Teacher, 32, is shot dead in a hail of bullets on her family's driveway six months after being suspended from her job when it was revealed cops found her with a 17-year-old boy in a car with steamed up windows
By Hannah Parry
Daily Mail
May 15, 2018
A Pennsylvania teacher was gunned down on Mother's Day just months after being suspended from her job following a leaked police report stating that officers had found her in a steamed-up parked car with a 17-year-old boy.
Rachael DelTondo, 32, was standing on her mother's Buchanan Street driveway, in Aliquippa, Beaver County, on Sunday when she was killed in a hail of gunfire. She died at the scene.
'I counted six shots that I heard,' a neighbor, Fred Poore, told CBS News.
The death has stunned neighbors in the quiet neighborhood and police are hunting for clues to the identity of the killer.
DelTondo's death comes just six months after the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School teacher was suspended from her job over a leaked police report.
School officials and members of the media received an anonymous email in October 2017, containing the 2016 Aliquippa police incident report which implied she inappropriately met with a 17-year-old boy, Times Online reported.
The report stated that officers were on patrol at around 1.50am on February 6, 2016, when they saw a car parked near the old Aliquippa Hospital.
Police noted that 'the windows were steamed over and the engine was not running.'
Inside was Deltondo and the teen. School records show he was never a registered student at PA Cyber. Cops later found text messages and Snapchat messages which revealed the pair had a 'relationship.'
During the confrontation with officers, Deltondo reportedly told police that she and the teen were 'friends' and that they were 'just talking' because he was 'upset'.
She also said 'she didn't want her fiancé to know that she was here parked because he would get mad.'
No charges were brought against Deltondo over the incident, and police drove the teen home that evening. The report was not public knowledge until the anonymous email was sent in October last year.
The school announced they were suspending her the following month.
The leak prompted a state police investigation of the Aliquippa Police - which DelTondo complied with.
Earlier last year, DelTondo was in the press over a dispute with a bridal shop over her wedding dress.
The teacher was planning a big, elaborate with her Italian-American family, which included a $10,000, custom-made dress from a New York designer, CBS Local reported.
But the wedding was called off expectantly - a few months after DelTondo was caught with the teen, but before the report was made public.
The family, who had already put down a $4,600 non-refundable deposit, told the salon they would like to pay the balance and receive the dress so they could sell it, but said the designer never delivered the gown and refused to refund their deposit.
Eventually, they took the salon to court and got a local investigative reporter involved to pressure the wedding dress maker into doing the right thing. By early 2017, they finally received a check in the mail.
Today, family, neighbors and friends are struggling to come to terms with her sudden death.
'I don't know why that happened. I really don't,' said Dan Casper, a neighbor, who described the 32-year-old as a 'beautiful lady, friendly, knew everybody, talked to everybody.'
DelTondo had just returned from getting ice cream on Sunday evening when she was shot dead.
The Beaver County Coroner's Office has ruled DelTondo's death a homicide.
EDITOR’S NOTE: What a shocking surprise! The coroner ruled her bullet-riddled death a homicide.
UPDATE May 16, 2018: Beaver County prosecutors believe this was a crime of passion. Evidence appeared to show the perpetrator was known to DelTondo. Investigators have been scouring security footage from the neighborhood where the shooting took place and are attempting to access DelTondo's phone.
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