
23:47
Speaker 1: from the end of that water hose, the further that
23:50
Speaker 1: that fount of water spreads out. The same thing with powder.
23:54
Speaker 1: You've got a projectile that is the bullet itself firing
23:58
Speaker 1: into the body, but you've got all of this other
24:00
Speaker 1: debris that comes out of the end of the barrel,
24:03
Speaker 1: specifically unburned powder. And the further it's spread out, the
24:07
Speaker 1: greater the distance. So after a moment in time, that
24:11
Speaker 1: powder is going to fall to the earth. It's not
24:13
Speaker 1: very aerodynamic, so it'll fall to the earth. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
24:18
Speaker 1: Baby powder is the perfect perfect example with this. I
24:22
Speaker 1: urge anybody at home that wants to know how to
24:25
Speaker 1: do this, simply put some pal in your hand, standing
24:28
Speaker 1: in a well lighted room. I teach me students is
24:30
Speaker 1: at Jacksonville State and blow and you'll see how in
24:33
Speaker 1: that moment it'll just disperse into the air, this cloud,
24:37
Speaker 1: and this deposits on the body and it's superheated many times.
24:40
Speaker 1: And when you said tattooing, that's actually what we call it.
24:43
Speaker 1: The unburned powder gets beneath the skin and it's embedded
24:46
Speaker 1: in there, almost like tattooing. To John Paul, journalists, founder
24:50
Speaker 1: of Beaver County and dot com, John Paul, what time
24:53
Speaker 1: of the day or night was this? It was at night,
24:55
Speaker 1: so yeah, you're being shortly before eleven pm at night
24:59
Speaker 1: seven pm and had been out to an ice cream
25:01
Speaker 1: parlor with who what friends? Lauren Watkins was the one
25:04
Speaker 1: driving the car? And how old was she? She would
25:08
Speaker 1: have been seventeen at the time. So were these her students? No,
25:13
Speaker 1: so she had friends with younger people, did Okay? That
25:16
Speaker 1: just strikes me. It's odd. I don't know why, but
25:19
Speaker 1: maybe it's not odd. But she was with two How
25:21
Speaker 1: old was the other person? Tyree would have been in
25:24
Speaker 1: his twenties, I believed. Okay, so a male and a female.
25:30
Speaker 1: The female was driving. For all I know? They were
25:33
Speaker 1: previous students? Were they? John Paul? And neither of them
25:36
Speaker 1: had ever been her students? Interesting? Interesting to me. So
25:41
Speaker 1: as police are digging through this case, trying to figure
25:46
Speaker 1: out who, what, where, why, and when information comes to light,
25:52
Speaker 1: take a listen about a previous event, CBS forty eight
25:56
Speaker 1: hours Aaron Moriarty. According to the report, it was nearly
26:00
Speaker 1: two am when Rachel and Sheldon were discovered in her car,
26:04
Speaker 1: not eleven PM, as Rachel had said, and not at
26:08
Speaker 1: the circle K, but in this abandoned lot. You obviously
26:14
Speaker 1: come here not to be seen. You come here to
26:16
Speaker 1: not be seen. The police said the windows were steen,
26:19
Speaker 1: which made them believe that the vehicle had been part
26:21
Speaker 1: for some time, and the passenger seat was fully reclined.
26:26
Speaker 1: The report states at Rachel told police that Sheldon was
26:29
Speaker 1: once a student of hers and now a friend and
26:33
Speaker 1: they were just talking. But it also says she didn't
26:37
Speaker 1: want her fiance to know because he would get mad,
26:41
Speaker 1: and he was upset about it. He was upset when
26:43
Speaker 1: he was about to leave his eyes of the water.
26:46
Speaker 1: You know, I was more confused than anything angry. I
26:50
Speaker 1: wouldn't say that I was angry. Frank was allowed to
26:54
Speaker 1: take home that copy of the report, and a day
26:57
Speaker 1: or two later someone used it to strike a devastating
27:03
Speaker 1: blow at Rachel del Tondo's reputation. Man, I can't believe
27:09
Speaker 1: this happened to that girl. To John Paul, journalists founder
27:12
Speaker 1: Beaver County and dot com John Paul, wasn't it generally
27:18
Speaker 1: proven that Rachel was not making out or having sex
27:23
Speaker 1: relations with this younger guy who was a former student.
