Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Cop's wife's cell phone searched for clues in fatal ambush of gorgeous teacher Rachel DelTondo

Episode Date: May 22, 2018

Detectives have a long list of "persons of interest" in the fatal ambush attack on a gorgeous Pennsylvania school teacher. Rachel DelTondo was standing in her mom's driveway when she was gunned down on Mother's Day. Nancy Grace updates this complex mystery with lawyer and psychologist Dr. Brian Russell, Southern California prosecutor Wendy Patrick, Atlanta juvenile judge and lawyer Ashley Willcott, and reporter Larry Meagher. Reporter John Lemley joins Grace to discuss an Oklahoma woman who allegedly tried to kill her daughters, including one who was stabbed dozens of times. Taheerah Ahmad, 39, reportedly said she was angry over how the girls looked at her. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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A gorgeous brunette teacher gunned down in the family driveway. Wow. This sleepy community of Alquippa, high-scale bedroom community outside a larger city is reeling. Seemingly, she had just stepped out of the car coming home from an ice cream parlor with friends on a Sunday night, and she is blown away in the driveway. No theft, no sex attack, no provocation, no carjacking, nothing. Shot at least 10 times in the chest. Sounds like someone was waiting for her to step, to set foot out of that car before she's gunned down. Now the intrigue surrounding a $10,000 wedding dress. The bride jilted literally

as she is heading toward the altar just before the wedding. And now claims of local government cover up. This case is blowing up. But nothing, nothing can get us away from the fact that Rachel Del Tondo is found in a pool of blood in her driveway. Her mom and dad running out to find their daughter dead.

I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. The Aliquippa Police Department in Pennsylvania has just applied for a second search warrant for a teen student, Sheldon Jeter Jr. What does that have to do with anything? Joining me right now, Crime Stories investigative reporter Larry Mayher, Karen Smith, forensics expert, Wendy Patrick, Southern California prosecutor, the host of the hit investigation discoveries series, Fatal Vows, Dr. Brian Russell, Ashley Wilcott, juvenile judge, lawyer, and founder of childcrimewatch.com. Straight to you, Larry Mayer. Let's just start at the beginning because

so much is happening in this case. It's too much to take in. I'll start at the beginning with her being gunned down and we'll work our way toward now a police officer being taken off the case, not just off the case, off the force because of this investigation. Start at the beginning, Larry. Let's start with Rachel DelTondo going to an ice cream parlor. She was accompanied by two people, one of whom is the daughter of a police sergeant in the local police force. The other, we'll get to him in just a moment. They went to this ice cream parlor, then returned to Rachel Del Tondo's mother's home as she got out of the car.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, Larry. Nobody likes mystery, okay? We need all the pieces of the puzzle so we can fit this thing together. So hold on, buddy. Number one, it's Rachel, who's absolutely gorgeous. I'm just going to throw that in. And I can see her in that wedding dress right now. Ashley Wilcott, we decided on Tuesday to get married on Saturday.

That's how that went down. I ordered one wedding dress in two different sizes over the Internet. Okay. And we did it. All right. Now, it was nothing like this, Ashley, where she had a custom-made wedding dress. They went, they said a big Italian wedding, right? And pull out all the stops, $10,000 wedding dress.

And it was gorgeous. And she's gorgeous. And then the groom jilted her, broke up. Ashley, what about that $10,000 wedding dress? $10,000. So like you said, number one, it's not only the cost, but it's custom, right? How many people do we know? I spent less than that on my wedding, my reception, the whole shebang. Most people spend less than that on everything to get married that is such a decadent extravagant extreme cost for a dress to most of us now hold on hold on missy the mom and dad wanted this for her okay and they put down five thousand go into, I guess they went into New York City to get it custom made.

Then the groom backs out of the whole thing, breaks off the engagement, and she's fine. You know what? Hold on. Larry Mayer, you may not understand the significance of us talking about a $10,000 wedding dress. Let's just start with that. Let's just start with the wedding dress, okay? Then we'll get to the dead body. I understand the significance fully, having been through a wedding myself.

Okay, hold on. Take a listen to this. When Rachel got engaged, mom took over planning a big-time wedding, including a nearly $10,000 gown to be handmade by a New York designer. It was a custom dress. It had to be made to her measurements. The family put down a deposit of more than $4,000. That, according to the contract, was non-refundable and non-transferable under any circumstances. Lisa Del Tondo says she got that from day one.

I was told that this is binding. I knew what this thing said. They bought the dress at Ann Gregory for the bride in Dormont. Rachel Del Tondo was measured. The family put down nearly half. It's made to order, and there's no exchanges, no refunds. I understood that. Four months after the contract was signed, the wedding was called off.

