00:00:02
♪♪ ♪♪ -At the end of the day,
I put my son to sleep and I went to bed and
I remember my phone going off
00:00:22
and it was my father -- "There's been an accident.
Your mom's okay. The ambulance is on the way."
00:00:28
And I was like, "Whoa." And I just ran out the door. [ Cicio crying ] I lived right next door.
00:00:36
I had no idea what happened
until I got over there. ♪♪ As soon as I walked in,
you could see right here --
00:00:51
She was laying on the bed. The blood was
just all over the floor, the side of the bed.
00:00:58
-Where's your dad
at this time? -He was on the phone
somewhere, maybe downstairs,
00:01:03
and I couldn't really see
what he was doing. And then I grabbed a towel
off the floor
00:01:09
and I held a towel on her head. I just remember yelling to him
to please help me, and --
00:01:15
and I remember asking her,
"Please, Mom, just, like, squeeze my hand." -Did your mom respond to you?
00:01:22
-No. -Do you remember
asking him what happened? -Not that night. At one point, I remember
him saying he was putting
00:01:31
the gun away under the bed, and she sat down
and the gun went off. -Did you know at the time
that he had also been shot?
00:01:40
-I remember his hand
being wrapped up. I didn't know
if he was just holding a towel
00:01:45
or what he was holding. -He had shot through his hand
when he shot my mom. He just said it was,
like, this freak accident.
00:01:55
And we thought, like, "Well, who's gonna --
Who's gonna shoot themselves?" -He never wavered from his
story, that it was an accident.
00:02:03
-I'm Trooper P.J. McGurrin.
We're here at the residence with the homeowner, Bruno...Rocuba?
-Rocuba.
00:02:10
-Why do you think
your father was so open about talking with the police? -I think he was trying
to prove that he was innocent.
00:02:19
-So we were both in bed, and
I reached over. I grabbed it. My wife was sitting on the bed
on that side.
00:02:26
I was on this side. And I pulled the trigger
by accident. -My sister Melissa
died Saturday morning.
00:02:37
I'm worried about the girls. Their mother is gone. -My dad,
everyone felt horrible for him.
00:02:45
That's his wife of 25 years. -I had just lost my mom, and I
was probably gonna lose my dad.
00:02:52
-Did you expect
that your father would be charged with something? -I thought
maybe negligent homicide
00:02:58
because he was negligent
with a gun. -I just went like this. -He didn't spend
a single night in jail.
00:03:03
-Not every shooting is a crime. You really do look
at circumstances. But apparently they did.
00:03:11
And they were convinced
that they couldn't prove a case. ♪♪ -I was reviewing all
of the open case homicides,
00:03:21
and this one caught
my attention. And we just went down
that rabbit hole of putting
all the pieces together.
00:03:29
-And alarm bells went off when I saw a surveillance system
in evidence. No one had looked at this.
00:03:34
This is the last time
she's ever seen. -That time of year,
their window was open.
00:03:41
So you could also pick up sound
from inside of the bedroom, as well. -We were able to hear their last
conversation together.
00:03:48
♪♪ And then a gunshot goes off. [ Gunshot ] -There's so many twists
and turns, and this is the story
for generations
00:04:00
that we have to tell. And that's pretty sad. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Siren wailing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪
00:04:53
-On a steamy August night
in 2013, Melissa Rocuba was airlifted
to this hospital,
00:05:00
still clinging to life
with a bullet wound to her head. Her then-22-year-old daughter
Chelsea
00:05:07
was already there
when the helicopter arrived. -I had no idea
how I got down there.
00:05:12
I was just panicked and frantic. -Her sister, Sabrina,
who lives in Wisconsin, sped to the airport in tears.
00:05:21
-It was just a lot of me
just praying to God that my mom
was gonna be okay. -Melissa's sister Joanne,
and their father,
00:05:29
then a police sergeant
in another county, raced to Melissa's bedside. -It's a few hours of driving.
00:05:36
-Not that night.
We got there really fast. -Bruno was being treated
at a different hospital,
00:05:42
where specialists operated
on his hand. -He had a hole
through the middle of his hand.
