What we lose in the Shadows (A father and daughter True Crime Podcast)
What we lose in the Shadows (A father and daughter True Crime Podcast)
Murder in a small town: Who killed Rachel Del Tonto?
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We wander into the shadowy streets of Aliquippa, peeling back layers of intrigue surrounding the unresolved murder of Rachel Del Tonto. Her story, tangled with wealth, broken engagements, and mysterious liaisons, paints a picture of love gone wrong in a town steeped in history and danger. The shocking end of her engagement to Frank Catroppa, known as "the Wolf of Aliquippa," and the chain of events that would ultimately lead to her tragic demise. Through the lens of small-town dynamics and police missteps, we lay bare the complexities that continue to shroud her murder in mystery.
Timeline: The Murder Of Rachael DelTondo - BeaverCountian.com
Rachael DelTondo Murder: Beaver County DA names prime suspect – WPXI
Contact us at: whatweloseintheshadows@gmail.com
Background music by Michael Shuller Music
Good morning and welcome to what we Lose in the Shadows.
Speaker 2A father-daughter true crime podcast.
Speaker 1My name is Jamison Keys.
Speaker 2I'm Caroline Hello.
Speaker 1Hi Caroline, how are you this evening?
Speaker 2I'm good. How are you?
Speaker 1Very good what's going on.
Speaker 2Nothing much. I've been watching a lot of Love is Blind. Do you know that?
Speaker 1Love is Blind.
Speaker 2Love is Blind. If you didn't know.
Speaker 1I did know. I'm supposed to know.
Speaker 2It's a TV show.
Speaker 1Ah, okay.
Speaker 2Yes, it's a dating TV show. It's like trashy reality TV.
Speaker 1Are they actually blind? I mean.
Speaker 2Yes, basically, well, no, Okay, no, but like they're, they're sitting in these pods and then they separate the men and the women and they like have them all meet each other and then they decide if they want to continue seeing like which ones, and then it like kind of narrows down and then people end up like getting to know each other and dating without seeing each other. So they can talk through these like adjoining um rooms, but like there's like a thin layer of something and you and it's opaque, you cannot see who or anything about them. You can't see like figure nothing, and so it's trying to say like, or it's like a social experiment, like let's take it a little too far in my opinion, but because you have to propose before you meet the person, oh what?
Speaker 1so so it's just on personality. It's like our personality either matches or it doesn't personality goals.
Speaker 2You know, like anything you can, you can discuss, you know, but just not physical all mental, physical, wow exactly yep, and it's crazy, as you can imagine, and this season has not disappointed I I don't typically watch past the the pods I think like the idea of like dating someone that you can't see and just like vibing on you know whatever you're talking about, like I think that's really interesting and so I like to watch those just to see people like kind of not match up and then, like you see people's facial expressions too, because they they know that the other person can't see them. So like it's just very honest, it's so funny. But, um, so I watched this season all the way through.
Speaker 2Although I'm waiting for the weddings, I'm still waiting because they're not out until october 20 something. Oh, it's soon actually. I just realized, um, I'm excited about that. But so, all to say, literally the craziest scene came up when this one, one of the one of the fiancés was said he was going to go take a sleep test and so he had to be away from his like other, his fiancée, for a night and she found text on his phone like with another woman. They haven't even gotten married yet. It's been like two months, maybe it's been like a month since they've met each other and he can't even not cheat on her for a month was the text from one of the sleep texts.
Speaker 1What do you I mean? No, so the text.
Speaker 2She went. I don't know how she found it. I guess like maybe like apple was linked up to his computer, I don't know how she found it. So she saw his messages and it was like like sexting with like a woman and he was like I was sorry, I was just so drunk at a sleep test, like drunk at a sleep test.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's a.
Speaker 2That's a country song right there um, basically literally, but I don't think you can. I don't think they'll take you back if you're drunk. That wouldn't be beneficial for their sleep test, first of all. And then secondly, I don't think like you could be drunk in a medical facility. I mean, I guess the ER probably sees a lot of drunks, but some guys, it's so funny. And she was like I don't believe you and I was like good, please don't believe that I was like, like, if you believe that we all look stupid, okay, that is ridiculous.
Speaker 1Anyways, excited to see who actually gets married, I might have to watch, although I would recommend I do. Like the um, for example, I like the voice sometimes. Right, the only part I like is while the chairs are turned around and they can't see the people and they just have to react to their voice. As it is not with regard to the, you know what they look like and right it's very interesting, I like that more than the battle rounds and all that, that kind of thing.