Lisa Del Tondo called the New York designer to see if they had started on the dress and asked for a refund. I called New York. I did. He told me it couldn't be done. Del Tondo says she told the local bridal salon she'd pay the balance and take delivery of the dress. I wanted the gown so I could sell it. Del Tondo says the salon never delivered the dress and refused to refund her money so she took the owner to small claims court. It says disposition default judgment SALON NEVER DELIVERED THE DRESS AND REFUSED TO REFUND HER MONEY, SHOW SHE TOOK THE OWNER TO SMALL CLAIMS COURT. IT SAYS DISPOSITION, DEFAULT JUDGMENT FOR PLAINTIFF. COURT PAPERS INDICATE THE SALON OWNER DID NOT APPEAR FOR THE HEARING. AS A RESULT, HE WAS ORDERED TO PAY THE DELTANDOS MORE THAN $4,600.

HE HAD 30 DAYS TO WRITE US A CHECK OR FILE AN APPEAL. AND HE DIDN'T EITHER? HE DIDN'T EITHER. SALON OWNER GREGORY CHERICO. write us a check, or file an appeal. And he didn't either? He didn't either. Salon owner Gregory Cherico. In an email, he told me, December got by me with two deaths in the family. We will be sending a certified check out to Del Tondo. Out to Wendy Patrick, Southern California prosecutor.

Wendy, I hardly think that a wedding dress dispute is cause for murder. Absolutely. There's something far more serious and sinister going on here as well. However, it's details like this that make cases like this interesting. And you got to wonder whether or not some of the drama involved and just some of these ostentatious details that we've been discussing have some relevance to motive. And obviously, as a prosecutor, you know, we know you don't have to prove motive, but boy, it sure matters to the jury. Knowing even some of these tangential details may actually lead us to figuring out how and more importantly for the listeners and for the jurors,

ultimately, why this happened. You know, Wendy, another thing, guys, with me is Dr. Brian Russell, Wendy Patrick, Ashley Wilcott, Larry Mayer, and Karen Smith. We need all the brainpower we can get on this one. You know, Wendy, I was saying the other day that I used to love in court watching the other lawyer have a little list of questions and just go down the questions, reading them, no matter what the witness said. It just shows a complete lack of curiosity. I'm curious. I'm curious. I'm curious because not in my wedding, I'll be honest, but in a lot of weddings, there's a lot of high tension.

And here the family who had put out a lot of money for this wedding, then suddenly the groom breaks the engagement. Next thing you know, the bride-to-be is gunned down in the driveway, and none of it makes any sense. I mean, why gun down a schoolteacher in the driveway just after her wedding has been canceled, Wendy? I mean, it's hard to think it's not connected, but we're getting more information now that suggests it was a very different motive than anything to do with a wedding dress.

Oh, absolutely. And, you know, that's one of the reasons that we really make sure we're not focusing on the wrong details. Some details may be very interesting, but as we all know, when you get into court, they may ultimately be inadmissible because there's no relevance to the actual charges that are brought. That's why we always want to be so careful when we let our curiosity get the best of us. I think I know who you're talking about, Wendy Patrick. I think you're suggesting I'm leaning us all down a rabbit hole. Well, guess what? Headline, banner above the fold. I think the whole wedding and the break off the engagement of the engagement does have to do with the murder and i'll tell you why back to larry mayher you wouldn't tell me who else went to the ice cream parlor larry mayher okay we need it well hold on so you've got her the bro the the bride i'll call

her rachel deltonda you've got the the police sergeant's daughter with her, who has now been relieved of his duties with pay off the force over all this. And the third mystery person, who happens to be one of Rachel's former students, a male student's brother. Now, where does that fit into the scenario? That student is key to all of this because in February of 2016, he and she were found by police in a parked car at two o'clock in the morning, according to a police report. Now, no one was arrested at that point, and the officers took the 17-year-old home. His name is Sheldon Jeter. Now, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Yeah, I'm drinking out of the fire hydrant again too much. So you're telling me just before the engagement is broken, just before the wedding is to go down, she, the teacher, is found in a car not running in an empty parking lot of a hospital. The car is steamed up on the inside. It's about two o'clock in the morning. As I always say, Wendy, feel free to steal this for your juries. Nothing good happens after midnight. It's 2 a.m. She's in the car with a boy student. I'd like to point out, Ashley Wilcott, that charges were never filed, okay, over this. The police knew about it because they showed up and filed a report. But I can tell you who didn't know anything about it was the boy's mother.

Listen to this. Target 11's Rick Earl obtained a copy of the police report about that night and took it to the student's mom. I don't know if you've seen this. This is a copy of the police report. Are you serious? A POLICE REPORT? THE FORMER STUDENT WAS HER THEN 16-YEAR-OLD SON. I REALLY DON'T WANT TO BELIEVE THIS FOR REAL, I REALLY DON'T.