00:05:48
-Pennsylvania State Police
detectives wanted to know how the bullet went through
Bruno's palm
00:05:54
and hit Melissa in the head. -Got home from work
at 3:30 in the afternoon. -Less than 15 hours
after the shooting,
00:06:03
with Bruno's hand
freshly bandaged and Melissa on life support, detectives asked Bruno
to walk them through his house
00:06:12
and explain what happened after the couple arrived home
from a night out with friends.
00:06:18
-And we came home
just before 10:00, and after that,
we went downstairs, washed up,
and came up to go to bed.
00:06:28
-Using a toy gun provided
by police, Bruno demonstrated how he claims
his .40 caliber pistol
00:06:34
went off accidentally. -My wife was home alone
all last week, so I left it in the top drawer
on the nightstand for her
00:06:42
because of recent break-ins. -He said their grandson
was coming over the next day
00:06:48
and he wanted
to safely store the gun. -I went to check
the chamber to see if there was a round in there.
-Okay.
00:06:57
-Sitting on the mattress still stained
with his wife's blood, Bruno tried to show them
what happened.
00:07:04
-I went like this, and she
was sitting in the bed there, and I went like this. And she was watching TV.
00:07:12
And it was... It -- I just went like this. And she leaned back toward me, and I must have pulled it away
and then shot through my hand.
00:07:25
-Earlier, investigators had gone
through the house, shooting video of the scene
and collecting evidence,
00:07:31
and didn't note any signs
of a struggle. Hospital staff found
no other injuries on Melissa,
00:07:37
and Bruno said they had
been getting along just fine. -Any discussions
or any arguments
00:07:42
or anything
before that happened? -No. There was nothing.
-Okay. -He looked me in my face
00:07:47
and said, "We walked
in the house holding hands. There was no arguments
that night."
00:07:51
-Jack Wilczewski
and his wife, Tonia, were out to dinner with Bruno
and Melissa that evening, and he says
everything seemed fine.
00:08:01
-No arguing?
-No arguing, no nothing. They were fine that night. -The day after the shooting,
00:08:06
Bruno agreed
to a polygraph exam. According to police records,
the results were inconclusive.
00:08:15
Worried about her father, Chelsea says she suggested
he speak with attorney Joe D'Andrea.
00:08:21
Did you wonder
why he was calling you? -Well, I'm a fairly well known
criminal defense lawyer around,
00:08:27
and police had talked to him without my participation
or knowledge. I guess he was curious
if there was anything
00:08:34
he had to worry about. -Melissa spent several days
in intensive care. -I remember talking to
the neurologist and I was like,
00:08:45
"There's got to be something
you can do." And they were just trying
to calm me down
00:08:49
and tell me
that there's no hope. -Three days
after the shooting, Melissa's family made
the agonizing decision
00:08:56
to take her off life support. -We knew she was --
she was suffering. -It was August 10, 2013,
at 1:45 a.m.
00:09:07
when Melissa passed away. Joanne says they were all
in shock, and even though no one
in the family
00:09:15
wanted to believe Bruno
had deliberately shot Melissa, they were surprised
when he was never arrested.
00:09:22
-My grandfather said if
that happened in Bucks County, where my grandfather was
a police, he was like,
00:09:26
"Your dad would have
instantly been in cuffs." He was like, "He didn't spend
a single night in jail,
00:09:30
which is really weird." -Joe D'Andrea says
the district attorney's office felt they didn't have
enough evidence
00:09:37
to charge Bruno with murder and decided not
to charge him at all. -They were convinced
that they couldn't prove a case.
00:09:47
-Melissa's death certificate
listed her cause of death as a gunshot wound to the head.
00:09:52
The manner of death
was left pending. No one said to you, "We've concluded it was
an accident"?
00:09:59
-No, it was just
still an open -- open case. -But as the family began
to catch their breath
00:10:06
and process Melissa's death, they slowly started comparing
notes about Bruno's version
00:10:12
of what happened and his behavior before
and after the shooting, and a case for murder
began to unfold.
00:10:21
-I just couldn't -- I couldn't
justify any of his stories. ♪♪ ♪♪ -The daughters
of Melissa and Bruno Rocuba
00:10:41
say they grew up believing
they had the ideal family. -So did all my friends. I remember my best friends
were like,
00:10:49
"Your family is so loving
and happy and you guys do
everything together." -I always wanted
my sister's life.
00:10:56
She had the kids, she had
the marriage, the good guy. -The couple met
in the summer of 1988.
