Rachael DelTondo Updates: Jeter, Grand Jury, and Aliquippa Police

More than eight years after Rachael DelTondo was shot to death in her parents’ driveway in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, the Rachael DelTondo murder case update is this: no one has been charged, the case is classified as cold, and former boyfriend Sheldon Jeter Jr. has been publicly named the prime and only suspect by the Beaver County District Attorney’s Office. Two successive district attorneys have concluded the circumstantial evidence against Jeter is not strong enough to win a conviction. Jeter is serving life in prison for an unrelated killing, and his appeal in that case is pending.¹

What Happened on Mother’s Day 2018

On the evening of May 13, 2018, DelTondo, a 33-year-old teacher at the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, went out for ice cream at Hank’s Frozen Custard in New Brighton with a friend and with RaShawn Bolton, Sheldon Jeter’s half-brother. She was dropped off at her parents’ home in Aliquippa afterward. As she stepped out of the vehicle at the end of the driveway, she was shot. Neighbors reported hearing between ten and twelve shots. She was pronounced dead at the scene around 10:30 p.m.²

There were no eyewitnesses. The murder weapon has never been recovered. Those two gaps have shaped the investigation ever since.¹

Why Sheldon Jeter Jr. Is the Prime Suspect

Jeter and DelTondo had a history that became public in 2017, when a 2016 police report surfaced describing officers finding DelTondo and the then-17-year-old Jeter in a parked car with fogged windows in an abandoned lot around 2:00 a.m. The report was written more than a year after the encounter, on the order of Aliquippa Assistant Police Chief Joe Perciavalle. DelTondo’s ex-fiancé, Frank Catroppa, later obtained the report, and an anonymous party distributed it to the local school board, media outlets, and the mayor. DelTondo was suspended from her teaching job and was hospitalized for three days in a psychiatric facility. She described her connection to Jeter as a friendship in which she was trying to help a student; her mother denied any sexual relationship and said Jeter was “obsessed” with her daughter. Jeter’s attorney, Michael Santicola, has said the two had a relationship that went on “for quite some time.”³

On August 15, 2023, then-Beaver County District Attorney David Lozier publicly named Jeter the “prime and only suspect” in DelTondo’s murder. Lozier said investigators knew Jeter had been stalking DelTondo on the day she was killed but acknowledged he could not place Jeter in the driveway “beyond a reasonable doubt.”⁴²

Dozens of search warrants, later unsealed and reviewed by KDKA-TV, laid out the circumstantial case:

The warrants described Jeter as an “obsessive and jealous stalker” who kept a written log of DelTondo’s movements and associates, wrote her a love letter, and once appeared outside her home at 2:00 a.m. shouting because she would not return his calls.
Geolocation data from Jeter’s phone showed him moving toward and into the area of DelTondo’s residence at the time of the shooting, contradicting his claim to investigators that he was home playing Fortnite.
Jeter had been frustrated earlier that evening that he was not invited to the ice cream outing. At about 10:30 p.m., roughly fifteen minutes before the shooting, he texted his brother “Hanks closed,” referring to the frozen custard shop DelTondo had just left.
Surveillance footage captured Jeter arriving at his mother’s house at 11:55 p.m. and leaving thirty minutes later in different clothing. The clothes he had been wearing earlier were never recovered; investigators believe he destroyed them.¹

Why No Charges Have Been Filed

Prosecutors say the case lacks the pieces they need to secure a conviction. There is no murder weapon. No DNA linking Jeter to the scene. No video of the shooting. No eyewitness. Lozier, who left office in 2023, acknowledged the circumstantial case was strong but said it was not enough. His successor, Nate Bible, has told the DelTondo family the same thing and has described the case as having “gone cold.”¹

Santicola, Jeter’s former attorney, has rejected the accusations and pointed to the missing physical evidence. “No gun, no eyewitness, no DNA, no video,” he told reporters. “You need some of that to point the finger at the person they think committed this crime.”¹

The Grand Jury That Didn’t Indict

For roughly eighteen months leading up to March 2021, a Pennsylvania state investigating grand jury heard evidence in the DelTondo case. Prosecutors presented Jeter’s phone data, a DNA swab, confiscated clothing, carpet swatches from his vehicle analyzed at the state crime lab, GPS signals, surveillance footage, and testimony from Frank Catroppa and RaShawn Bolton. Bolton reportedly testified about an incident in which Jeter became “visibly upset” upon seeing him with DelTondo. The grand jury was expected to recommend criminal homicide charges, but Lozier ultimately concluded the evidence was not strong enough to secure a conviction, and no charges followed.⁵

Jeter’s Life Sentence in the Tyric Pugh Murder

While the DelTondo case stalled, Jeter was arrested, tried, and convicted in a separate killing. On May 15, 2020, his friend and housemate Tyric Pugh, 30, was shot to death in Aliquippa after the two went out for ice cream at Bruster’s. Surveillance footage showed Jeter and Pugh leaving their shared home together at 11:10 p.m.; only Jeter returned. A motorist found Pugh’s body on Kiehl Street shortly after.⁶

Investigators found a Glock pistol under Jeter’s mattress. The Pennsylvania State Police crime lab matched the gun to cartridge cases recovered at the scene and to bullet fragments taken from Pugh’s body. Gunshot residue was found on the driver’s side door and steering wheel of Jeter’s vehicle.⁷ In June 2021, a jury convicted Jeter of first-degree murder in Pugh’s death, and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.⁸

