SERIALously - 130: Scandal Exposed: High School Football Star Linked to Murdered Teacher

Episode Date: March 18, 2024

On Mother’s Day in 2018, a brutal murder rocked the small town of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. The victim was shot at close-range, 10-12 times, and was instantly killed. For years, people have wondered if there’s a killer on the loose, or if something much deeper than meets the eye had been happening all along.  Sponsors:  Download the DraftKings Casino app NOW and use code AE. New players get an instant deposit match up to $100 in casino credits when you deposit five dollars or more. Go to https://www.TryFum.com/SERIAL and get 10% off when you use my code “SERIAL”  Go to https://www.shopify.com/serialously to start a $1 per month trial  To explore coverage, visit https://www.aspcapetinsurance.com/serial   Head to https://www.FACTORMEALS.com/ae50 and use code ae50 to get 50% off. Follow the podcast on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@serialouslypodcast        Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/annieelise All Social Media Links: https://www.flowcode.com/page/annieelise_      SERIALously FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/SERIALouslyAnnieElise/   Shop the Merch: www.shop10tolife.com     About Me: https://annieelise.com/      For Business Inquiries: [e-mail] Sources: Beaver County Times CBS Pittsburgh WPXI Pittsburgh WTAE Pittsburgh 48 Hours Audio Credits: CBS Pittsburgh WPXI-TV News Pittsburgh WTAE-TV Pittsburgh Inside Edition

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when this police report came out and all this information was public? Very embarrassing for her. She was very distraught. Call our detective staff. Female gunshot wound. Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all- new episode of Serial-ously. With me, Annie Elise, your true crime bestie, here to break down another true crime case.

Now, if you're brand new to the podcast and you've never heard one of the episodes before, first of all, welcome. I am so beyond happy to have you here listening. I am so excited to share with you what this podcast is all about. And like, let me just give you the skinny really quick. So basically, Serialistly is a true crime podcast,

which obviously you know that by the cover art, right? But it's a podcast where I just sit down with you, talk with you like we're friends, like I'm explaining a true crime case to my best friend, and we just talk through it. We talk about some of the cases that either are super twisty and turny, that are unsolved, that have really crazy and disturbing elements to them, all in an effort to not only generate awareness and hopefully protect future victims by being able to identify certain behaviors, red flags, things like that,

but also, as cliches it sounds really, to give these victims a voice. And one of the things that I constantly say on here is that as difficult as it is for us to hear these cases, imagine how difficult it was for these victims to experience what they did. So it's my opinion at least that the least we can do is hear their story, hear what happened to them in effort to not only keep their voice living on and make it known and hopefully

do some good by generating awareness, but also to hold these perpetrators accountable so people know who they are, put them on blast for the filthy garbage human beings that they are. So that is kind of in summary the purpose of the podcast and I try to do it in a format, like I said, where it's just like two besties hanging out, I'm telling you about this case, breaking it down, not giving any like extra flowery language and just really explaining it to you.

Now, the case I wanna talk with you guys about today, it's one that is a murder mystery. It has a lot of different elements and it's one of those cases, like I mentioned earlier, that has a lot of twists and turns because it kind of feels like many different people can be the suspect along the way. And it's a case that I have seen covered here and there a little bit, but then I looked into it more in depth and I was actually pretty surprised that this case has not been covered more because there are a lot

of really insane elements. So let's just jump right into it, right? Today's case takes us back just a few years to 2018. And on Mother's Day in 2018, a brutal murder rocked the small town of Aliquipa, Pennsylvania. The victim was shot at close range 10 to 12 times, and this victim was instantly killed. Now, so many things about this murder seemed to always lead down in the same direction. However, nearly six years later,

the murder has still never been solved. Now, for years, people have wondered, is there a killer on the loose? Is there somebody lurking in the shadows in our neighborhood? Or if something much deeper than meets the eye had been happening all along. And I'm really interested to know what you guys think

along the way as I break this down for you. So let's rewind a couple of years prior to the murder. In December of 2016, two longtime friends got into a very heated argument. And through that argument, a really disturbing, haunting, reputation-ruining, and disgusting secret came to light. Well, whether or not the secret was true or not,

you can be the judge of that. Now, many people believe this moment was the catalyst to the murder and when everything changed, when the murder was already in motion and now there was no going back. But to understand this story truly, we have to go back to the beginning, and we have to talk about Rachel Del Tondo.

Rachel was absolutely beautiful, stunning. She had brown hair, these bright sparkling blue eyes. She grew up in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, and she never really had the desire to move away from that town. She loved it there. She was happy to just stay in her hometown, pursue her dream of becoming a teacher, and she did that through going to an online charter school that serves all of Pennsylvania. Rachel always felt like teaching was her calling.