00:11:03
Back then, Melissa,
who was just 19 years old, was a police officer. Bruno, 22,
was enlisted in the Navy.
00:11:12
And what did you think of Bruno
when you met him? -I loved him.
He seemed to love my sister.
00:11:20
♪♪ -She loved being a wife
and she loved being a mother. -She was an amazing mom.
00:11:32
-And Bruno was a great dad,
says Sabrina. -My dad was wonderful. I mean, I can't
complain about him as a dad.
00:11:41
-We went hunting together.
We went fishing together. When I was really young, I wanted to cut my hair
to be like my dad.
00:11:47
Like, that's how close we were. -But as the girls grew older
and became parents themselves,
00:11:53
they say they began to see flaws
in their parents' marriage. -We had moved in there,
me and my ex-husband,
00:12:00
with my parents when my daughter
was about 9 months old, and it was, like, all the time
they were constantly arguing.
00:12:06
The breaking point was when
they got really drunk one night, and my dad grabbed her
by the back of the hair
00:12:11
and he whipped her
into the wall. It made a really loud thud
and she couldn't breathe.
00:12:15
I was like,
"We can't stay here anymore. This isn't healthy." I tried talking to my mom
and she was just like, "Well,
00:12:21
everybody has, like,
disagreements," and, like, she downplayed -- She never wanted to talk bad
about our dad to us.
00:12:27
-Two weeks
before the shooting, Chelsea says her mother shared a
startling secret about something
00:12:33
Bruno had done to her. -She took me for a ride in
the car and told me, you know,
00:12:38
that he had pulled a gun
on her before. -My mom told my sister that my mom didn't want to have
sex with my dad one night,
00:12:45
and my dad pulled
a gun on my mother over this. -Why would she tell me this now?
00:12:51
She's never said a bad word
about him before. And all of a sudden,
it was, "Chels,
00:12:56
I just need you to know that, like, your dad's
not always who you think he is." -Chelsea admits
that she had a bad feeling
00:13:04
about her mother's shooting
from the start, but stayed silent
for the sake of her father.
00:13:09
-I didn't want
to just say something that would have put him in jail
if he really didn't do it.
00:13:16
-Joanne says
she also had her doubts about her sister's death because just months
before the shooting,
00:13:23
Melissa told her she wanted
out of her marriage. -She was questioning things
and asked
00:13:29
how she would be able
to do it on her own. -Was Bruno controlling?
-Very. My sister couldn't go anywhere
00:13:40
without him knowing
her every move. -Joanne says it wasn't long
after Melissa's death
00:13:48
when her mind began to race. -I started playing back
everything, everything
that I could remember.
00:13:56
-For starters, says Joanne, Bruno spent very little time
by his wife's side as she lay dying.
00:14:04
-He would come there, maybe stay, like, an hour,
and then leave. And when she died,
he wasn't there.
00:14:10
He was at the house. -Chelsea says
her father's behavior began to haunt her, as well.
00:14:18
For instance,
just hours after the shooting, Chelsea says her father
asked her to bring him
00:14:24
her mother's cellphone, which had
not been collected by police. She says her father wanted
to erase a few text messages
00:14:32
that he feared investigators
might take the wrong way. -It was like, I don't want
them to think anything
00:14:39
because of, like,
a little, like, argument or something they had. Maybe it was that week or day.
00:14:44
-Did that strike you as odd
at the time? -It did, but you
don't want to believe it.
00:14:49
-With their mother
still in intensive care and with the police finished
collecting evidence,
00:14:54
the girls say their father had
another strange request. -He asked us
to get rid of the mattress.
00:15:01
-Bruno asked his girls
to clean his house and get rid of
the bloodstained mattress.
00:15:08
-He's like,
"I can't go home to that. I don't want to see
all the blood." And here I am, 21, 22.
00:15:14
Now, as an adult, I'm like, "Wow, I can't believe
he asked us to do that." But I just kept going
00:15:19
and I kept wanting to make sure
he was okay. -We were so concerned
'cause he kept making comments
00:15:23
that he was gonna take
his own life, that he couldn't deal with this. -How did you get rid
of that mattress?
00:15:29
-We took it in the back
of a truck and we burned it in the woods. -Chelsea and Sabrina
00:15:37
say that before
their mother was even buried, their father asked for help
purging all traces of her.
