Ex-fiance of Rachael DelTondo, Frank Catroppa, arrested on domestic violence charges
MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) -- The ex-fiance of Rachael DelTondo has been arrested and is facing several charges after he allegedly assaulted and strangled his girlfriend.
According to a criminal complaint provided to KDKA-TV, Frank Catroppa came home drunk from a wedding and saw a missed call from another man on his girlfriend's cell phone. He proceeded to scream at her and then went upstairs inside their home to potentially disable the security cameras.
She told police that he returned to the basement and they began to argue over the phone, which she recorded. Catroppa became verbally abusive.
He then is alleged to have wrestled her phone off of her and began to choke her, the criminal complaint described. He also took his finger forcefully poked his finger into her throat. Catroppa is also accused of throwing her to the ground as well as hitting his girlfriend's juvenile daughter.
After he went upstairs with her son, his girlfriend and her daughter left the home and immediately went to the police station for help.
Catroppa is now facing charges of endangering the welfare of children, tampering with records, assault, robbery, and strangulation.
He was arrested and then released from jail and is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing next month.
The murder of Rachael DelTondo
In 2018, Rachael DelTondo was found shot and killed in her driveway in May 2018. She was gunned down after coming home from getting ice cream with a friend.
Two people were questioned in her murder, one of her friends, Sheldon Jeter, as well as her former fiance, Catroppa.
Catroppa provided police with an alibi that they appeared to be satisfied with and added he wanted justice for her murder, saying "When you're with somebody for eight years, that's quite some time, you just hope to see that they at least get justice. It's sad, a sad case."
While initially Jeter was cleared, he now is considered the prime suspect in DelTondo's murder.
"Sheldon Jeter is the prime suspect though we don't have enough evidence to make an arrest," said then-Beaver County District Attorney David Lozier last year. "We are seeking help from the public and will be opening up new avenues such as offering a reward for new information."
However, her family was not happy with those statements.
"This was a cheap, underhanded, pitiful, political stunt pulled by Mr. Lozier in an effort to boost his campaign for re-election at the expense of our dead daughter and us," they said. "The announcement was made to deflect his poor effort to bring justice to our daughter. Shame on him."
No one has ever been charged in DelTondo's death.