She was warm-hearted, she was friendly, and she was also very dedicated to her students. She was one of those teachers that really put in the extra effort to connect with each student, almost in like a way of letting them know that she was there for them. If they needed anything, if they needed a sounding board, advice, a little extra help, or guidance, she was the person that was there for them, and that was just the kind of person that Rachel was. However, even though she absolutely loved her job and poured herself into these students, she still made time for her personal life and she really tried to balance work and life in a healthy way. She was extremely close with her parents, Lisa and Joe, and she lived with them her entire life. She took her Italian

heritage very seriously as well and that was one of the reasons that she had no intention of moving away from her parents, not until she got married. She wanted to live with them until there was a ring on her finger, she went to the altar, and she now had a husband. Rachel also had a really solid group of friends, some that she had known for most of her life. It was another benefit of living in a small town. She enjoyed going to parties, spending time with her friends, and she especially enjoyed spending time with her boyfriend named Frank Catropa. Rachel and Frank, they met when they were very young, but they later started dating around 2010. Now, while they were very happy in this relationship and really cared about each other, it wasn't always the perfect relationship,

not by any means. In fact, for most of their relationship, they were constantly on again, off again, back and forth, and never really having a consistent flow. Now, the biggest issue that they had with each other is because they wanted completely different things in life. See, Rachel, she was ready to settle down. She was ready to have children.

She wanted that, you know, picture perfect life, marriage, baby makes three, the whole thing. But Frank, he wasn't quite ready for that type of commitment. Now a lot of people may consider that a major issue in a relationship because you very clearly want two completely different things and want to go down two completely different paths. But for them, it wasn't a deal breaker. And they never really were able to call it quits with one another. They still held out hope. They still had this connection.

Frank absolutely loved Rachel. However, he was also very driven. He was ambitious and he was focused, hyper focused on his career. So settling down was nowhere near being on his radar. He wanted to build an empire first. And Frank did well. Actually, he did very well. After five years of dating, in the summer of 2015, Frank took Rachel on a very romantic vacation to Paris, France. I mean, it was right out of a fairy tale, guys. This is where Rachel's dreams were finally coming true

because here she was in Paris, one of the most romantic cities in the world, and Frank finally proposed. And not only did he propose, Frank proposed with a six-carat oval cut diamond ring. I mean a mega rock. Talk about a fairy tale. I know material stuff doesn't mean everything guys, but if you're like under the Eiffel Tower and you're getting a six-carat ring on your finger from the love of your life, tell me a better moment in your life before having children, okay? So of course Rachel was over the moon with this. She was thrilled to finally be taking the next step in her life, to be marrying the love of her life, to finally see a clear path for her future.

Now despite the romantic vacation and the ultra romantic proposal, things afterward didn't really go as smoothly as Rachel had hoped. And not because of her. You see, this time, Frank and her mom were butting heads about venues, about food, about flowers, all the different details pertaining to the wedding.

Now, it's not very often that we hear of men wanting to be hyper involved in wedding planning. I mean, usually I would say it's more common than not for men to be like, uh, no, you just take the reins, you roll with it, just tell me where I need to show up the day of, I'll have a couple drinks with my guys maybe, then we'll go down the aisle, we'll have the big party afterward. But Frank wanted to be involved in all of the details, everything. The mom were actually starting to butt heads pretty frequently about this.

However, her mom did draw the line when it came to the wedding dress and when it came to Frank seeing the wedding dress, which let me just mention, this wedding dress was going to be a gorgeous handmade gown. Rachel and her mom had already put a deposit down on this gown. It was a deposit of four grand and the dress in total was gonna cost ten thousand dollars. It was handmade by a designer in New York and it was going to

be like flawless. Unfortunately though, despite all of the beautiful plans, the beautiful dress, the fairy tale vision hopefully coming to life, Rachel never got an opportunity to wear this wedding dress. Because before they could get married, Frank, he insisted on them getting a prenup. Now from an outside point of view, it makes sense, right? Frank is a very wealthy businessman, so it's not unusual for people who have money or an immense amount of wealth, actually sometimes not even an immense amount of wealth, but they put into place a prenup as some sort of form of protection so that you can protect your assets in the event that the marriage

doesn't work out. And Rachel didn't seem to care really about signing it, but the problem was her mom really cared. She was pissed about it. And with the pressure from her family, Rachel then refused to sign it. And without a prenup in place, Frank wasn't going to marry Rachel. So now the house of cards was beginning to come tumbling down in Rachel's eyes. So the issue continued to be a very big point of contention in their relationship for months.

And neither of them were willing to move past the prenup problem, were willing to wiggle on the prenup problem. I mean, they were both deadlocked in what they believed. So with that, just a few months after this grandiose, beautiful, romantic proposal in Paris, Frank and Rachel completely put all wedding planning to a screeching halt. However, even then, they still wouldn't break up. They still were not done with each other. They were still committed. Just because the wedding planning was over, it didn't mean that their engagement was, which honestly does feel a little off because at that point, if you know that there's not a marriage in the future, are you just staying

engaged, hopeful that the other one will change their mind and that you will come to a resolution? Maybe, but I mean, honestly, if they can't clearly come to a conclusion about a prenup, I don't know how they were ever going to make it to the altar, but regardless, Rachel and Frank continued to talk about when they would finally get married. But all of that drama, the back and forth,

the planning, the pausing, the planning, all of these things, all of that ended up being for nothing because just a few months later on Valentine's Day of 2016, Rachel returned her engagement ring and the engagement was officially off. However, not so fast because Frank and Rachel, they still weren't done with one another. They were still dating.