00:15:45
-He wanted us
to get rid of everything. It's like he wanted her erased. -All my sister's clothes.
00:15:51
We had to go down
to the thrift store where they donated the clothes, and I had to get clothes
for my sister to bury her in.
00:15:57
-Bruno even got rid
of Melissa's dog, Zeus. -My mom loved that dog. And my dad got rid of him
right after my mom died.
00:16:09
-It wasn't long
before Joanne says she began to suspect
that Bruno had another motive
00:16:15
for erasing the memory
of Melissa. -My sister's best friend said that Bruno contacted her
not too long
00:16:25
after my sister had passed away
and said, "How long do you think
it is before, you know, you can kind of, like,
go public with dating someone?"
00:16:33
And she said,
"Are you freaking kidding me?" And he was dead serious. -Bruno was talking
about Tonia Wilczewski,
00:16:42
Jack Wilczewski's wife -- the couple that Bruno
and Melissa were out to dinner with
on the night of the shooting.
00:16:50
-We were together
15 years at that time. -Jack says he has no idea
when the relationship began,
00:16:58
but says he started
noticing a big difference in his wife's relationship
with Bruno
00:17:04
the day after the shooting when he walked
into Melissa's hospital room and found Tonia and Bruno.
00:17:11
-I thought they were kissing. Of course they said they were
talking to each other's ear,
00:17:15
but they were embraced
with each other. -Jack says in the weeks
after the shooting,
00:17:20
he would often come home
from work and find Bruno's car
in his driveway. -After a couple of times,
I was like,
00:17:27
"Why are you coming here? Why? Can you wait till I get home
at 5:00 or 4:00?" -And how did Tonia explain it?
-Of course,
00:17:34
they always made me out
like I was the fool. I was seeing things
I didn't see. -Within months
of Melissa's death,
00:17:41
Jack says his wife went
missing from their home. And he knew exactly
where to find her.
00:17:47
-I woke up 2:00 in the morning
and she wasn't there. So I'm thinking,
"Go to Bruno's house."
00:17:53
I went and pulled out it front,
and I blew the horn. And she come walking out
with her purse
00:17:57
with barely any clothes on,
got in her car, drove to our house, packed her bags, and
moved in with him right there.
00:18:04
-Chelsea now had a new neighbor,
Tonia Wilczewski. -I remember looking out
my window
00:18:11
and she was cooking Christmas
dinner in my mom's kitchen. I wasn't invited. -Chelsea says she forced
herself to accept what was
00:18:21
because she didn't want
her father to be alone. Then, about a year
and a half later, she says
00:18:27
her father casually revealed
an alarming new detail about her mother's shooting.
00:18:34
-I kind of always knew
and I didn't want to believe it, but when I heard
it come from his own mouth,
00:18:39
I couldn't get past it. ♪♪ ♪♪ -As the months ticked on, it was now 2015,
about a year and a half
00:18:58
since Bruno Rocuba had
allegedly accidentally shot and killed his wife, Melissa.
00:19:04
His daughter Chelsea
says she was still struggling with her father's relationship
with Tonia Wilczewski.
00:19:11
-I had to live here.
I had to see her. She cut her hair like my mom. She would go get her nails done
like my mom.
00:19:16
She sat on my mom's
front porch in my mom's chair. -With the passage of time, she says she finally had
the courage to ask her father
00:19:24
for an explanation
about his actions on the night of the shooting, and says
she got an astonishing answer.
00:19:32
-He said,
"I didn't mean to kill her. I just tried to scare her." -Chelsea says
that Bruno changed his story
00:19:38
and admitted that he and Melissa had been arguing the night
of the shooting. The gun, he said,
was just meant to frighten her.
00:19:47
Then Chelsea says her father
abruptly changed the subject. -He said he had groceries
in the car
00:19:53
and he turned around
and walked out like he hadn't just said
what he said to me.
00:19:56
That's when I knew he actually
held a gun to my mom on purpose, and I couldn't ever look at him
the same.
00:20:01
-Chelsea says she spent months
agonizing about what to do next and then told her father
she was going to share
00:20:09
their conversation
with investigators. -And he was like, "Go ahead. Anything you tell them,
I'll ruin your credibility,
00:20:16
and nobody will believe you." -Chelsea says she was
now determined and went down
to the state police barracks
00:20:23
and filled out a report, which included information
about the incident she says her mother shared
not long before her death --
00:20:32
about that time
Bruno threatened her with a gun when she refused
to be intimate with him.