BUT SHE'S ONLY JUST FINDING OUT ABOUT THE INCIDENT. I HAVE BEEN HEARING RUMORS GOING AROUND. ACCORDING TO THE POLICE REPORT, THE OFFICER ASKED THE TEACHER WHAT WAS GOING ON. BOTH THE STUDENT AND TEACHER

SAID THEY WERE QUOTE TALKING AND WERE JUST FRIENDS. IF THIS IS TRUE, WHY WASN'T I NOTIFIED? POLICE SENT US A STATEMENT SAYING THE INCIDENT WAS INVESTIGATED TWICE A DAY. THE TEACHER SAID THEY WERE TALKING AND WERE JUST FRIENDS. IF THIS IS TRUE, WHY WASN'T I NOTIFIED? POLICE SENT US A STATEMENT The student and teacher said they were, quote, talking and were just friends. If this is true, why wasn't I notified?

Police sent us a statement saying the incident was investigated twice and was, quote, unfounded. That answer isn't good enough for this mom. I'm looking to obtain a lawyer to find out what is actually going on. So clear it up for me, Larry Mayher. Did the school know about the incident at the time? At the time, no. It was in the fall of 2017 that someone got a hold of the police report and leaked it to the media and to the school. That's when the school found out about this particular incident and suspended Del Tondo from her teaching. Wow. So that was leaked. Yeah. And one of the issues I have is it appears as if from the facts we know at this time, the police sat on the report.

They did their own investigation, but they didn't report it to Child Protective Services and they didn't report it to the school, which is a problem when you have a 17 year old with an adult. To Dr. Brian Russell, lawyer and psychologist, host of the hit show on Investigation Discovery, Fatal Vows. Dr. Brian Russell, well, I'm trying to piece together the timeline because this all leads up to her being gunned down in her driveway on a Sunday night and her parents running out and seeing their daughter dead and a police officer a sergeant being relieved of his duties over all this and leaking somebody leaked that police report on purpose someone that had access to police private reports was sent to media outlets, the police report. It was sent to the school. It was sent to, I think, friends of Rachel Del Tondo. She was totally humiliated. Dr. Brian Russell, needless to say, the first thing she said when the cops got her out of that car with the teen student,

all steamed up, 2 a.m., don't tell my fiance. This is innocent. He'd get mad. Nothing happened. Brian. So one of the first things that they teach us in psychotherapy school is that because something came before does not necessarily mean it has any causal connection to what came after. That being said. Stop right there, Brian. I don't know what you just said. You got to break. I'm just a J.D. All right. happened to be a young male. It seems like there was some kind of a connection form perhaps between her and this male that had to do with her teaching, although, as you said, she was never charged or convicted of anything involving her having had any kind of a sex relationship with a student. And so, you know, it's tempting to look at that and go, well, one came before the other. There must be some kind of a causal

connection here. But in psychotherapy school, one of the things they teach us is when the patient comes in and says, well, here's what's happening now and here's what happened before, not to necessarily jump to the conclusion that those things are causally related. As I'm listening to all this, one of the things that I'm thinking when you were talking about the dress and the dressmaker or the dress seller being potentially upset with the family because they tried to renege on the purchase of the dress when the wedding got canceled and then they had this small claims court thing that they lost and had to refund the money to the family. I agree with you. That doesn't sound like anywhere near a big enough deal to have resulted in this woman's

murder. It sounds like someone had a much deeper, more interpersonal grudge against this woman. But what I think is that incident about the dress may very well be used by the defense, ultimately, of whoever gets charged with this to try to create reasonable doubt. In other words, to try to say to the jury, look, there was somebody else who had a motive here. You and I don't think it's a great motive, but they'll use it for that. Okay. Dr. Bryan, I always talk about Jackie here in the studio, but she is sitting here, A, laughing, and B, shaking her head no, no, no to everything you're saying. And she has a comment. Jackie, please yell it across the studio.

Where there's smoke, there's fire. Okay, where there's smoke, there's fire. She's saying, I think, I'm going to interpret for her. I think she's saying that your fian fiance is caught in a car with a boy student. The car's not running, but the windows are steamed up at two o'clock in the morning. And then you find out because somebody leaks your police report. This is just before your wedding. Yeah, he's going to break off the engagement. Now you're saying there's no connection, but I bet dollars to donuts if I were a betting person, which I'm not.

That it did have something to do with breaking that engagement. But it all ended here. It all ends here. Listen to this. I counted six shots. But I had heard them before in this back area. I heard the shots and I didn't hear anything else. So I went back to sleep.