Even though their engagement was now off, they still continued to date one another. So I guess it doesn't come as a surprise that even after they continued dating, their relationship was still pretty rocky. Still pretty rocky, to say the least. See on the inside, Rachel was particularly worried about losing Frank. She wondered if her indecisiveness about that prenup, about the wedding, about all of it, would somehow end up chasing Frank away. But for now, they were just taking things one day at a time.

Their relationship continued to be on the rocks all the way through 2016, up until December of that year. And that's when Frank then had his huge mega birthday bash. See every year, Frank always threw these really big birthday parties for himself every single year and tons of people were invited. I mean they came out in droves. Now Rachel had been distant from her friends and also from her social circle after the engagement was called off.

So with this new birthday party on the horizon, she was really excited to see her longtime friend Jen and also Jen's boyfriend Matt. It was a time to reconnect. It was a time to hopefully end of the year in a more positive way than what had been going down the previous almost 12 months. But Jen, she was really hurt that Rachel had been distant for so long. They had been best friends for years. So when Jen arrived at the party, she was a little shocked to not only see Rachel, but really shocked by Rachel's appearance. To Jen, Rachel looked like a completely different person, a different person other than the person she knew for so many years. Jen thought that Rachel looked like she was on drugs or getting into something else that maybe she shouldn't be

involved in. So she began to wonder what the reason was that Rachel had really been distant for so long. She assumed that it was the breakup, but now seeing her in person, it just wasn't adding up. So Jen decided that she was going to confront Rachel about all of this, and she was going to do it while they were at this party. Now things between Rachel and Jen escalated very, very quickly. And whatever was said apparently triggered Rachel and she was just absolutely irate. She flew into a complete rage and she actually swung at Jen and she hit her in the face, her friend of many, many years. Everyone was crowded around during this argument as well, almost watching this

play out in slow motion. Then Frank came over. He wanted to see what was going on. Now Jen was furious at this point. She was so angry actually that she decided that she was going to tell Frank a huge secret about Rachel. And it's a secret that she knew Rachel would never want Frank to know. But Jen, she didn't care.

In that moment, all she saw was red. Her friend just swung at her, hit her. They were arguing, they were fighting. Rachel wasn't who she thought she was. She looked different, she was acting different. So she wanted to hurt her. She wanted to retaliate. She was gonna tell this secret.

So in that moment, Jen told Frank, hey, you need to go talk to Rachel about what she was doing in the car with some kid late at night. Now, obviously, Frank was like, uh, what the hell? He wanted to know exactly what they were talking about. And he demanded Jen and Rachel to tell him what was going on. And Jen, she was happy to unleash all of the details. Now, remember, this party is all going down in December of 2016. Earlier

that year, in February, is when the engagement was called off and when Rachel returned her ring to Frank. Well, on February 6th, right around when that engagement was ending, about a year before this party, two police officers noticed Rachel's car in a Circle K gas station parking lot. This was around 11 p.m. So the two officers approached the car and they found Rachel and a 17-year-old high school student. Rachel explained to the police that the boy was a former student of hers who had been messaging her

because he was having a little bit of a difficult time. He needed somebody to talk to, so Rachel had agreed to meet with him and talk with him. It was a completely innocent encounter and she asked the officer not to say anything to her fiance Frank because she recognized that it looked really, really bad and she didn't want to upset Frank. And somehow by her asking the officer like, hey, don't tell my fiance, it worked. There wasn't anything that came from that account, from that incident. No report, no charges, I mean nothing like that.

So, innocent enough, right? Well, Rachel told her friend Jen about this after it happened. So, Jen asked her, like, okay, well, what the hell are you doing? Are you doing drugs with this boy? Are you having an affair with this boy? Give me one good reason why you would be in a car with a teenage boy at 11 o'clock at night in a gas station parking lot.

But Rachel, she stuck with her story that it was all innocent. And Jen told Rachel that she believed her. However, secretly, Jen was having some doubts. The story wasn't making sense. It was not adding up. Rachel begged and made Jen promise that she wouldn't tell anyone. But after Rachel hit Jen in the face, I mean, all bets were off. It was game on now.