00:20:37
It took a lot
for you to go down there. What were you hoping
would have happened?
00:20:43
-I was hoping
they would have reopened it. -And what actually happened?
-Nothing happened.
00:20:49
-Chelsea recalls being told that it was her word
against her father's. And she says an investigator
suggested her coming forward
00:20:57
could have been motivated
by money. -And at that point,
I had no idea I was even entitled
to my mom's inheritance.
00:21:05
-Melissa left behind a will and over $300,000 meant
to be divided between her husband
and daughters.
00:21:14
But not long after
Melissa's death, Bruno had his daughters sign
paperwork that gave him complete control
of their mother's estate.
00:21:23
-He had sent me a paper in the
mail, said, "Do not look at it. Go get this notarized and sign
00:21:27
and send it back to me,"
which I did. I didn't question it.
It's my dad. -Sabrina says she knew
she was signing away her rights
00:21:35
to the money,
but felt pressured to do it. -He was so good
at manipulating me and making me feel guilty.
00:21:42
-Chelsea signed
those same papers, but says she was in shock and didn't understand
the consequences.
00:21:49
-That hurt...
that he would take from us, and
especially from his grandson. -The sisters say
they began to wonder
00:21:58
if money had been the motive
for their mother's shooting, but without police action,
they felt they had to move on.
00:22:07
-So I kind of started
letting it go. -Chelsea says
she even let her son Greg build a bond
with his grandfather.
00:22:15
-I hated him
for taking my mom from me, but I loved
how good he was to my son. -Four years later, in 2020,
00:22:25
Corporal Greg Allen
was assigned to investigate open cases for
the Pennsylvania State Police
00:22:31
and says this case caught
his eye. What about this case
stood out to you? -To me,
it was the original 911 call.
00:22:44
♪♪ On the 911 call, I hear three different accounts
of what happened. ♪♪ He says, "We were fighting."
00:23:00
-When questioned,
Bruno quickly changed his story. ♪♪ ♪♪ He also offered this version.
00:23:19
♪♪ Bruno knew his way around guns,
says Corporal Allen. So why would he have
his finger on the trigger
00:23:29
of a gun that was loaded? -This is the gun
that was used. -Crime Unit Supervisor
Corporal Dan Nilon was asked
00:23:36
by Corporal Allen
to examine all the evidence, beginning with Bruno's
police interview.
00:23:42
-I grabbed it.
My wife was sitting on the bed on that side. I was on this side.
00:23:47
I went to check the chamber
to see if there was a round in there.
-Okay. -My wife leaned back
toward me.
00:23:55
And maybe she didn't know
I was doing it. And I pulled the trigger
by accident. Or else I let the slide go
and it discharged.
00:24:04
-There were so many red flags that we knew he
wasn't telling the truth. -To begin with,
says Corporal Nilon,
00:24:10
if Bruno was really trying
to clear the gun's chamber, he would have ejected
the magazine.
00:24:16
-The first thing
you're gonna do when you unload the gun
is drop the magazine out of it.
00:24:20
-There were also
two safeties on the gun. Corporal Nilon showed us
just how hard it is
00:24:25
to discharge the weapon
accidentally. -So your grip, your hand
would have to be on the grip.
00:24:31
Additionally, there is
a trigger safety. There is a small piece
of the trigger that has to be depressed
in order for the gun to fire.
00:24:39
So both things need to occur. -There were also questions
about where Bruno and Melissa
00:24:45
were sitting
when the fatal shot was fired. -Yeah.
-And you had a semi-auto? -I went like this and she
was sitting in the bed there.
00:24:52
-So you see the way
that he's holding the gun? He is pointing it
to the opposite side of the bed.
00:24:58
-But Nilon and Allen say there was
blood and ballistics evidence on the wall
behind Bruno.
00:25:04
-Directly behind him. -So the evidence is here
and here. -Yes.
-Everything is behind him
00:25:10
right now.
-But he says he shot this way. -Correct. -They would need DNA testing
and a forensic expert
00:25:18
to confirm their suspicions
that Bruno was lying. -Yeah, I can't remember. I might
have went downstairs first.