27:27
Speaker 1: They were both clothed when the cops came up to
27:29
Speaker 1: the car. The car, Yes, it was two am, and,
27:32
Speaker 1: as I love to argue to juries, nothing good happens
27:34
Speaker 1: after midnight. Two am and a parked car in an
27:39
Speaker 1: abandoned parking lot. But when cops came up to it.
27:43
Speaker 1: They were in fact sitting there talking. Do I have
27:46
Speaker 1: that right, John Paul? Yeah? They certainly. There were no
27:50
Speaker 1: charges filed by police, and their incident report that was
27:55
Speaker 1: generated at about a year later doesn't mention any witnessing
27:59
Speaker 1: of inappropriate behavior. That being said, Sheldon Jeter's attorney, Michael
28:04
Speaker 1: Santa Cola, has said that Sheldon and Rachel had been
28:11
Speaker 1: having a sexual relationship since Sheldon had been about fifteen
28:14
Speaker 1: or sixteen. That's something that Rachel's family veheently denies, and
28:19
Speaker 1: when she was alive, that's something that she had denied
28:22
Speaker 1: to me. So even though police approached them and they
28:26
Speaker 1: are dressed and they are in fact just talking, there
28:31
Speaker 1: was a police report made. The main thing she said
28:36
Speaker 1: was don't tell my fiance. This is what we learn.
28:40
Speaker 1: Someone anonymously, someone with that police report anonymously emails and
28:46
Speaker 1: texts the incident to Rachel's school, the school board, the mayor,
28:53
Speaker 1: the media. It's unknown who sent it, although how can
28:57
Speaker 1: you not check the IP on the email? And the
29:03
Speaker 1: report was sent two days after Frank KaTropa, the jilted fiance,
29:09
Speaker 1: receives the report. He claims he didn't do it. Okay,
29:13
Speaker 1: what effect did that have on her reputation? To John Paul, journalists,
29:18
Speaker 1: Beaver County and dot com. When someone the parents believe
29:22
Speaker 1: it was the fiance, emailed out, texted out this report
29:27
Speaker 1: to the school board. What happened, Well, you can imagine
29:31
Speaker 1: what happened. Happened. She gets suspended from her job. It
29:34
Speaker 1: makes fun page news that a teacher was caught in
29:37
Speaker 1: a car with a young person, and it was it
29:43
Speaker 1: was a matter of a most controversy Time stories with
30:01
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace. Guys, we're talking about Rachel Deltondo and what
30:07
Speaker 1: happened to her. Her past is extremely important to the
30:10
Speaker 1: fact that she was murdered execution style in her parents'
30:14
Speaker 1: own driveway ed mushrooms out of control. Take a listen
30:20
Speaker 1: to our cut thirteen. Less than a month after she
30:24
Speaker 1: was murdered, there were three police chiefs in that Aliquippa
30:28
Speaker 1: Police department in the span of one week. Three police chiefs,
30:33
Speaker 1: and in fact, the third chief actually handed over the
30:35
Speaker 1: investigation to the county Detective's bureau. So that gives you
30:39
Speaker 1: a sentence. When you have those kind of distractions, it's very,
30:42
Speaker 1: very difficult to focus on an investigation, and in fact,
30:47
Speaker 1: Rachel's murder is actually the ninth unsolved murder in that area,
30:52
Speaker 1: So people are losing faith in the police department. To
30:55
Speaker 1: James Shelnot twenty seven years Metroom major case swat officer
30:58
Speaker 1: now lawyer way, Well, I mean, I think I think
31:01
Speaker 1: that one of the first things you have to do
31:03
Speaker 1: is you have to go back and take a look
31:05
Speaker 1: at all the possible suspects in this case and what
31:08
Speaker 1: her current relationship was with them. You know, you have
31:12
Speaker 1: got an awful lot of people that either need to
31:14
Speaker 1: be eliminated or need to have continued investigation. You know.