That secret was coming to the surface. So Rachel tried to explain to Frank that all of this was just an innocent misunderstanding. It meant nothing. It was just something innocent. I was just helping this boy. He was having some difficult times at home. And as a teacher, she felt like she needed

to help this former student. He was in a time of need. Now, what's crazy is Frank said that he understood the entire situation and he believed her completely. He knew Rachel cared about her job. He knew that Rachel cared about her students. So it all made sense to him. But now that this secret had been exposed by Jen, Rachel was extremely devastated. She was so hurt by Jen and she tried to explain that Jen was spreading rumors about her, rumors about her being on drugs, about sleeping around while she was with Frank, all of

these things. And so she explained to Frank, not only is Jen trying to really just like paint me in a bad light and spread rumors about me, but the reason I didn't tell you is because all of this happened while we were going through all of the tumultuous things in the wedding, the planning, the on and off again with the prenup, everything, and then we called off our engagement a week after this happened, so I just didn't feel like I needed to tell you. And again, somehow Frank, he was believing all of this. And despite this huge, massive, and very public blowout and argument and fight and secret being shared,

Rachel and Frank still continued dating. I mean, that is how strong, I don't want to say strong, that's probably the wrong word, but that is how enmeshed the two of them were. Nothing was breaking them up. Not the wedding planning, not the prenup, not the secret. I mean, they were thick as thieves and they just continued on. So then a few months later around February of 2017, about one year after that car incident, Rachel, at her mom's suggestion, reached out to Get Marty. Get Marty is a local CBS station program where consumer affairs were investigated.

And the reason her mom suggested that she reach out to this station all circled around her former wedding dress. Now while it was Rachel's dress, apparently Lisa was the one interviewed by the show, and she was the one who pushed for a full refund of this custom-made gown. Her mom Lisa said that she understood that they didn't do refunds, but she wanted to pay the balance and get the dress so that she could then try to sell it. Seems fair enough, right? However, when she never got the dress, she tried to get the refund.

It moved through civil courts, but it really had hit a wall in a complete standstill until the Get Marty investigation through CBS Now this whole public altercation arena refund situation It caused a lot of public scrutiny on Rachel's life and it also drew a lot of attention on her that she didn't really want But remember her mom was kind of like the force. She always wanted to be involved in everything. She kind of ran the show and Rachel lived with her parents still. She came from that thick Italian family. She thought her mother was the one who had to call the shots, you know what I mean? And it just put Rachel in a very uncomfortable and difficult position.

However, other than that drama with the Get Marty show, things were looking up in Rachel's life. She had gotten some money back from that never-happened failed wedding, and while they weren't married, she and Frank were still together. Sure, her and her best friend Jen had now cut ties, but she still had her family, she had her job, and she had Frank. For now. The truth was, Frank, he couldn't stop thinking about that incident with Rachel and her student in the car. So fast

forward a few more months to October of this year in 2017. He went to the police department to see if there had been a report filed about that night. That would have been the police protocol, right? You see a car, you ask them some questions, you jot it down as an incident report, or you file a report. That would have been protocol. And Frank knew that because his father was a retired police officer. So Frank went to the station, and he spoke with Assistant Police Chief Joe Persheville. Now Frank talked to him, and he told him that he was very concerned about being embarrassed about the entire situation, if it ever came out, if it ever came to light.

Unfortunately, Assistant Chief Joe happened to have the report right there with him. Now, remember how I said that there wasn't a report filed the night that Rachel and her student were discovered? Well, it turned out that was only half true. Rachel was telling the truth. There wasn't a report written that night. However, what Rachel didn't know was that there was an incident report

filed in the spring of 2017. That was over a year after this incident took place. Which I have to say, this is a little weird, right? Because it's over a year, now a report is being filed, despite the fact that there wasn't an investigation, there weren't any charges filed, nothing like that. Not only that, but Assistant Chief Joe had the report printed out and on his desk, right when Frank asked about it.

Apparently, he was the one who told the officers to file this report in the first place, just because of the suspicious circumstances, even a year later. Well, there was going to be another little hurdle that Frank had to go over before getting this report. It wasn't a big issue. It was more of a formality. You see, because nothing ever came of that interaction of the night in question, the report was not automatically available to the public. For files like this, you need to submit a formal request. And Assistant Chief Joe insisted that Frank fill out the forms that were needed in order to request the files.

However, Joe didn't ultimately make sure that Frank did that. Joe was told by the actual police chief just to give this file to Frank, just like that. Joe figured that the chief was friends with Frank and with Frank's father, who was the retired officer as well. And everybody also knew Frank, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal, right? And that's kind of the double-edged blade to a small town like this, because everybody knows everybody, for better or worse. Now, for the record, the big mega chief, Chief Couch, later said that he didn't say anything like that. He didn't have that kind of relationship with Frank, and he wouldn't tell an officer to just ignore procedure. It's hard to say who's telling the truth here, since it's very much a

he said, she said situation, But whatever the case, the outcome, I mean, it was the same. Frank got this police report. And what he found in this report were some discrepancies between what Rachel had told him and what the report had written in it, written over a year later. According to the report, Rachel's car wasn't found in a Circle K parking lot. It was found in an abandoned lot. It also wasn't 11 p.m. It was closer to 2 a.m. The car was turned off, the windows were steamed, and the passenger seat was fully reclined.