00:25:24
-But in the meantime, Corporal Nilon found
a key piece of evidence that he says no one
had ever examined --
00:25:32
video and audio
from the night of the shooting recorded
on a home-security system.
00:25:38
-What is wrong with you? -Turns out
that a security camera mounted on the front of the house
00:25:44
had recorded Melissa Rocuba's
last words. ♪♪ ♪♪ -These are the final images
of Melissa Rocuba
00:26:07
recorded on this home-security
camera and this DVR. Dan Nilon says when he
first discovered the recording,
00:26:17
he could see Melissa
and her husband, Bruno, arriving home
from their night out.
00:26:22
But it was difficult to make out
most of what they were saying. -I remember sitting in
our office with the door closed,
00:26:28
headphones on,
the office refrigerator unplugged...
-What? -...trying to get as many words
as I could.
00:26:35
-Whatever. -Greg Allen says
that one thing was clear. -There was definitely
an argument
00:26:41
that happened between them.
-What is wrong with you? -Allen says the original
investigators told him
00:26:46
they had no way
to review the recording because they didn't have access
to the necessary technology.
00:26:52
But Allen's team did
and could now see that the recording begins
in the driveway,
00:26:58
where you can hear
the couple arguing. ♪♪ But it doesn't seem
to end there. Once inside the house,
00:27:10
it sounds like they're
still arguing, says Allen. -That time of year,
their window was open,
00:27:16
so you could also pick up sound,
audio from inside, as well. -The sound was
just much harder to hear.
00:27:24
But with Bruno's
changing stories and possible evidence
of an argument, investigators were now treating
Melissa Rocuba's death
00:27:33
as a possible murder. -This is the last time
she's ever seen. -Dan and I have
been doing this a long time,
00:27:41
and we saw that, and
the evidence speaks for itself. -Then Lackawanna County
District Attorney
00:27:47
Mark Powell agreed. -My gut reaction was,
"This is probably a case that should have
been charged back in 2013,
00:27:55
and I can only guess that they thought
it didn't warrant charges because he shot himself
through the hand."
00:28:01
-Because who would purposely
shoot themselves in the hand? -Sure, sure. -With Powell's team now
on board,
00:28:11
Melissa's family was informed that the case was
once again active. -I was like,
"This is different."
00:28:20
They are very,
very sure about themselves, that this was a crime,
my dad did this on purpose.
00:28:25
-Chelsea says
she now had mixed feelings about her relationship
with her father.
00:28:31
-I live next door,
so my son's very close with him. It's not black and white. -Investigators then sent
a portion of the DVR recording
00:28:42
to an FBI crime lab
for enhancement. -I remember thinking
the chances of this helping us are probably slim
because this system is old.
00:28:54
-DNA testing was also ordered
on some of the blood evidence, and a forensic expert
was hired to help determine
00:29:02
how the shooting took place. -We retained the services
of Dr. Wayne Ross, who is a highly respected
forensic pathologist
00:29:11
and a blood pattern expert. -About a month later,
the enhanced DVR audio was back,
00:29:17
and Dan Nilon says
it was clear the couple had been arguing right up until
the moment the gun went off.
00:29:24
-[Bleep] you. -What do you hear on that tape? -Lots of curses back
and forth, yelling, screaming.
00:29:33
-Shut up. -It's still hard
to make out every word, but the official
police transcript notes
00:29:39
that Bruno and Melissa
can be heard cursing and calling each other names. -Wow [bleep]
00:29:47
-The transcript also notes
the sound of a dog barking. [ Dog barking ] Then Melissa shouts,
"I didn't do anything!"
00:29:57
Listen closely. ♪♪ Nearly 30 minutes after they
first pulled into the driveway, Melissa told Bruno that he had
to leave because of something
00:30:10
he'd previously done
hundreds of times, said Melissa. -...hundreds of times. -A bit later,
Melissa can be heard talking.
00:30:20
[ Melissa
speaking indistinctly ] Then it sounds like
things are being thrown. [ Clattering ]
00:30:32
Just seconds later,
the gun goes off. [ Gunshot ] -It was not an accident. They were fighting
the entire time.
00:30:41
And then a gunshot goes off. -Joanne says she hasn't been
able to listen to the recording,
00:30:47
but has read the transcript. -I was horrified.