Speaker 2So the voice was fun for a while trigger warnings today are domestic violence, sexual assault and murder right.
Speaker 1So, carolyn, this is actually. This was sent in by one of our listeners and, interestingly, yeah, so this particular case happened from a little town near Pittsburgh, and I'm not sure if I've ever told you this, caroline, but I'm from southwestern Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2Really, I thought you were from.
Speaker 1California. No one would ever look at me and say, oh, there's a guy from California.
Speaker 2I think they would think that about me.
Speaker 1Possibly.
Speaker 2I'm just kidding, there's a guy from California. No, that, I'm the guy from California.
Speaker 1I don't think they'd think that either they might. No, not at all, but no. So yeah, someone sent this in and made me aware of this case and it's interesting because it seems like an insane case and it happened quite, not super recently, but not, you know, 30 years ago or anything like that. So I was completely unfamiliar with it. So, but yeah, it's a story about a woman named Rachel Del Tonto.
Speaker 2I have not heard of it actually.
Speaker 1So it's been more than six years after the 33 year old Rachel Del Tonto was shot point blank in her mother's driveway on Mother's Day of 2018. Was she a mother? She was not. Okay, the case remains unsolved and there are multiple theories about who did it and why. What we do know is Rachel was 33 years old. She lived with her parents, and that's kind of an Italian tradition before you get married, that you live with your parents.
Hidden Allegations in Aliquippa
Speaker 1Most other cultures, actually Quite a few actually, that's true. But she worked as a teacher for a second and third grade in a magnet school, a charter school up in Pittsburgh area, in a place called Aliquippa. And Aliquippa is about 20 or 25 miles away from Pittsburgh north and western, I believe and it's known for some things. It's known for a few things here. Aliquippa is known at one point.
Speaker 1I think the city's name Aliquippa is from Queen Aliquippa, who was an Algonquin princess, native American, native American, and was kind of in that general part of Pennsylvania was there were different tribes and Algonquins were one of them and Aliquippa later became, you know, a settler point. It also became very, very large and became prosperous during the steel industry, which was big in southwestern Pennsylvania and Alquippa. When the steel plants closed it became known more or less for football Not a big city about 10,000 people, but lot of nfl athletes have come from aliquippa because they had this tremendous, you know, football program. So it was known for steel, was known for football. Unfortunately it's also known as kind of a dangerous city yikes so I'm going to run through this a little bit.
Speaker 1Um, you know, rachel rachel was, as I say, she was living with her parents and, um, she had been dating a man Big red flag. She was dating a man named Frank Catropa and they'd been dating for quite some time and Frank, actually on a vacation, took her to Paris and they were engaged there. They were involved in about an eight year long relationship. Interestingly, they had planned this elaborate wedding. He took her to Paris to propose to her, bought her like a 14 carat diamond ring.
Speaker 2How long were they dating at this point?
Speaker 1Several years. I know they dated for eight years in total, maybe five or six years at this point. Okay, she'd put a $10,000 deposit down on the dress and $3,000 shoes and they put a deposit on the place that they were going to get married. Suddenly though, frank, who is a wealthy businessman, connected guy kind of in that area, in Aliquippa and the general running area Some people called him the wolf of Aliquippa. As a matter of fact, don't like that. Yeah, so anyways. But he asked her, everything was kind of in line to get engaged and married, and then he asked her for a prenuptial.
Speaker 2So she I think they call that a prenup now A prenup, a prenup.
Speaker 1So he asked her for a prenup and that's kind of when things kind of went south, because she was OK with it initially. But according to friends and family, her mother was not, you know, traditional talent family. You know they don't do that. Yeah, there's a if you want a prenup. That's not a cool thing by some family.
Speaker 2It's a it's a sticky situation, right, Because you, like you want to think about love when you're getting married, not like about like, how to split up finances when you divorce or if you divorce. And I get like why people do it. I totally understand why people do it. I totally understand and I think it's important for you know people to be financially well after they get divorced. It shouldn't like bankrupt you.