Beautifully friendly. Knows everybody. else. So I went back to sleep. Beautifully friendly, knows everybody, knew everybody, talked to everybody. You think you're safe going anywhere, but one house up you're not. Very, very nice girl. Prime of her life. And this is what happens. How did a broken engagement, a $10,000 wedding dress dress end up with a police sergeant being relieved of his duties and now a teen boy's cell phone records have been subpoenaed amidst claims of a government cover-up a cover-up man this thing is getting way way out of control back i this is my last time on the wedding dress okay i want you to hear what the fiance says listen to him is he in as a suspect is he out as a suspect listen to what he says for that to happen in the community i'm very familiar with and nobody know nothing and not see

nothing and nothing or nobody coming forward is, to me, is mind-blowing. You know, it doesn't sit well with me. You know, at the end of the day, I mean, she does deserve justice. It's been implied and strongly implied in many cases that he could potentially have been involved in this. So we felt it important, in addition to cooperating, that he, one, have an opportunity to publicly express remorse. I don't think he had anything to do with it, and I'll tell you why. If you have something to do with it, you don't get out there and start giving statements, cooperate with police, be open.

Everybody knows who you are, where you live, the works, unless you want to be disproved. Now, true, all husbands that kill their wives say, I didn't do it. Thank you, Drew Peterson. But this guy, I just don't think the fiance had anything to do with it. Could you explain to me, Larry Mayher, how has this ended up in claims of a police cover-up? That's a claim that is being made by the young man's attorney. Rachel DelTondo had told a reporter recently and had told police recently that she had been getting death threats and that one of those threats promised that she would not live to see the end of this year. Now, Sheldon Jeter's lawyer claims that DelTondo was preparing to testify before a grand jury in front of an investigation into one of the entities under investigation in aliquippa pennsylvania okay wait wait wait wait

wait okay she's gonna be she was set to be a witness in a police matter what did it have to do with leaking that police report you think think? That's possible, although the state police were handling that inquiry the last time I know of it. The school that she taught at has been under repeated grand jury investigation, so perhaps it was involved with the school. For what? Why is the school under investigation? There have been questions about its financial transactions and it's accounting for taxpayer money it's a charter school okay whoa whoa whoa wait a minute wait a minute okay wendy patrick are you hearing this absolutely you know it's uh the plot it continues to thicken each time we learn a little more about this case but what we're hearing is it sounds like a number of possible different types of motives

for the murder. Okay, let me recap, Wendy. So you've got the fiance, who I don't think had anything to do with it, but he's apparently still stewing in the pot with everybody else as a potential person of interest. But I say he's clear. Then you've got the boy, the teen boy that was in the car with her and his family. They have not been named suspect or POI, person of interest. Now you've got the police force who leaked somebody with police force access,

released this police report to the media, to the fiance, to all of her friends. That was mean. That was downright dastardly. Now we are learning from Larry Mayher. Her school was under investigation for potential mismanagement of their taxpayer's money. And they have been part of a grand jury investigation. Whoa. Then we hear she has been getting death threats.

Who knew all this is going down in Aliquippa? As a matter of fact, take a listen to the lawyer. Yes, he's lawyered up for the teen boy. They continued that relationship. I think it cooled for a while, but the relationship never ended. She was due to testify in front of the grand jury, which has been investigating Aliquippa among other entities, and she was afraid. And we find it far from a coincidence that

she was murdered within days of having to testify. This was not a crime of passion. I believe it was a crime of a cover-up. Good gravy. And now just coming to light, two new facts. A second search warrant has just been served. And there's news that Jeter, the teen student, older brother, Rashawn Bolton, has been in a serious relationship. Their words, not mine. A serious relationship with Del Tondo since December. Police are saying they've served a second search warrant at the home of Sheldon Jeter Jr. And according to the search warrant, investigators combed through the home for clothes. He may have worn the night of the murder and guns, specifically nine millimeter.

That's interesting. The search warrant also says cops wanted cell phones, laptops, tablets, video game systems, any written notes to or from the victim, the teacher, Rachel Del Tondo. Now sources say the affidavit that goes along with the search warrant also contains a witness testimony. And that testimony describes an argument, a verbal fight between the teacher, Rachel, and Jeter, which happened last year. Bolton told police about three months ago he and Del Tondo were outside his home when Sheldon shows up and reportedly says that blank told me she was with. And then to Del Tondo. If my brother wasn't here, I'd F you up. And as we go to air, we learn a new search warrant has just been issued for guess who?