Of course I cried. And I can picture
my sister yelling at him
00:30:59
and screaming and those very last few moments realizing that this is it. ♪♪ [ Cicio crying ]
00:31:13
-Also horrifying is the sound
of Chelsea screaming after her father called her over
00:31:20
and she first discovered
her mother. -Mommy! Mommy! [ Crying ] -She says she doesn't
remember questioning her father
00:31:31
that night, but she did. And Bruno's answer gave police yet another version
of his story.
00:31:40
-We came home, and she wanted
to take the gun out and play, and I told her, "No,
we're not doing that."
00:31:46
-He implied that Melissa had
been the one holding the gun. ♪♪ A little
over two weeks later,
00:31:58
Mark Powell says forensic expert
Dr. Wayne Ross confirmed what Greg Allen and Dan Nilon
had suspected about
00:32:07
how all the blood got
on the wall behind Bruno. -It was very clear
that he was on top of his wife,
00:32:16
that he was using his hand
to hold her and threaten her with a gun. -And so where do
you say Bruno was at that time?
00:32:24
-Almost in the middle
of the bed. -Turned around.
-Turned around, facing the headboard.
00:32:29
-The theory is that Melissa
tried to escape Bruno's grip, and there was a struggle.
00:32:36
-And through a struggle,
his hand gets loose. He fires the gun
at the same time.
00:32:44
-There's blood evidence
that starts here and travels
in a right-to-left pattern.
00:32:51
And that is Bruno's blood. And the only way
that that can be explained is if Bruno did a motion
like this with his hand
00:32:59
after the bullet struck it. -I don't know how
you have an accidental shooting when you're standing
over your wife with a gun,
00:33:05
threatening to shoot her, and you discharge a bullet
by pulling the trigger. So in my world,
that's not accidental.
00:33:11
That's murder with malice. -What do you think your sister
would say about all of this?
00:33:17
-Oh. If she was here... ...she would say, "Lock his ass
up and get away from my kids
00:33:26
and my grandkids." -On June 2, 2022, a warrant
was issued for Bruno's arrest. Chelsea says her father was
well aware and well prepared.
00:33:39
-He had guns all over. His nightstand
was all pictures of my mom. They were never there.
00:33:46
♪♪ ♪♪ -On the morning of June 3, 2022, two Pennsylvania State Police
troopers followed Bruno Rocuba
on his way to work.
00:34:07
-Yeah. He's looking. He's looking for a good spot
to pull over. -Corporal Greg Allen says
they weren't taking
00:34:12
any chances
with Rocuba's arrest. Chelsea said he had a lot
of guns. Were you concerned
something could go wrong?
00:34:19
-Whenever you have
an arrest warrant in your hand, you try to take
every precaution that you can.
00:34:24
-I'll just start heading north
on 171. -In the end,
they pulled Rocuba over in a traffic stop
on his way to work.
00:34:37
-Who got your license plate
out here? -Where? What?
-Yeah. All right, hold up. Right here.
00:34:45
Hey, you have any guns
on you? -No, no, no.
-All right. Put your hands behind your back.
-Okay.
00:34:49
-It was June 3, 2022, nearly nine years
after Melissa's death, and Rocuba was charged
with her murder.
00:34:58
There was also a charge of theft
for the money prosecutors say he took
from his daughters.
00:35:04
-And he lawyered up. -Lawyered up right away. -Within...
Within a few minutes. -Chelsea, who
was still feeling conflicted,
00:35:14
decided to help
her father pay his legal bills. -I loved him -- still.
I didn't want it to be worse.
00:35:22
-Rocuba once again hired
Joe D'Andrea and pled not guilty. Is Bruno still telling you
the same story?
00:35:30
-He never wavered from his
story, that it was an accident. -But D'Andrea says
he was now seeing...
00:35:36
-Whatever.
-Yeah. Whatever. -...and hearing the evidence
for the first time and says there was a lot
to explain to a jury...
00:35:45
like the various versions
of Rocuba's stories... -I went like this. And she was
sitting in the bed there.
00:35:51
-...all captured on tape. -Any discussions
or any arguments or anything
before that happened?
00:35:57
-No. -The most challenging,
says D'Andrea, that police walk-through. -Now, if Bruno didn't make
a statement...
