Keith Palumbo Murder: The Warlocks and the Mount Moriah Crypt

The Keith Palumbo murder was a 2020 Philadelphia killing in which 36-year-old tattoo artist and musician Keith Palumbo was shot in the head by his childhood friend Michael DeLuca, a member of the Warlocks motorcycle gang who falsely believed Palumbo was a police informant. DeLuca and other gang members hid the body inside a pre-Civil War crypt at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Southwest Philadelphia, where it was found alongside the remains of a second victim.¹

Who Keith Palumbo Was and How He Vanished

Palumbo was a 36-year-old tattoo artist and musician from Drexel Hill in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. In February 2020, his mother, Dottie Palumbo, reported him missing to the Upper Darby Police Department four days after he had borrowed her car. He was last seen agitated and wearing a gold guitar pick necklace his mother had given him. Her car later turned up in an area known for drug trafficking.¹

The Leg Shooting Ten Days Before He Disappeared

Ten days before Palumbo vanished, someone shot him in the leg. He survived and refused to name the gunman to police.¹ Investigators later identified the shooter as Buck Evans, a Warlocks member. Evans admitted to the shooting under questioning but denied any role in Palumbo’s disappearance or death.²

The Discovery in the Mount Moriah Crypt

The case opened up when Evans told Philadelphia Police Detective Joseph Bamberski that Palumbo had been murdered and his body dumped at Mount Moriah Cemetery. Detectives then turned to the Warlocks after learning that Palumbo’s childhood friend DeLuca, also a gang member, had gone missing himself.³

On April 2, 2020, officers searched a house on Woodland Avenue connected to the gang and found blood evidence inside. The next day, a joint Philadelphia and Delaware County team searched Mount Moriah Cemetery, roughly 200 acres of largely neglected ground straddling Southwest Philadelphia and Yeadon Borough. They noticed scrape marks and an off-center capstone on one old crypt, inserted a flexible camera, and spotted a large blue tarp inside.³

After obtaining a warrant, officers opened the crypt and found two bodies. One was Palumbo, wrapped in a rug from the Woodland Avenue house, still wearing his gold guitar pick necklace, shot in the head, with a fresh wound on his leg matching the earlier shooting.¹ DNA testing in August 2020 officially confirmed his identity.⁴

Why DeLuca Killed Him

At the Warlocks’ clubhouse, investigators found high-velocity blood spatter and a large pool of blood along the baseboards. Lab testing matched the blood to Palumbo. Surveillance footage showed a truck belonging to Donna Morelli, driven by DeLuca with Billy Gibson as passenger, moving a body from the area to the cemetery.¹

Two Warlocks, Evans and Gibson, told police DeLuca shot Palumbo in the head at the clubhouse. The motive, according to investigators, was the gang’s mistaken belief that Palumbo was cooperating with police. Morelli, who owned the clubhouse and sat on the cemetery’s nonprofit board, separately identified DeLuca as the shooter and admitted being present when the crypt was opened to hide the body.³

DeLuca’s Capture, Plea, and Sentence

DeLuca fled Pennsylvania after the killing. A Cheyenne, Wyoming, police officer stopped him during a traffic stop, where he gave a false name and was found with a loaded .40-caliber pistol with an obliterated serial number under the driver’s seat. He had an outstanding Pennsylvania parole warrant and was federally charged in Wyoming with being a felon in possession of a firearm.⁵

After extradition to Pennsylvania, DeLuca pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in January 2023⁴ and was sentenced to 25 to 35 years in prison.¹

The Accomplices

Three people who helped cover up the killing also pleaded guilty. Buck Evans, Billy Gibson, and Donna Morelli each received 18 to 24 months in prison for their roles in disposing of the body or obstructing the investigation.¹ Morelli pleaded guilty specifically to hindering apprehension or prosecution and obstruction of justice, and faced two open charges of witness intimidation.³

The Second Body in the Crypt

The second set of remains in the crypt was wrapped in a blue tarp with a rope tied around the neck and was identified through DNA as David Rossillo Jr., a 33-year-old Delaware County man and prospective Warlocks member who had been missing since December 2017. A separate Warlocks member, Michael DiMauro, had lured Rossillo to the cemetery, shot him four times, tied a rope around his neck, and used a vehicle to drag the body into the crypt, gaining access with help from a co-conspirator on the cemetery’s nonprofit board.⁶

DiMauro was arrested in September 2020. On August 4, 2023, a jury convicted him of first-degree murder, conspiracy, abuse of a corpse, and related firearm charges. Judge Charles Ehrlich sentenced him on August 17, 2023, to life in prison without the possibility of parole.⁴ Prosecutors said the motive for Rossillo’s murder remains unclear.⁷

1
Oxygen. What Happened to Keith Palumbo and Michael DeLuca
2
Yahoo News. A Crypt, a Biker Gang and a Second Body
3
Pennsylvania Courts. Commonwealth v. DiMauro, Superior Court Opinion
4
Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. Warlocks Gang Member Convicted of First Degree Murder
5
Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Pennsylvania Man Federally Charged in Cheyenne for Firearm Possession
6
NBC Philadelphia. Motorcycle Gang Member Convicted in 2017 Murder of Delaware County Man
7
FOX 29 Philadelphia. Warlocks Gang Member Convicted in Murder at Southwest Philadelphia Cemetery