A police officer wife Facebook account. That warrant now part of the investigation into Rachel Del Tondo's mysterious murder. Okay, so Ashley Wilcott, weigh in. Now a cop's wife's Facebook account. Yes, Nancy, what a tangled web because keep this in mind. This is the same officer whose daughter was out with the victim when she went to get ice cream and the same officer who's on administrative leave because allegedly couldn't be involved in that investigation but also they are saying allegedly there's some misconduct accusations against the police department well that was certainly mouthful. Let me just say, Shakespeare said it best.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. That's not about the cop's wife. That's about this whole kit and caboodle. Everywhere you turn, there is a potential person of interest. But this is what I know. She gets a $10,000 wedding dress, and pretty soon after, she after she's dead in the driveway man i need a flow chart for this okay karen smith our forensics expert renowned forensics expert karen i need you now because the way she was shot and i'm not a conspiracy theory nut at all I don't think people can keep their pie

holes shut but the way she was shot suggests to me there was someone lying in wait and they did not waste a bullet and what I mean by that it was a very good marksman Karen Smith let's talk about ballistics amidst a police or government cover-up. Tell me what you've learned from the forensics evidence, Karen. Nancy, you'd be right. The victim in this case, Rachel Del Tondo, was struck 10 times in the chest. Now think about that for a second. That is a very tight grouping of a lot of rounds coming out of a gun. That also tells me that it's probably a semi-automatic. It also tells me that the shooter was definitely lying in wait and ambush, waiting for her to come home to her parents' driveway.

So they knew where she lived. They knew that she would probably be home soon. They knew that she was gone. And they came up to her. Now, she was shot in the chest, not in the back, not in the shoulder, not in the leg, in the chest, which means she was facing the shooter when the bullets came flying. So that tells me, A, either the shooter is a crack shot or the shooter was very close to her when all those rounds unleashed. The casings were likely left at the scene, and there's your forensics. You swab those casings for DNA. You can submit them for prints, which is, you know, that's a hit or miss.

You don't normally get prints from casings, but DNA, oh, bing, bam, boom. Yeah, we'll find out who fired that gun soon as soon as that dna comes back and they have something to compare it to what is disturbing to me that would suggest and i'm not going with a professional hit right now i'm just just not is the tight grouping of the bullet wounds because that means somebody has the calm cool demeanor to walk up and shoot her 10 times in the chest make every shot and get away without anyone seeing the getaway car were they on foot also this suggests they knew where she was going and knew when she would come back why is that was the trip orchestrated that brings in the people that were with her as a potential involvement do i think they were involved no i don't i really do not think that a police sergeant's daughter and the brother of her boy her boy student friend had anything to do with

her murder but that pulls them into the investigation because they took her to the ice cream shop she came home and somebody was waiting there for her to get home now let's talk about the police all right let me go back to you larry mayher with me on this the city of aliquippa bureau of police has now sought access to the boy student student, Jeter, Sheldon Jeter's iPhone, his call records, and the geolocation data. Why? Why do they want this information from the boy? Not only that, remember, the bride, Del Tondo, was picked up by a female friend who happens to be the daughter of an Aliquippa police sergeant, Kenneth Watkins, around 8 p.m. that night.

He has now been placed on administrative leave by the chief of police because his daughter is a minor and is not being named, is involved as a witness on the case. Oh, what a tangled web we weave. Ashley Wilcott, judge, lawyer, founder of childcrimewatch.com, weigh in. There's intrigue. There's so much intrigue. So bottom line, our heart breaks for a victim who's been gunned down. But we now have three potential suspects. And I like that we're learning the evidence as it's coming out because it means that the police are investigating. So we have a dressmaker who's mad about a refund. We have a 17-year-old victim.

And I say victim because steamed up windows, car off, found with an adult. That's a victim who's now 20, whose brother was with her at the ice cream shop before she gets gunned down. And then we have an alleged cover-up and she's supposed to testify. And we just heard from a forensics expert of the type of shots that killed this woman. And that to me means perhaps it was a police officer, law enforcement who killed her. So so we have three different potential sets of suspects in this case. Huge to me is going to be the digital footprint. Let me tell you, as a judge, Nancy, I see this all the time.

People think they can get away with a crime. This day and age, the digital footprint gives so much information and literally catches criminals. Wow, that was a mouthful. And every single word you said was right, although I'm not ready to indict the police chief or the police yet as being part of this. Although we know this police report was leaked to destroy Rachel Del Tondo by someone that had access to police data and police computers or software. Guys, now I want you to take a listen to what the Beaver County District Attorney. We're getting video cameras. We are downloading information.

We are interviewing witnesses. We are doing everything we can. We're investigating everyone that was driving around Aliquippa that night that was anywhere near this young lady's house. So, you know, before I point the finger at the boy or his family, this could just be SOP, standard operating procedure. So back to Dr. Brian Russell, lawyer, psychologist, host of Investigation Discoveries, Fatal Vows hit series. Dr. Brian, again,, psychologist, host of Investigation Discoveries, Fatal Vows hit series.

