A 32-year-old female teacher died in a hail of gunfire, and now police are saying it was murder. But there’s much more to her story.
What happened to her?
Rachael DelTondo, an Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, school teacher, had just returned to her mother’s home Sunday night after getting ice cream.
When she exited the vehicle, an assailant reportedly fired several shots into DelTondo’s torso.
According to
KDKA-TV, DelTondo died at the scene.
The Beaver County Coroner’s Office ruled the teacher’s death a homicide, according to KDKA, and noted that she died of multiple gunshots.
A neighbor said that he heard at least six shots fired.
What happened leading up to all of this?
Six months before her death, the school where DelTondo taught suspended her after police reportedly discovered her in a vehicle with steamed-up windows in the wee hours of the morning — with a 17-year-old boy. The incident reportedly took place in February 2016.
According to
reports, an anonymous October email tipped off school officials to the 2016 incident. The email pointed to the police report and said that DelTondo was in a “relationship” with the boy.
DelTondo was reportedly not charged but did tell police that “she didn’t want her fiancé to know that she was here parked because he would get mad.”
The wedding was called off several months after the 2016 incident.
Reports say that the police report remained confidential until October, when the informant sent the email to DelTondo’s school. The school suspended DelTondo a month after receiving the tip.
Local police later launched an investigation into the information leak, with which DelTondo reportedly cooperated.
Authorities said that it is unclear whether the incident with the teenager had anything to do with her murder.
Anything else?
DelTondo and her family also
made headlines in February 2017 after a dustup with the bridal shop assisting in her wedding planning.
After the wedding was called off —
after the alleged incident occurred, but
before the alleged incident was made public — DelTondo reportedly attempted to purchase the $10,000 wedding dress that she’d put a deposit down on in order to resell it.
DelTondo reportedly put a $4,600 non-refundable deposit down on the custom dress.
DelTondo reportedly contacted the bridal shop to tell them that she wanted to pay off the balance on the dress for resale, but she allegedly never received the dress.
The DelTondo family took the bridal shop to court, and eventually the shop refunded the deposit.