Speaker 2I get that, but it has to be written well, right, like it has to be written with, I think, both parties involved like, and both of their input involved, right. And then it gets messy, because then you're like, okay, I don't know how to read this, right, like you can read it, but like you know, you want a lawyer to look over it and see if there's anything like out of the ordinary or anything that would harm you financially. And then it gets into this weird space and then you're kind of looking at your partner, I'm sure, and you're just like so I get why people are like, eh, but I also understand why some people find it important. It's a tough, it's tough, it's an awkward, awkward thing.
Speaker 1It is and you know it's, it's, it's, it's has to be well written, because more often than not they're defeatable in court.
Speaker 2Interesting. I didn't know that.
Speaker 1Yeah, especially when they've been. You know, it's been a long time because of community property and things like that, it's things like that. But anyways, he asked for one. She declined after her mother kind of inputted that that was a bad idea. So the engagement came to an end on Valentine's Day, 2016. What an ass. And Del Tonto returns the 14 carat ring. I think she actually broke up with him, to be honest.
Speaker 2Oh, okay. Well, that's still kind of a horrible day to do it. For sure you couldn't have waited the next day, that's true.
Speaker 1In February of February 6th of 2016,. I'll equip a police sergeant, ken Watkins, and police officer Fran Conkle, find Del Tonto, who was 33 at the time, with a young man by the last name of Jeter, and they were sitting in a car, ok, and it was about 152. They were sitting in a car, okay, and it was about 1.52 in the morning, in a remote spot. Now, she had been a teacher and he had been not one of her students, but a junior high school student when she first met him. Okay, now the windows were fogged up oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no and Jeter's seat was reclined. Now Datonto said that, basically, you know, the then 17-year-old Jeter needed to talk. Yeah, oh, no, and he needed to talk and she was trying to help him through a few things, and initially she had said that they were in the parking lot of the Circle K, which is in the middle of town. They weren't, they were in a very remote part that was kind of away from everything.
Speaker 2It's so inappropriate.
Speaker 1So a police officer notices the car and notices it was running and noticed you know that was kind of odd place for that time of day. So Rachel is friends with one of the two police officers the officer Conkle's daughter, the officer Conkle's daughter and she asks them not to tell Frank Catropa. You know that this had happened because she didn't want to. Nothing was wrong.
Speaker 2And that's a big red flag.
Speaker 1It is, but they're already broken up anyways. Well, they weren't broken up.
Speaker 2I thought they weren't going up. Ok, OK, OK.
Speaker 1So this is February 6th.
Speaker 2That's even more of a red flag.
Speaker 1Right. It happened shortly thereafter though this whole thing, but she asked him not to tell Frank, our fiancé. Now the age of consent in Pennsylvania is 16. That's horrible. So he was 17. No, so no charges were filed. The police take the young man home and let her drive home. Now in Pennsylvania, the age of consent is 16 years old. I hate it.
Speaker 1In the United States, the age of consent is the minimum age in which an individual is considered legally old enough to consent to participate in sexual activity. Individuals aged 15 and younger, under Pennsylvania law, are not able to consent and sexual activity may result in prosecution of statutory rape. Yep, Now Pennsylvania's statutory rape law is violated. The de facto agreement and the consent law in Pennsylvania is actually 18. Due to Pennsylvania's corruption of minor statute, this creates like a real dynamic, as laws that allow teens of 16 or 17 to consent with sex with one another, but no one older than 18 may do that, and teens between the age 13 and 15 may not consent. You know someone older than four years older than them, so it's a really kind of a weird scenario. Now these police officers. She talked to them and said please don't write this up, please don't tell my you know my boyfriend, because nothing happened. So this is in 2016, now april this is 2016.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's fairly recently so april of 2017.
Speaker 1a report about the incident is created more than a year later, very, very interesting. In case someone got wind of it, it was printed on May 2nd 2017 at 3 am.
Speaker 2Seems like blackmail.
Speaker 1Seems like someone's trying to cover their butts right.
Speaker 2Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it seems like someone's trying to cover up, but they should have just reported it to begin with first of all. Right, exactly, and it seems like. Why are are? Yeah, that seemed like they're trying to cover their ass, you're right.
Speaker 1So in october of 2017, an anonymous email containing the incident report and alleging a police cover-up goes out to a number of people, including to del tanto's employer, the county, the state, state agency and the media. The email includes sensitive personal information you know from the state and federal government. You know records. You know strictly forbidden under Pennsylvania state law Things like you know social security numbers, signature images, home addresses and things like that. Oh, it's voxing the voxing. Voxing what's voxing?