Now guys, if you are imagining that in your mind, you know it is beginning to paint a pretty, guilty, sinister picture. You're not just parked in an abandoned lot, the windows up, the lights off, car steamy, having a chat with somebody. Even so, unless it's a like full-blown therapy session, why would their chair and their seat be completely reclined backward? It ain't working for me. It's not hidden. So Rachel told the officer what she told Frank. That this kid was a former student of hers, that he was also a friend, and that she was just trying to be supportive of him during this very difficult time. Rachel also mentioned to the

police officers that she wanted to hide their meeting from her fiance because he would get upset. And remember, it's a small town. Everybody knows everybody. So her asking, hey, please don't tell Frank. It wasn't that out of the norm. And sure enough, according to the report, the student said something very similar. The officer didn't have enough evidence of any sort of wrongdoing to really do anything, except to make sure that the student was picked up. The officer talked to Rachel about what the whole scene looked like, how bad it looked, and Rachel agreed, but she insisted this was completely innocent. It was nothing. It was nothing like that, despite what it looks like. And that was that. The officer didn't even file an incident report until being told to do so a year later. Chief Joe said that Frank, upon reading

this, was deeply upset about what he read. But according to Frank, he wasn't upset. He was just surprised. But he took the report with him. And then he broke things off with Rachel permanently. But breaking up with Frank wasn't the worst thing that happened to Rachel. In fact, things were just getting started. But before we get into all of that, we are going to take a quick break and hear from

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He realizes what Rachel tried to paint as an innocent encounter doesn't feel so innocent. The windows were steaming. It was 2 a.m. The seat was reclined. The math ain't mathin'. So he ends things with Rachel. And a few days later, somebody sent a copy of this report to Rachel's work, the school board, the mayor, the media, and a group of various people. In that group of people, it included her best friend or former best friend, Jen. She also now got this information, but apparently this report had been sent to everybody anonymously. A day or so later, a follow-up message was sent out, again to this same group of recipients. The second message said that the report was not originally submitted because of a cover-up.

So this story broke almost immediately, guys. I mean, it was every kind of thing that you would imagine for a media sensation. It had salacious details. It had a teacher, a student, a cover-up, all of these things. So a month later in November, the school put Rachel on paid administrative leave while they investigated the situation and Rachel's reputation was absolutely ruined. Now even though Rachel was still adamantly denying that anything sexual ever happened and she was just somebody who loved helping children and loved being a teacher, it didn't change the fact that she was now exposed for what was at the very least a highly inappropriate

situation with a former student. Rachel tried to explain that it wasn't what it looked like and that actually he wasn't even her student. She knew him from when he was in elementary school, when she was a substitute teacher there. Which honestly kind of makes it worse, in my opinion, if you've known this kid since he was like a little little kid, and now you're still maybe doing something inappropriate like that, then it goes into a whole different territory of predator behavior, in my opinion. But still, none of that, none of those explanations mattered, because it didn't change the fact that this boy was very much still in high school on the night that this incident happened. This was huge news for such a small town.

And not long after, the entire situation took another turn when it was discovered that whoever had leaked all of this information had received more than they should have from the police. So just to break this down for a second, the report that Frank got included personal information about Rachel, but also information about the minor who was in the car with her, including this kid's driver's license. This information should not have been released to anyone, especially after going through with a formal request, which Frank didn't do. The police said that the extra information was passed on accidentally, but the same documents were released to everybody who got the report.

The entire file was distributed publicly. Now, to this day, nobody is completely sure who sent this information, who sent those follow-up messages, or where they came from. However, there are definitely theories. Mostly, of course, that Frank was involved. I feel like that's kind of the natural place where your mind would go. He denies it, but he admits that he did share the report with multiple people while trying to get more information. The timing, plus all of the information included, makes it seem pretty likely that if it wasn't

him, it was definitely somebody that he showed that information to. But even that felt like a little bit of a stretch. I mean, come on, it's retaliation it seems like, right? It seems so obvious. He's pissed. He broke up with Rachel. He's trying to smear her name, so he's retaliating, right? Or wrong. Now, according to Rachel's parents, Frank did it to just publicly destroy Rachel. But again, Frank completely denies that. It was a very

messy situation all the way around. Whatever did happen that night, Rachel had now been put on leave and had her business blasted completely publicly, despite the fact that she was never charged with a crime. Everyone also knew that this boy in question was Sheldon Jeter Jr., a local high school boy who was a very well-liked football player. So at this point, Frank and Rachel, they were officially done. They weren't even on speaking terms any longer, and she was just absolutely beside herself. She was distraught. She was devastated. Her parents said that she couldn't eat. She couldn't sleep because she was so upset and she was so miserable. She was actually admitted into the psych ward of a hospital for a few days after this

entire incident happened. Her friends were now distancing themselves, and Rachel didn't know what to do with herself. So around December of that year, the Pennsylvania State Police Department opened up an investigation. They were looking into the allegations of misconduct and even corruption within the department, all based on the leaking of these documents. Local news media picked up news about the investigation. But Rachel's mom? She wanted more. So she ended up reaching out to a man named John Paul, an investigative reporter with

one of the many local newspapers. John and Rachel, they spoke on the phone frequently, and Rachel had quite a few stories about both the police and Frank, her ex-fiance. According to Rachel, the corruption ran very deep in this town. During this time, Rachel was slowly working to rebuild her life.