00:36:08
...he probably would never
have gotten charged. -Also concerning to D'Andrea was how a jury would feel
about Rocuba's relationship
00:36:16
with Tonia Wilczewski and
the question of when it began. Possible motive? -Oh, clearly. If not a motive,
00:36:23
the jury sure wasn't
gonna like him for doing it. -Tonia Wilczewski declined
our request for an interview,
00:36:30
but sent this text saying there was never an affair. Bruno Rocuba never responded to
our requests for an interview.
00:36:42
But Joe D'Andrea says
he was most concerned about how the jury would react
to Melissa's final moments.
00:36:51
[ Gunshot ] -When you hear screaming
and somebody's shot, a jury could conclude
you shot her on purpose.
00:36:58
I didn't want to take any chance
of him being found guilty of a first-degree murder
00:37:03
and spend the rest of his life
in jail. -D'Andrea says
he spent the next two years
00:37:08
building his case
around his best evidence -- that bloody wound
to his client's hand.
00:37:14
-Who would put a bullet
through their hand to kill somebody? -Do you have anything
you'd like to say?
00:37:20
-No. Nothing at this time. -But in May 2024,
two years after this arrest, as Rocuba's trial approached,
00:37:28
both sides agreed
to a plea deal -- third-degree murder
and no charge of theft. -It wasn't that he
intentionally killed Melissa.
00:37:36
His actions were reckless. -Having a gun, drinking, bullet in the chamber,
safeties off
00:37:45
in a pretty passionate argument. -That's a prescription
for some bad stuff to happen...
00:37:53
which did. -It may very well be
your sister's own voice that ultimately put him
behind bars.
00:38:05
-I never really thought about it
like that. Yeah. -On January 8, 2025, Joanne attended
Rocuba's sentencing hearing
00:38:16
and read him
her victim impact statement. -I looked at him first
and made him look at me
00:38:24
'cause I know it's
like seeing a ghost because I look like my sister. -Cameras were not allowed
in the courtroom.
00:38:32
-"Through all of this, you have never showed
an ounce of remorse." -So Joanne shared her statement
during our interview.
00:38:40
-"As far as what you did
to your daughters, Bruno, you killed their mother. You tried to erase
her existence,
00:38:49
but you cannot erase
her memories." -If there was a trial, would
you have testified against him?
00:38:55
-Yes.
-You said that quickly. -Yeah, I would have. You know,
my mom deserves justice.
00:39:04
And my mom, she should be here. -Bruno Rocuba was sentenced
to 12 to 40 years behind bars.
00:39:14
With time served, Rocuba could be up
for parole starting in 2035. -Now that he's gone, we
can breathe a little bit better.
00:39:25
But it doesn't change the hurt
or the pain or what we have to work
through as a family.
00:39:32
And we'll revisit this
in 10 more years, because every single time
he comes up for parole,
00:39:38
I will be there to protest it. -Chelsea and Sabrina both say they have very mixed
feelings about their father
00:39:48
and what justice looks like. -He took someone's life
and it wasn't an accident. He doesn't deserve to get out.
00:39:56
I want him to get out
at the same time because I love him
and I miss him. -Everybody's like,
"Oh, we finally get justice."
00:40:04
Good for you.
I got justice for my mom. But now I just lost my father. My son lost his grandfather.
00:40:11
And it's hard on my son.
That's who I have to protect. -How are you keeping
your mom's memory alive?
00:40:19
-I have all of her pictures
all over my fridge. And I tell my daughter how wonderful her grandmother
was and how much
00:40:29
[Voice breaking] how much my mom
loved being a grandmother. -She cared about my son
more than anything.
00:40:37
She loved that little boy. -Where's Gammy?
-Where? -Show me.
-Right here. -And I think she wouldn't want
my son to hurt the way
00:40:46
that this has hurt him. -I want her come back. -Me too. -Just weeks after our interview
on March 10, 2025,
00:40:58
Chelsea says her son Greg was out riding
his all-terrain vehicle when he collided with an SUV
and died.
00:41:06
He was just 13 years old. Another tragic loss for a family
that had already lost so much.
00:41:19
-It's something
that you read in a book or see on TV. Not your own life. -Thank you.
-Love you. Love you.
00:41:26
-It just doesn't feel like this
should be our story as a family. ♪♪ ♪♪