Speaker 2I thought I told you about this like yesterday. Maybe I think I told you this literally yesterday.
The Tangled Web of Relationships
Speaker 1Um, it's when you leak someone's personal private information online well, that's exactly what this was, and it was in pursuant to a, you know, criminal case. So that's interesting. The police chief, police chief his name is couch. Police chief couch, oh god claims the information about tell tonto uh had been handed out in error to a member of the public, but couch refused to say whom that was stupid.
Speaker 2It doesn't matter if it's an accident. You can't hand out information about someone's like personal, like their private social security number and address, to a member of the public. Why are you sharing information with the public like that?
Speaker 1So there was another police officer I think it was Joseph Percival at that point, I think he was an assistant chief, maybe something like that and he said that Frank Cantropa came in and wanted the information. He found out about the incident and at first believed her that it was, you know, not a problem because they were at the Circle K and she, she had told him it was earlier in the evening and it was in a more popular place. But in fact when he found out when it was and where it was, he wanted the information. Now he had been a benefactor to the police. He had, you know, given them information, helped them buy a new police car, things like that. So he was a supporter of the police.
Speaker 2That doesn't mean that he has access to other people's records.
Speaker 1Absolutely not. But basically what happened was, according to some folks, the police chief had said hey, it's Frankie, Give him the information.
Speaker 2Exactly, and that's what happens in the small towns I've noticed. You know, it's like the boundaries aren't as clear because people have known each other for a very long time, and I think that can be really dangerous.
Speaker 1For sure, a second anonymous email was sent out on October 27th of 2017 to the Beaver County, which is a local newspaper.
Speaker 2I love that name.
Speaker 1The Beaver Countian. Yes, alleging the reason the report was not filed in February 2016 with the Aliquippa School District and the Children's and Youth Services was because that it was an attempt at a cover up.
Speaker 2Well, you know, obviously, obviously I'm glad that they printed that, but also I think that it's super dangerous that she was a school teacher.
Speaker 1Right and had known this kid for ever Unacceptable Right Super inappropriate.
Speaker 1So on November 6, 2017, d'antonio was placed on administrative suspension, with pay from her job, while they were pending an investigation by the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the Cyber Charter School where she had worked.
Speaker 1In December of 2017, so a month later the Beaver County published an extensive investigation piece on the leak of sensitive files from the Alquibeta Police Department, which, in turn, triggered the Pennsylvania State Police to launch a criminal investigation into the department. Pennsylvania State Police to launch a criminal investigation into the department. Also at the same month, in December 2017, del Tonto herself began speaking with the Beaver County and, as a confidential source, she says she was cooperating with the state police and the organized crime unit of the state attorney general's office. She also told the paper that she had begun receiving death threats and she was in fear for her life. About that same time, rachel also begins a serious relationship with Rashawn Bolton, and Bolton is the half brother of Jeter, the young boy she was in the car with. That's the weird thing about this there's so many people and they're so interconnected in a small town like this, but this is really kind of odd Wait.
Speaker 2And they're so interconnected in a small town like this. But this is really kind of odd. Wait, so she, as a 33-year-old, has an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old Right, and then now is dating his cousin years later.
Speaker 1His brother.
Speaker 2Oh, his brother, His part brother, okay, his half brother.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2Very interesting. And how old is the half brother? Okay, so he wasn't underage then.
Speaker 1Oh, no, no, no, no, okay. Okay, he's an older person. Now I wonder about this because and the fella is a larger, you know powerful looking dude. I wonder though is she terrified at this point for her life Because she said she'd had death threats? Right Time to move. Well, that's, you're not wrong there. Rachel was actually, you know, shot in the driveway of her mother's house late at night. Prior to her death, she had been involved in a complicated, you know, personal life and included, you know a controversial relationship with Jeter, who was a former student.
Speaker 2It's not controversial, it's inappropriate.
Speaker 1True, which, but not illegal. Let's be clear about that. It's quasi, but it's not it.
Speaker 2I I thought there were laws like about like the age of the older person and in relation to the younger person, like I thought there were like five years older laws or like six years older laws, not like oh, after they're this, you can date a 55 year old.
Speaker 1Right, which was that thing I told before in terms of the two things being kind of, you know, contradicting Right. Age of 16 is age of consent, but this other law kind of said you can't, that's fine if they, if they want to have some sex with someone that is within a certain age range. So there are two laws that are kind of not aligning Right. They're really not aligning.