She had a therapist, and she was still being paid while she was on leave, plus she continued to live rebuild her life. She had a therapist and she was still being paid while she was on leave. Plus she continued to live with her parents. She even had ended up dating somebody new at this point, a man named Rashawn Bolton. And here's what's weird though, Rashawn happened to be Sheldon, the high school boy's 31 year old half brother.

So make of that what you will. little too close for comfort in my opinion. Rochelle's parents said that Rashaun made Rachel feel safe, which was very important at that moment because Rachel I guess had been receiving death threats at this point. She wasn't sure who exactly the threats were coming from, but she had a pretty good idea. She thought that they were coming from the police department. She told her mom and her other family members that the police were following her, and she

was terrified. The threats and the messages continued well into 2018. Then in February, the state police finished their initial investigation into the local police department. There were administrative sanctions and the department was on probation, but nobody was fired or put on leave or anything along those lines. Kind of more like a slap on the wrist, which actually I take that back. I don't know how serious sanctions are, but I didn't feel like anything major came from the investigation.

Now, according to John, this investigative reporter that Rachel was working with, the police department wasn't just dealing with potential corruption. They were also dealing with severe underfunding and understaffing. Most of the police force is only part-time and had to work multiple back-to-back shifts or at two or more police stations, all in an effort to make enough money to survive. John also said that while Rachel's allegations were damaging and could have hurt Frank at the very least, there was nothing that she said during their conversations that John could prove, let alone publish.

So this was really disappointing disappointing and Rachel continued to be fearful for her life. But that didn't stop her from making some new friends. But she also started spending time with a 17 year old local named Lauren, who, like Sheldon, was looking for a friend. Now at this point you would think, hey it's probably time to stop hanging out with minors, innocent or not. It is not painting a good look for you. You already have your reputation pretty tarnished

in the public, like back off the minors, right? I feel like any normal person would think that, but not Rachel, not Rachel. And interestingly, Lauren, this 17 year old, her dad was one of the officers that found Rachel and Sheldon in the car that night back in 2016. Rachel knew that it wasn't a good choice apparently to befriend yet another minor, but she also wasn't sure how to break off this friendship with Lauren.

She didn't want to hurt her. She didn't want to make her feel rejected. And Lauren said that Rachel was her best friend, that Rachel was always there to talk to her to help her with anything that she needed. Lauren said that Rachel would take hours out of her day to help her with college applications and that Rachel was like family to her. So a couple of months later in May of 2018, on Mother's Day specifically, Rachel was invited out to ice cream with Lauren. The two had been driving around before this, which was something that they did often, just riding around, listening to music,

talking, gossiping about what was going on in their lives, things like that. The two were driving when they decided to stop and get some ice cream. So Lauren stopped by Rachel's house so that Rachel could run inside and grab a sweater. Rachel said goodbye to her parents, and then she rejoined Lauren in the car. Then they went and picked up another person, 26-year-old Tyree Jeter, another half-brother of Sheldon's, the original student from the car. The three of them went to get ice cream at a place called Hank's, and while driving there they passed another car.

And Sheldon, of all people, happened to be in that car. Now at this point, Rachel and Sheldon, they weren't spending much time together, but they were still in a little bit of contact with one another. Sheldon texted all three of them, and Lauren responded to his first few messages, but then she ignored him. However, Sheldon and Tyree continued texting about what Tyree was doing and where they were going. So, after they got ice cream, Lauren drove Rachel back home. Now, apparently, Lauren and Rachel had been texting each other, even though they were in the same car. And according to Lauren, they were trying to

figure out a way to drop off Tyree and then go out again, just the two of them. So Lauren told Rachel, go for a walk and I'll come pick you up. Lauren dropped Rachel off at home around at 1045. And according to her, she waited for Rachel to go to the door before she drove off, although she says that she didn't see her go inside. Rachel's father Joe said that he was in the room next to the door, and he never heard Rachel at the door, so it's unclear exactly what happened next. What we do know is that within four minutes of being dropped off, Rachel was shot to death at the end of her parents' driveway.

She was shot 10 to 12 times at close range, and she was instantly killed. Now, at the time of her death, she was only 33 years old. Police arrived at the house very quickly, and they started to investigate, which was not reassuring to Rachel's parents though, because remember Rachel was involved in informing against the police department and she was certain that they were the people who were following her, who were threatening her.