Dr. Brian, again, thank you for being with us. So the plot thickens. Now we know they have, the state has subpoenaed the boys' cell phone records. Now listen to this, Dr. Brian. I'm setting you up for a question. The search warrant we have obtained, we got a hold of the affidavit to support that search warrant. And it says that she, Rachel, the bride, and Watkins, the daughter of the police sergeant, who's now been put on paid leave, went to a Circle K convenience store.

They visited a friend. Then they went to Rachel's parents' home at 9.20 so she could change clothes. Why is she changing clothes? Okay, 10 minutes later, the two women leave in Watkins' car. That's the police sergeant daughter. They pick up Tyree Jeter. That is the student's brother. And then they drive to Hank's Custard.

That's the ice cream shop according to the warrant that we've gotten hold of an hour later the sergeant's daughter drives him back to del tondo's home dropping her off and driving off with the student's brother dr brian russell lawyer and psychologist before we point the finger at the boy's student, because we know they have subpoenaed his cell phone records and geodata, i.e. where was his phone that night, that's standard operating procedure. That doesn't mean he has anything to do with this, right?

That's right. It seems to me what we have here is a young male who was with this murder victim shortly before the murder. And it makes total sense that law enforcement would want to look into him. But we don't have any reason to think that he or his brother, who is the teen that apparently was found with the victim many months earlier in the steamed up car, but never resulted in any kind of charges or anything. There's no reason for us to believe that either one of them had anything against her. And it

doesn't really seem to me, I agree with you, the fiance, although I completely understand why he would have broken off the wedding after the incident in which she was found with this young kid in the car, doesn't strike me as behaving like a murderous fiancé. The guy that was the dressmaker doesn't sound like he's got enough of a motive. And, really, it doesn't sound like anybody on the police force would have been in facing enough trouble for having leaked a police report about this woman to have murdered her. It sounds to me like somebody had a deep interpersonal grudge against this woman, got right up close to her, is probably why they were able to hit her so many times, wanted to look into

her face as they murdered her. And what we know about this woman is she's apparently, if nothing else, we know she had an active social life. There may be some guy out there that had a grudge against her thought that she had jilted him somehow that's totally unrelated to any of these guys we're talking about well listen to this dr brian listen to this uh larry mayer tell me if this is correct all right now so she's caught in the car with this teen boy. After that police report is leaked by somebody, the boy, Jeter, and Rachel continue their relationship.

They remain friendly, all right? The lawyer says Rachel disclosed to the boy she was an informant in an ongoing investigation of the Aliquippa Police Department. Also, she had been preparing to testify before a grand jury in a couple of days regarding, we think, misuse of funds. We also know that in addition to a search warrant for the boy's phone the search warrant also lists a pair of khaki pants shoes a windbreaker and a hat those items are marked with a note that says they were collected by consent in other words i guess the boy just handed them over. What do you make of it? Are those facts

correct? As far as I know, that is the statement of facts from Sheldon Cheater's attorney. I don't know that there has been any independent confirmation of those facts. Got it. So that gives me a whole list of potential suspects, Ashley Wilcott. And there's one other fact that I want to point out just because it's intriguing and interesting to me. And that is, again, it was the sergeant, the police sergeant's daughter was with this victim when they went to get ice cream before she was gunned down. I'm not saying there's a connection or not. I'm saying that it's a fact that has to be looked into because the list of suspects, frankly, seems to be growing. Take a listen to what the Beaver County District Attorney David Lozier says.

It's very sad. You have a very quiet, a very quaint neighborhood where this tragedy happened. We obviously regret this. A prayer to the siblings, to the families. The Alquippa name gets thrown out there a lot, and it should not. This was a very nice, quiet neighborhood, and to have this invade any family is sad. We're working hard to solve this problem together. The police departments of Beaver County work very well together. We'll let you know as soon as we have more. It's shameful that this woman was painted with a police report that had been written that did not result in criminal charges.

It was a personal vendetta against her at the time. Tip line 724-774-2000. 724-774-2000. There's a brand new website causing a lot of trouble for people with something to hide. Have you ever had a bad feeling about somebody? Maybe suspected your partner's cheating? Maybe worried about your online reputation? If you answer yes to any of those questions, you may need Truthfinder. Public records are only recently easily available online. Before websites like Truthfinder, you'd most likely have to visit a courthouse to get that information. Now, it's as simple as entering a name. Truthfinder