Speaker 2Because that's not a small age gap 17 to 33?.
Speaker 1Yeah, it isn't. That's huge Right right. The investigation into her murder revealed that you know tangled web and relationships and different threats and so on that were made against her. In 2020, a man named Timothy McClough was arrested and charged in connection with the case, but the details surrounding the motive and his identity and the identity of the shooter remain murky. So, leading on to, you know, discussions about the nature of crime and the implications in the community, the case remains open and many questions are unanswered about Rachel's life and the circumstances of her death. Now it's still open.
Speaker 2It's still open.
Speaker 1Oh, wow. So the night she died, this was May 13th of 2018, right? So Mother's Day, wow. Del Tonto goes out for ice cream to Hank's Custard in New Brighton with two friends, one of whom is Jeter's half brother, tyree Now, not the guy she was dating. Another brother another brother, but she's in the car with with Jeter's brother Tyree.
Speaker 2And is he underage?
Speaker 1He's not Okay, Uh, after and she was also in the car with a friend of hers who was a teenage girl that's so weird and she was the daughter of one of the cops that originally had started this thing by finding her in the car with Jeter Really interwoven.
The Murder Mystery in Aliquippa
Speaker 2I mean that, and you should not be hanging out with teenagers without some sort of connection. Like I understand, familial connection is one, obviously, like you're gonna hang out with cousins and siblings or whatever, um, or like boys and girls club. That makes sense to me. You know some kind of like non-profit organization, but you should not be getting ice cream by yourselves. It just doesn't. It's why are you doing that you?
Speaker 1know. So there was rachel, there was this young girl who was the daughter of the police officer, and then there was Jeter's half-brother, tyree.
Speaker 2Right. So the 17-year-old girl. Why is she there? Why is she there? It's so weird.
Speaker 1Why is she there Now? The young lady said that she took Rachel back to her mom's house and they let her off, and the one thing that Rachel always said was please make sure that you watch me walk up to the door Because, like I said, aliquippa can be kind of a dangerous place, right. So the girl said that she watched her walk up the driveway and she watched her get to the door, but then she drove away. So after being dropped off at her mother's house, she shot dead in the driveway on Buchanan Drive. She was shot at least 10 times.
Speaker 2How did how did that happen if they saw her get to the door?
Speaker 1No one knows. It was someone standing beyond in the in the darkness, with someone pull up later that that she knew she was at the door. She was at the door. Her father says that he was sitting right inside the door where the television is, so she didn't open the door and he didn't hear or see anyone outside the door.
Speaker 2So did she even get to the door?
Speaker 1Who knows, who knows. So there are a bunch of different theories. Right Theory number one Del Tonto's mother, lisa, told CBS 48 Hours that Sheldon Jeter, who was the young man, the 17-year-old, who was 21 at the time of her death, was obsessed and in love with her daughter.
Speaker 2I mean that does happen to grooming victims.
Speaker 1Sure, sure. The comments came during a special report what Happened to Rachel which was on television a few years back. The day after Del Tonto was killed, police interviewed Jeter. He claimed that he and the victim had an on-again, off-again relationship, but he had nothing to do with her murder, he said, and they tried to remain friends, but there is a cast of characters that could be considered suspects, the attorney said. I would say her fiancé is a possible suspect, Her ex-fiancé, Her ex-fiancé right. Theory number two Del Tonto's mother claims that her daughter and her ex-fiancé, Frank Catropa, threatened to kill her daughter a long time ago. Del Tonto broke off the engagement back in 2017, but Frank also said that he had remained friends with her and had no motive for killing her. Catropa told police that he was with his mother at the time Del Tonto was killed and that there was video surveillance from his home that confirms this.
Speaker 2Yikes.
Speaker 1When you're with someone for eight years, you just hope they get justice, catropa told reporters later that year. There's another theory that basically says that what happened to Del Tonto was in retaliation for her cooperation in the corruption investigation into the Aliquippa Police Department. Del Tonto's mother claims that her daughter was receiving death threats over her cooperation. She was afraid of the police, deathly afraid of the police. Lisa Del Tonto said they follow me around, mom, they're always following me. Aaron Moriarty, the 48 Hours reporter who interviewed Del Tonto's mother, asked former assistant chief of police Joe Percival if he thought police department could possibly be involved in Del Tonto's death. He said you just never know.