And it didn't help when Kenneth, Lauren's father, and a police officer showed up. It's not clear why he was there or what his issue was, but maybe he was somewhat familiar with Rachel since Lauren had been spending so much time with her. Police investigators won't say if they have a suspect, but they do believe that Rachel Del Tondo knew her assailant and that this brutal murder was a crime of passion.

No arrest is imminent in the murder of Rachel del Tondo as police investigators methodically comb through the evidence. We're working with every resource we have with the Pennsylvania State Police, the District Attorney's Office, the Detective Bureau to investigate this case to tie up every detail, canvassing the neighborhood, reviewing all surveillance tapes and sending del Tondo's cell phone and others to a lab in Harrisburg to retrieve all texts and communications. Investigating everyone that was driving around Aliquippa that night that was anywhere near this young lady's house. Over the next few days, investigators will sift through the evidence to nail down a motive and a suspect, but they believe it will show that Del Tondo knew her assailant and this was a crime of

passion. While district attorney Lozier was tight-lipped, he did say the town need not fear a random killer. From what we know, no. Two years ago police came upon Del Tondo in a parked car with a juvenile student. She was questioned but not charged. However, a year later, this report of the incident was leaked to the press and her employer, PA Cyber and the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School, which suspended her. Lozier says wrongfully so.

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. After talking to Rachel's parents, the police said that they had two people that they were interested in when it came to Rachel's death. Sheldon, the student, and Frank, the ex-fiance. Rachel's parents told investigators that Sheldon was involved and that he needed to be looked into. They said that Sheldon was obsessed with Rachel. He was in love with her. He was obsessed. But Sheldon had a completely different story.

He said that he and Rachel's relationship was not one-sided and it definitely was not innocent, like she claimed. He said that they were involved in a sexual relationship and that that relationship started when he was 17 years old. However, Rachel's parents adamantly denied this. So the police went and they talked to Sheldon, who didn't have much of a reaction to the news of Rachel's death. Officers thought that it was indifference, maybe even shock. I mean, the exact relationship between Rachel and Sheldon wasn't clear to them, but they did know that he did have a close relationship with her at one point.

Plus, she was also dating his half-brother, remember. So there's that too. Whatever his reaction was, he did allow police to collect his clothing and search his room. But they didn't find anything. There have been several theories about Rachel Deltando's death, but police investigators have clearly set their sights on 20-year-old Sheldon Jeter. Police interviewed the on-again, off-again boyfriend just hours after the murder, then executed the first of two search warrants, taking his iPhone and some clothes. He's not involved in this

homicide and no evidence has come forward to show that he is. Police had asked Jeter for the clothes he was wearing the night of the murder and he initially surrendered a pair of khakis and a windbreaker, but this affidavit says he was seen on surveillance cameras wearing something different a gray sweatshirt. Jeter also told police he spoke with del Tondo earlier at the Circle K convenience store but while tapes show del Tondo they do not show Jeter. Do you think that these discrepancies are incriminating? I do not think the discrepancies are incriminating in fact I would by challenge the fact that there even are discrepancies.

Jeter's attorney, Michael Santacola, says Jeter spoke briefly with police at five in the morning and that he told no lies. On Thursday, police took a PlayStation and some notebooks because Jeter told them he was playing video games and writing rap lyrics to Night of the Murder. They were looking for a 9- millimeter handgun and some bloody clothes, but did not find them. The two search warrants that they have issued on him have yielded nothing, which would be consistent with what he has told them. Then the police collected cell phones and sent them to be analyzed, which is how the messages between Lauren from that night were recovered. But even though they sounded suspicious, there wasn't anything conclusive.

None of the physical evidence was enough to implicate Sheldon either. Plus, Sheldon's uncle provided an alibi for Sheldon, saying that he was at home that night, all night. So next, the police decided they needed to look at Frank, whose motive might have to do with Rachel talking to the state police and talking to the media about him. But Frank strongly

denied any involvement. He said he and Rachel had a very long relationship, and while they now were broken up and they weren't talking, he didn't have any bad feelings toward her, and he certainly didn't kill her. He had no reason to. It is a case that is capturing not only the attention of the Pittsburgh region, but also the nation. A local teacher was shot and killed over the weekend in Aliquippa. No one has been arrested yet in what police are now calling a crime of passion. And because of that, the victim's ex-fiance has been getting a lot of calls and wants to clear his name. Frank Catropa has not been named a suspect, but today he took the extraordinary step of going public in an effort to clear his name.