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You know, we've just come off Mother's Day and you know, you think back, who was there when you were sick? Your mother. Who did you run to when you skinned your knee? Your mother. Who was always there? Your mother. That's why it's so difficult for me to read this next heading. A Tulsa mother stabs her daughter 50 to 70 times with a pickaxe, then sets the home on fire and flees the scene with the youngest of her three daughters. To look at this woman, She looks like a soccer mom with beautiful woman. You'd think everything was perfect in their home. She had an 11 year old daughter, an eight year old daughter, a younger daughter who we think was seven. But why? Take a

listen to what police say who come to the scene. TPD was called to this location in reference to two different things. We had a house on fire and we had an 11-year-old who had been stabbed multiple times. A witness, the 9-year-old sibling of the 11-year-old old stated that earlier in the evening that the mother had duct taped their hands, put socks in their mouths, and then began stabbing the 11 year old. At that time, the nine year old and her seven year old sister exited the residence. The seven year old helped the nine year old leave. The nine year old went to a relative's house, a couple houses down. And when they got to this house, the kitchen was on fire and

the 11 year old was in critical condition. She has been transported to the hospital. The 11 year old? The 11 year old, yes. The mother and the seven year old child were missing from this location. And what condition is the 11-year-old in? The 11-year-old is in critical condition. She was stabbed so many times that officers and EMSA on scene, you know, couldn't even count them.

What about timeline? At first they had told us that the victim had been in there for over an hour? Yes, so the nine-year-old was duct taped, so it took her a good portion, about an hour, to get down to the family's house to get help. The police saying that the little girl was stabbed so many times, the officers could not count them. Now, according to police reports we have obtained, mommy was angry with her children because of the way they were reading and looking at her. She bound and gagged her three daughters. Was she planning to burn the house down with them all in it? With me now, Crime Stories investigative reporter John Limley. Let's just start at the beginning.

What happened? Nancy, the picture we have so far of Tahira Ahmad is of a single mother of at least three children that lived with her in Tulsa, Oklahoma, although there are reports of at least two sons that had been sent to live with the grandmother. Tahira had recently moved to Oklahoma from Tennessee. From what we understand, Tahira's husband stayed behind in Tennessee. We're still looking into the specifics of their relationship, but we do know that there was a restraining order against the husband. Now, here are some other details. Since moving to Tulsa, Tahira had been working two jobs to make ends meet. The family of four, the mom and three girls, lived in a one-story brick house along Mohawk Boulevard in Tulsa. Pictures of the home show a modest one-story Cape Cod, a front lawn overgrown with weeds, surrounded by a chain-link fence, sort of messy, toys and other items strewn across the yard. Tulsa police say they had no record of any child abuse or domestic violence issues at the house. However, family members have

told police officers that there have been some issues talked about with the family, that Tahira had an anger problem. Well, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Hold on. To Ashley Wilcott, you have three children. Brian Russell, I'm trying to get children for you, but you won't go ahead and pop the question to that woman you've been dating, but that's another can of worms I'll deal with later. I'm working on it. Everybody else, I'm not going to even get into your family situation, but she's got three girls here in the home.

She's the single mom working to support. You've got the two sons. So at her young age, she's in her 30s. She already had five children. The sons are back home in Tennessee. When the neighbors are saying that she had a lot of anger, I guess she did have a lot of anger, right? Sure. But listen, it's not about having anger. We all have anger at different things. It's about

the level of anger and what people did about noticing she had anger issues. So did it rise to the level of someone should have reported it? I would submit that this kind of crime doesn't happen because you just get angry because you're exhausted, single mom working, all those things that can go along. This kind of crime happens because it's not just an anger issue. You know, Dr. Brian Russell, psychologist, lawyer, host of Investigation Discoveries hit show Fatal Vows. I agree because when I'm exhausted and I've been working and trying to make dinner and everything else that goes with raising children, I may be short or curt or just very quiet because I'm tired. But this is you cannot attribute an attack like this on your child to the normal pressures of parenthood or motherhood or single motherhood.

Well, that's absolutely right. I think most people are probably listening to this and thinking there's got to be a profound mental illness element to this case. Oh, here you go with the mental illness. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're jumping ahead of me. I think most people are listening to us thinking that. And while this certainly does not sound like a mentally healthy woman to me, it's always important to look, when you're looking to see if somebody's actions are the product of conscious choices or mental illness, one of the things that you always have to look at is, are they doing anything to cover up the behavior, to evade, capture, detection, to hide evidence, hide themselves or anything like that, that would suggest consciousness of guilt, that they know what they're doing is wrong. Because if that's the case, they're mentally ill or not, they're responsible. And this woman did. She fled, she hid, all kinds the knowledge of guilt, the indication of guilty conscience by tying up the children, by trying to burn the evidence of stabbing the one daughter so many times cops couldn't figure out how many by taking the other on the run in her SUV. That shows consciousness of guilt to me, flight. Yeah, you know, each of you have brought up such interesting

points, the consciousness of guilt being the flight, the fact that apparently she still knows right from wrong, which flies in the face of some mental defenses. But you know, another point that several of you have made, Ashley says she wants to know more about the anger. Could somebody have predicted this? But this type of thing, Nancy, is a combination of provocation and predisposition. In other words, all the things you said,

there are many single mothers, no doubt listening, that have the same schedule as you described, working two jobs, making dinner for the kids, trying to do it all, and would never in a million years even consider using any type of violence, much less something like this. So it's the what else is going on here which is going to make the difference between what kind of a defense is ultimately mounted and then, of course, whether or not that's successful in court. You know, another question is how in the world did she manage to go on the run and elude police? But before we leave the scene of the crime, with me is a world-renowned forensics expert, Karen Smith. Karen, what would you be looking for at the scene?