Speaker 1Aliquippa is a small community with New York problems. Percival was a member of the department during the murder. Now, at one point in time, because of all the crazy stuff going on in Aliquippa, chief Couch is dismissed. Percival becomes the police chief at that point. But he's only in office one or two days when an allegation that he had sent inappropriate pictures to a young girl. Oh my gosh. But can you imagine who the actual complaint came from? Who the first? The young girl that is the friend of Del Tonto. That is the daughter of one of the police officers.
Speaker 2It's a lot, that's a lot, it's a lot.
Speaker 1So my question is this Now, later on.
Speaker 2So wait, hold on question is this now, now, later on, hold on. So the new interim police chief who just was used to send, or still sends, sexual pictures to a minor minor of one of his co-workers, right, I hate it so, but you have to wonder.
Speaker 1You have to wonder though is it even real? Did that actually happen? Probably, you know, maybe, but, but it just seems like they are trying to manipulate things here. Right, who is the police department?
Speaker 2But isn't that? But he against each other.
Speaker 1You mean like, like they're trying to throw the scent off. They're trying to kind of, you know, because? So the thought was that Jeter, who later that year was convicted of murder, what he actually shot A different person Shot, hit one of his best friends in a car and left him to die.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1So maybe it was him. Maybe it was him, but do we even know that's? That's the case.
Speaker 2No, but it kind of like it says something for sure, but like he's able to shoot a very close person to him and then another close person to him dies before Same way. I mean it does. It is strange.
Speaker 1So the thing about the murder is like it wasn't a robbery. It was. You know, rachel wasn't exactly robbed, she wasn't mugged. Because, you know, maybe there's a shot, maybe someone tries to grab something and shoot someone. So maybe there's a shot, maybe someone tries to grab something and shoot someone, but shooting someone 10 times, that shows a crime of passion or an execution. Because one of the other theories says that the police department, because of her cooperating with the federal authorities and the state's attorney general, that the police department actually had someone murder her. That's so messy, it's so messy, messy, it's so messy, it's so insane.
Speaker 1Now and then you think about well, what about the boyfriend? You know the, the ex-fiance?
Speaker 2I don't feel like it was him well, but here's the thing did he kill someone too?
Speaker 1just recently, oh my gosh, just recently, years after the fact he was just recently arrested for domestic violence against his girlfriend.
Speaker 2That's crazy.
Speaker 1Apparently um and now check this out. He. He came home right and he found messages on her phone from another guy. He then, according to this young lady um, disabled the cameras in the house the security cameras and strangled her. Oh my gosh, so violent and as he's strangling her, her four-year-old daughter comes up and says, stop hurting my mommy. And he punches her in the face.
Speaker 2Oh, put him in jail, so he is in jail Good. And how dare what oh put him in jail.
Speaker 1So he is in jail. Good, and how dare what? See, I'm so confused because it's like OK, jeter, who's? This young guy is obviously in love with her and, a matter of fact, he had come, you know, once. Once Del Tonto said look, this isn't appropriate, we need to stop this. You need to stop coming around here. Right, he was drunk and he came to the house and he was like this well-known athlete. He was a great football player, he was going to go to college on this football scholarship, but he's obsessed with her and she was a beautiful girl and he was a younger guy. He becomes obsessed with her and he was over at her house.
Speaker 2Because of her grooming him.
Speaker 1Grooming I don't know if it was. I mean, is grooming? I thought grooming was only pretty much for if you want them to have sex with someone else.
Speaker 2No.
Speaker 1But grooming can be just for your own personal sickness. But anyways. But he basically came to the house, was pounding on every window of the house and her mother went out with an air gun, you know, saying you need to get out of here and he finally fled. So there's, a level of passion in that right. Yes, and apparently he was also obsessive about tracking her whereabouts, and even the night that she is murdered he's texting back and forth with his brother, who's in the car with del tanto saying what about where she is?
Speaker 1yeah, yeah, where are you guys at? Did you leave the ice cream place, and so on and so forth? That looks very incriminating. It really does look incriminating, and the fact that, like I said, this was a passionate thing. This was someone that was close. This isn't a stranger right. So you have Jeter, who's in jail for killing someone.
Speaker 2That he also was close to.
Speaker 1Who he was also close to and shot seven times Right.
Speaker 2Again a lot of times Right, it's very similar.