31:19
Speaker 1: The concern that I have at this point in time
31:22
Speaker 1: is that there are a lot of missed opportunities. There's
31:25
Speaker 1: missed opportunities as far as taking a look at these
31:28
Speaker 1: witnesses getting things penned down, and I'm just I'm unsure
31:32
Speaker 1: with the state of that department, with how things were handled,
31:36
Speaker 1: whether or not they have lost some critical information to
31:39
Speaker 1: put them beyond eight ball. You know, to you John Paul,
31:41
Speaker 1: founder Beaver County and dot Com, the fact that that
31:44
Speaker 1: police report was leaked, it should never have been given
31:48
Speaker 1: to the fiance to start with, but it was. Then
31:51
Speaker 1: it was leaked. Then her reputation was destroyed, then she
31:55
Speaker 1: was gunned down. Why was it leaked? Well, I think
31:59
Speaker 1: that's I think that's a very good question. I think
32:02
Speaker 1: that's one that investigators would like an answer to. Certainly.
32:07
Speaker 1: The other big issue that created a problem for the
32:10
Speaker 1: police department is the leak was not just to the
32:13
Speaker 1: police report, but it also contains sensitive information from a
32:17
Speaker 1: law enforcement only Justice network database that hand and that
32:21
Speaker 1: it contained also And if you had that database, what
32:25
Speaker 1: could you learn? What good is the database? Well, it
32:28
Speaker 1: provided the photographs, driver's license numbers, social security numbers. I mean,
32:33
Speaker 1: it was every bit of private information about yourself that
32:36
Speaker 1: the police department might have or that the state might
32:40
Speaker 1: have that you could imagine, So that that leak was
32:43
Speaker 1: much more than just a report. It was a sensitive
32:46
Speaker 1: personal information that in state of Pennsylvania it's unlawfuled very sensitive.
32:50
Speaker 1: Fancy could I make a comment about yes, jump my
32:53
Speaker 1: clinical practice, whenever somebody reports to me that their lover,
32:58
Speaker 1: their boyfriend, their friend is threatening to expose them to
33:03
Speaker 1: their employer, I always think homicide. That's my first worry
33:08
Speaker 1: that crosses my mind, because when you love somebody, when
33:12
Speaker 1: you want to marry them, when they are your best friend.
33:15
Speaker 1: When you've cherished that relationship. The last thing you want
33:19
Speaker 1: to do is cause them to lose their job. The
33:23
Speaker 1: last thing you want to do is be smirched their reputation,
33:26
Speaker 1: make them look terrible. But whoever either released that report
33:31
Speaker 1: or once it gone into the hands of the fiancee,
33:33
Speaker 1: whoever sent it to the school board had simmering hate
33:39
Speaker 1: and resentment towards her. They wanted to take her down.
33:44
Speaker 1: When you report something negative to somebody's employer, you're not
33:49
Speaker 1: thinking about their future anymore. You're cutting their life short professionally,
33:54
Speaker 1: and that kind of person might have wanted to cut
33:57
Speaker 1: her life short in a drum attic physical way too well, Bethany.
34:03
Speaker 1: Less than one month after Rachel was murdered, three police
34:08
Speaker 1: chiefs in the span of one week, the last chief
34:14
Speaker 1: turn the investigation over to county detectives. Rachel's murder the
34:18
Speaker 1: ninth I saw murder in the area, Okay to you,
34:23
Speaker 1: Joe Scott Morgan and the aftermath of her murder three
34:28
Speaker 1: police chiefs. Yeah, it's somebody's covering something up, Joe Scott.
34:34
Speaker 1: That's all I can say about that. Something is a way.
34:37
Speaker 1: I'd absolutely agree with you. And also to this point. Look,
34:41
Speaker 1: I'm a death investigator by trade. That's all I have
34:44
Speaker 1: literally ever done, and so it is the single most
34:48
Speaker 1: intense investigation from a forensic standpoint that you can conduct.
34:53
Speaker 1: If your eyes are not on the ball in a
34:55
Speaker 1: case like this and other cases that this department is
35:01
Speaker 1: intimately involved with, you're going to miss You're going to
35:06
Speaker 1: miss the big picture because you're skipping over the finer details.