And I'm talking about the primary scene. We've got a primary, a secondary, and a tertiary crime scene here. Karen, inside the home, what would you be looking for? What clues? I would start in the kitchen where the 11-year-old was found. According to reports, there was blood on the furniture, blood on the floor. If this child was bound and gagged, bound with duct tape and gagged with a sock in her mouth, she is utterly defenseless, which tells me that this is a very highly volatile and highly mobile crime scene. It didn't just happen in the kitchen. It happened in other areas of the house. And I cannot imagine anyone, let alone an 11-year-old,

going through 50 to 70 stab wounds. That's indicative to me as a form of picarism, which is using a sharp instrument to poke at someone, not just full-on stab wounds, but other ways of eliciting torture or a form of punishment. And by all intents and purposes, from what I've heard, that is what this woman was doing, was punishing these girls for reading incorrectly. And the way they were looking at her. Another thing I would be looking for, and I don't know if they may have been focusing on the bloody crime scene, trying to determine exactly what happened through forensics, but I would be interested from another angle of evidence to determine whether the home was well kept,

whether it was filthy, whether there was food in the fridge and the cabinets, whether it looked like the bathrooms were clean. Why am I saying this? Because to me, it would give me a clue as to her mental health. Was she keeping up the home? Was she neglecting them? Were they well fed? I would be looking at that too, Karen, just so I would know the state of mind. Absolutely. You open the cabinets and there's, you know, a box of Rice Krispies that's been there for three years and you open the fridge and it's empty or it smells because it hasn't been cleaned. The rooms are covered in filth. The walls are covered in, you know, chocolate milk and God knows what.

It's a horrible, horrible situation. So, yes, you would want to look at all of those factors as well as the blood at the crime scene, as the location of the daughter, as well as the location of the weapons that were apparently left behind. I wonder, John Limley, Crime Stories investigative reporter, how this mom got so far away in an SUV with a kidnapped child. So take a listen very quickly as witnesses are describing what they saw. It's a black SUV. Lexus matches the description. The little girl is wearing the orange peach dress, poofy hair like they described.

And we're like, we've got to call 911. We've got to call 911. Let's just call just to be safe you know even if it's not like she seemed happy like she's scared about anything she was playing and just kind of like being a little kid she was standing up instead of in the sunroof she was climbing out and the woman was just laying down in the back seat so john lindley i don't know how she managed to elude police but where was she ultimately found she was in the arts district of tulsa in a parking lot.

And this is where these two women that had the sense of mind to call police, they had seen the Amber Alert. And so they made sure they called 911 immediately. And the scene that they're describing, we have a glimpse of this thanks to a news helicopter. A camera that is shooting down on top, is capturing the scene. The little girl doesn't seem to have a care in the world. She's playing, and in the back seat is Tahira. She's lying down, and not only is she lying down, she's asleep. Well, take a listen to what police say about what happened in the patrol car. She admitted to being upset with the two older children because of the way they were reading their books. So she proceeded to bind their hands with duct tape.

She admitted that she stabbed the victim 50 to 60 times, what she said, and hit her in the head with a pickaxe two or three times. Right now, believe it or not, that daughter who sustained 60 to 70 pickaxe wounds is in the hospital in critical condition, but alive. And this mom is in custody. Family members now saying the single mom snapped after losing her job and being prevented from attending her son's graduation, prevented by her mother, who cares for the two boys. Listen to Barbara Al-Sharif, an aunt. My little niece came running up the driveway barefooted in hysterics, saying that, Auntie, Auntie, Mommy killed Sadia.

I came running in there, and I looked at her, and I shouted out her name. I told her, don't worry, we're going to get you out of here. That from KHRH-TV. The police report says one daughter told cops they had been held hostage in the room without food or water for a week before the attack. Listen to this. She was normal Friday. Saturday, she snapped. Sunday Sunday she was evil Nancy Grace Crime Story signing off Goodbye friend Did you know a recent law can leave your personal data exposed online for anybody to find? If you've turned on the news lately, you know the internet has created a dangerous new world

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look up those close to you and make sure they're not hiding something. Visit truthfinder.com slash Nancy. Enter your own name. Get started. This is an iHeart Podcast.