Speaker 1At point blank range, at point blank range. And then you also have this former fiance, who apparently is a kind of a lunatic as well, obviously. And tries to strangle a girlfriend for having a number on the phone and then hits a small child.
Speaker 2Punches a four-year-old in the face. That's the worst thing I've ever heard. Honestly, I mean not the worst thing, I mean you know what I mean.
Speaker 1So you've got all three of those theories, you've got this, the one that is the prosecuting attorney, the district attorney in this case recently said you know, he said I don't have the evidence, I don't have the gun, I don't have enough forensic evidence, but it was Jeter Right, Okay, but someone I know that is familiar with the area and the case and so on and so forth.
Speaker 2You know them personally I do.
Speaker 1Oh, but yeah, and they said it's not Jeter, it was the fiance, and this was before the information came out about him. This was before the information came out about him. This was before. Yeah, they said this is no, it wasn't. It wasn't Jeter. Jeter was just a young guy, so that's like the town gossip. Right Wow.
Speaker 1I like having the town gossip on here, that's cool so but yeah, so you've got the, you've got the thing for Jeter, who who's you know, a jilted young guy and maybe, you know, impassioned, has done some violent things in the past is currently in jail serving a life sentence for murdering his friend, shooting him seven times. You have the ex-fiancee, who's also in jail and violent and, you know, has a problem with finding information on the phone about the girlfriend and then going nuts and, you know, trying to allegedly strangle her Right. And then you have the whole situation with the police department and her being an informant. So there's so many I don't know that they're ever going to solve this case.
Speaker 2Yeah, I feel like that someone will go away for it, it seems, but I mean it may have been someone else. That's crazy. So you know.
Speaker 1OK, let's say, let's, let's run through some. This is pure conjecture, you know. I mean, could, could one of the, could the police department be so dirty, so crooked that they hired someone, or one of their policemen shot her 10 times? Is that possible?
Speaker 2Yes, it's definitely a possibility. It's happened before.
Speaker 1Is it a possibility that the young man actually was overcome.
Speaker 2Yes, they're all possible, they're all possible.
Speaker 1Now the district attorney basically said I just wanted to give her parents closure and I want to let them know that he is the prime suspect. I don't have the gun, I don't have forensic evidence. There was some thought that he went home and changed his clothes the night. She was you know but but no one saw him in the area and they couldn't ping his phone to say he was definitely in the area. So that's not you know. And then they may not find it. And then frank says I was home with my mom. So I mean, who knows?
Speaker 2I mean knows what's going on, most of the time like if someone said I was home with my mom. It's like okay, that's not really like a solid alibi to me because your mom would lie for you. But it's mother's day, so it's like of course he was with his mom, like oh, that's so tough.
Speaker 1My mom would lie for me. My mom would also help me bury the body. So yeah, I totally understand that that's not the best yeah, it's not no, but uh, so I don't know.
Speaker 1This case is so weird. And, honestly, the district attorney saying, yeah, he's our prime suspect. I wanted to give the parents some closure. It's very odd, is it? Because, yeah, because it's like are you just because that that puts it in a nice neat ball, right, the guy? We don't have to go through a trial right now. He's already in jail. He's already done something violent like this before.
Speaker 2He something violent like this before. He couldn't believe it too, though he could believe it, but it is more than we do obviously, but it's awfully, awfully convenient yeah so I don't know maybe we never find out.
Speaker 1But, um, I'm gonna keep digging on this one because it's kind of interesting that is wow so what a story. So I mean obviously the the young lady you know, rachel del tanto um, did she make some incredibly bad choices. Absolutely Real lack of judgment here. Was she hanging out with people she shouldn't have been hanging out with? Absolutely.
Speaker 2It's so tough when they're children, because it's like it's so.
Speaker 1It's a really mind bending curvy, like if you wrote this in a book, right, people would go okay, come on, yeah, you're bending credibility here, you're really putting way too much thought into this. But yeah, so that's the story of Rachel Del Tonto, a murderer that might never be solved.
Speaker 2Yeah, follow the show on whatever streaming site you're listening on.
Speaker 1And remember. All of the source material will be available in the show notes.
Speaker 2And follow us on Instagram at WhatWeLoseIntheshadows, and let us know if you want to hear a specific case.
Speaker 1Or if you just want to give us some feedback.
Speaker 2Okay, join us in the shadows next Tuesday. Bye.