35:10
Speaker 1: They don't have time to analyze the finer details because
35:13
Speaker 1: they're too busy, uh, you know, not being able to
35:17
Speaker 1: take care of their own house. Here. This is a
35:19
Speaker 1: major problem. It's a huge mass. John Paul found to
35:23
Speaker 1: Beaver County in dot com. Why three police chiefs in
35:26
Speaker 1: the aftermath of her murder? What's happening? Well, the first
35:31
Speaker 1: police chief was suspended when a councilman came forward and
35:35
Speaker 1: said that he was aware that the chief was the
35:37
Speaker 1: subject of a criminal investigation by the state police. Okay,
35:41
Speaker 1: what about the second one. The second one was arrested
35:46
Speaker 1: by county detectives after he had allegedly sent a pornographic
35:52
Speaker 1: image to Lauren Watkins, who was the friend that dropped
35:56
Speaker 1: Rachel Deltondo off at home. The night that she was killed.
36:00
Speaker 1: And then the third chief was the one that eventually
36:05
Speaker 1: turned it over to county detectives, and that chief has
36:08
Speaker 1: sense passed and they're now chief was at the moment.
36:12
Speaker 1: So all of this is stimming out of were connected
36:16
Speaker 1: to Rachel del Tondo's murder and it's still unsolved. Okay, question,
36:24
Speaker 1: let's hear now, what's happening. Just hours after Rachel del
36:28
Speaker 1: Tondo was killed, police weren't Sheldon Jeter's doorstep looking to
36:33
Speaker 1: question him, and a search warrant application indicates that that
36:37
Speaker 1: visit raised questions. It states that they asked Sheldon for
36:43
Speaker 1: the clothing he was wearing that night, and he gave
36:46
Speaker 1: them other clothing. That's not how it went down. There
36:48
Speaker 1: was a pile of clothes laying on the floor next
36:50
Speaker 1: to his bed where he was sleeping. They got up
36:52
Speaker 1: and side of these as the clothes that you were wearing. Yeah,
36:54
Speaker 1: all my clothes are right there, so they scooped it up.
36:56
Speaker 1: Sheldon's attorney ins is it's not his client's fault that
37:00
Speaker 1: the cops picked up the wrong clothes, but the ward
37:03
Speaker 1: application also states Sheldon failed to display any emotion when
37:08
Speaker 1: he was informed of Rachel's death. That's absolutely untrue. He
37:14
Speaker 1: was shocked. He was in shock. Lauren Watkins, who has
37:18
Speaker 1: known Sheldon since elementary school, says she doesn't believe he's
37:22
Speaker 1: capable of murder. She says she never knew Rachel and
37:26
Speaker 1: Sheldon to have any type of romantic relationship. Guys, what
37:31
Speaker 1: happened to Rachel Deltando? It sounds like a huge miss,
37:35
Speaker 1: you know, Askey Wilcott, when you have to hand your
37:37
Speaker 1: investigation over to somebody else like here, they handed it
37:40
Speaker 1: over to county sheriffs. That's a horrible sign. It says
37:45
Speaker 1: to me, something stinks. Oh. I completely agree with you.
37:48
Speaker 1: And don't forget a couple of little facts that I
37:50
Speaker 1: want to remind everybody about. Number one is the fiance.
37:54
Speaker 1: I understood his father was law enforcement at some point.
37:58
Speaker 1: The one of the girls that she was ice cream
38:00
Speaker 1: with I believe was related to law enforcements. It is
38:05
Speaker 1: a tangled web and it's a mess. And let me
38:07
Speaker 1: just say this, when you have this much turnover, I
38:10
Speaker 1: work for a county, right when you have this much turnover,
38:14
Speaker 1: there are bigger issues. You've got major problems. And I
38:18
Speaker 1: think the major problem here is people know things and
38:21
Speaker 1: are doing nothing about it to solve this murder. The
38:25
Speaker 1: murder of Rachel de Altando remains unsolved, her parents still grieving.
38:30
Speaker 1: Tipline If You Know Anything eight hundred four PA Tips
38:35
Speaker 1: eight hundred four seven two eight four seven seven. We
38:40
Speaker 1: wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace crime Story, signing off
38:44
Speaker 1: goodbye friend