The Juror Misconduct Appeal

After the Pugh verdict, Jeter’s defense raised concerns about a juror who lived next door to the DelTondo crime scene, had been present on the night of DelTondo’s murder, and whose husband had viewed the body. The defense argued the juror was not specifically asked about the DelTondo case during jury selection and did not volunteer the connection, and could have been influenced by years of coverage naming Jeter as a suspect.⁹

The Superior Court of Pennsylvania vacated the trial court’s denial of Jeter’s post-sentence motion and sent the case back for an evidentiary hearing on the misconduct question.⁷ That hearing was held in October 2025, with a juror testifying about alleged improper communication with her father during the trial. DA Bible said the judge’s decision might not come until after the end of 2025. If the court rules in Jeter’s favor, he could be granted a new trial.¹⁰

The Aliquippa Police Corruption Backdrop

DelTondo’s killing unfolded during a Pennsylvania State Police investigation into alleged corruption in the Aliquippa Police Department. Before her death, DelTondo told her mother and investigative journalist John Paul Vranesevich that she was cooperating with that probe. She reportedly said she was “deathly afraid” of Aliquippa police, claimed they were following her, and said she had received death threats.³

State Police raided Aliquippa City Hall in March 2018, seizing computers and hard drives belonging to the mayor and city officials.¹¹ Assistant Chief Perciavalle, who had ordered the belated report on DelTondo and Jeter, was later charged with intercepting communications after investigators found on his phone a 39-minute recording of a conversation with Police Chief Don Couch, made the same day State Police searched City Hall. A corruption of minors charge followed after detectives, searching a phone for evidence in the DelTondo murder case, found that Perciavalle had sent a sexually explicit video to a 17-year-old girl.¹² Chief Couch was placed on administrative leave by the Aliquippa City Council in June 2018.¹³

Santicola alleged that DelTondo was “about to testify before a grand jury about corruption in Aliquippa” and had received death threats as a result. Lozier disputed this, saying the grand jury Santicola appeared to be referencing had already disbanded a week before DelTondo’s death. Sources close to the grand jury said DelTondo had not been subpoenaed.¹⁴ Jeter has remained the sole focus of the murder investigation; DelTondo’s ex-fiancé Frank Catroppa was questioned, investigators appeared satisfied with his alibi, and he was never publicly named as a suspect.¹⁵

Where the Family Stands

DelTondo’s parents, Lisa and Joseph DelTondo, have been sharp critics of how the investigation has been handled. When Lozier named Jeter the prime suspect in August 2023, the family did not treat it as progress. They called the announcement a “cheap, underhanded, pitiful, political stunt” timed to help Lozier’s reelection campaign, and said it offered “nothing new about the investigation that has not already been known or suspected.”¹⁶

By 2026, their posture had changed. Lisa DelTondo told reporters, “My daughter is dead. Nothing is going to change that. Leave her alone to rest in peace.” The family has said they no longer expect charges to be filed and have stopped speaking with the media.¹

Where the Case Stands Now

As of mid-2026, DelTondo’s murder is classified as a cold case with no active prosecution. DA Bible, while declining to comment on Lozier’s designation of Jeter as the prime suspect, said in October 2025 that he “anticipates updates in the case by the end of the year.” No public updates have been reported since.¹⁰ Jeter remains in prison on his life sentence for the Pugh murder, with the ruling on his juror misconduct hearing still pending. If he were granted a new trial and acquitted in the Pugh case, the question of whether he could ever be charged in DelTondo’s death would carry new weight. For now, one case sits resolved by a conviction the defense is trying to undo, and the other has never reached a courtroom at all.

1
CBS News Pittsburgh. Rachael DelTondo Murder Case Update
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People. Rachael DelTondo Murder Case Former Student Named Suspect
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CBS News. Rachael DelTondo Murder: Did a Secret Lead to the Killing of Aliquippa Pennsylvania Teacher
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WTAE. Rachael DelTondo Murder Sheldon Jeter Suspect Aliquippa
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CBS News Pittsburgh. Grand Jury Expected to Recommend Filing of Charges in Rachael DelTondo Case
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CBS News. Rachael DelTondo Tyric Pugh Aliquippa Pennsylvania Murders
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Pennsylvania Superior Court. Commonwealth v. Jeter, Superior Court Opinion
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Times Online. Aliquippa’s Sheldon Jeter Sentenced to Life in Prison
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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Sheldon Jeter Rachael DelTondo Juror Neighbor Murder
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WTAE. Juror Sheldon Jeter Murder Trial Testified Evidentiary Hearing
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CBS News Pittsburgh. Second Search Warrant Served Rachael DelTondo Murder
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Times Online. One Charge Dropped Against Aliquippa Assistant Police Chief
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CBS News Pittsburgh. Aliquippa Assistant Police Chief Joseph Perciavalle Charged Recording Conversations
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WTAE. Rachael DelTondo Aliquippa Homicide Grand Jury
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CBS News Pittsburgh. Frank Catroppa Arrested Domestic Violence DelTondo Case
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Yahoo News. Rachael DelTondo Murder Parents Issue Statement