Dogged by rumors, speculation and innuendo, today Rachel Deltando's former fiance, Frank Catroppa and his attorney tried to clear the air. We wanted to be very, very clear publicly that Frank Catroppa has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with what happened and it's important to him and it's important to his family that the public knows that. When you're with somebody for eight years, that's quite some time and you just hope to see that they at least get justice to this and it's that case. Police have not named a suspect but yesterday interviewed the Aliquippa businessman about whether there was bad blood between himself and Del Tondo. They appeared very have not named a suspect, the al equipa businessman was bad blood between him

appeared very satisfied w them and we provided alibi were able to verify. Um, we can really do. The two even spoke with Katie K's a dispute over her custom the wedding was called off. A few months prior, Aliquippa police found Del Tondo in a parked car with

a juvenile student. But Catropas said this had nothing to do with their breakup. The ending of the relationship had nothing whatsoever to do with the circumstances surrounding the investigation of her being in the car with a student or any of that. That sort of played out later. Still last fall the incident report was mysteriously leaked to Deltando's employer, PA Cyber, which suspended her. Yesterday, District Attorney Lozier called the leak a personal vendetta. Some family members that were angry at her over some personal issues. The district attorney called this a personal vendetta. Was he referring to your client?

He was not. He was not. I think he was referring to naturally the person who committed the crime. Catropa now hopes that police catch the real killer. It's an unfortunate tragedy and hopefully she gets justice. While there were things that definitely were suspicious, the police didn't have much to go off of. Rachel's murder was the ninth unsolved murder in this small town, which remember was not only a small town, but a very underfunded town,

underfunded police force like I mentioned before. So with that, the investigation basically hit a standstill. But then things got even weirder. And before we get into that, we are going to take the final break in today's episode to hear from our last sponsors. I have a little dog. You may notice him on Instagram. I guess I'm talking a lot about Instagram today, but you might notice him. His name is Freckles. I love for Freckles. He has these really cute human eyes. He's justckles. I love for Freckles he has these really cute human eyes he's just a baby I got him several years ago and I would just like I would do anything for the little guy sometimes he bugs me but

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Okay, so reminder. Rachel is now murdered. They've interviewed Sheldon. They've interviewed Frank. There's no concrete evidence against either one of them. They are basically at a standstill. They have no idea who was responsible for this heinous murder on Rachel's property, almost as if they were there waiting for her. Investigators in Al

equipa still trying to piece together the events leading up to the murder of a teacher. Police have served two search warrants. Katie K a investigator, Andy Sheehan. Now with the latest. So far attorneys for former fiance Frank Catroppa and sometime boyfriend Sheldon Jeter say their clients deny any involvement in Rachel Del Tondo's murder. But yesterday Jeter's attorney raised a third possibility saying Del Tondo had received death threats because she was about to testify before a grand jury about corruption in Aliquippa. It's hard to imagine that that fear and those death threats had nothing to do with the fact

that she was shot, you know, within days of her alleged testimony in front of a grand jury. Was she killed because she was a cooperating witness? Sources close to the grand jury tell me she had not been subpoenaed. And District Attorney David Lozier, who's prohibited from discussing any grand jury, responded this way. To the best of my knowledge, she was not a witness in another outside investigation that has anything

to do with this homicide. But Attorney Santa Cola has suggested that the aliquipa are conflicted in this murder investigation and should be removed from it. Late last year, Del Tondo was involved with the state police investigation of the Aliquippa police when this incident report about her was mysteriously leaked. It concerned an incident two years ago when she was found by police in a parked car with the then 17-year-old Sheldon Jeter.

As a result, state police sanctioned the Aliquippa police, barring them from their databases. And then in March, state police raided the Aliquippa City Hall, seizing computers and hard drives of the mayor and city officials. But the district attorney indicated that these are separate probes and that the Aliquippa police have no conflict of interest in being part of the Del Tondo murder investigation. I have no questions as to the ability of the Aliquippa police department detectives to conduct this investigation fairly. They're working with my detectives, the Beaver County Detective Bureau and the Pennsylvania

State Police as a team. They would not be part of this team if there were any question as their capacity or their integrity. And things were about to get even weirder. Within a month of Rachel's murder, the police chief was put on paid administrative leave and that leave was for unknown reasons, however unrelated to Rachel's case. The assistant chief then stepped in, but within a week, he was arrested for sending inappropriate messages to Lauren. Yes, that Lauren, Rachel's friend, 17-year-old Lauren, the new police chief, was sending her inappropriate messages.

It's like everybody in this town is inappropriate and that there are no boundaries, right? Now, speaking of Lauren for a second, her dad was also put on leave for interfering with the crime scene when Rachel was murdered tonight. New revelations in the death of a

former teacher in Aliquippa who was shot and killed earlier this month. Today we learned that authorities executed a new search warrant, this one involving a different person, the wife of an ala quipa police officer. Investigator Andy Shands been working on this story for more than a week now. He joins us now live with new details. Police have executed a search warrant on Facebook looking into the private account of Stephanie Watkins, the

mother of Lauren Watkins, who dropped del Tondo off at her home that night. And she's also the wife of ala quipa police sergeant Kenneth Watkins, who dropped El Tondo off at her home that night. And she's also the wife of Aliquippa Police Sergeant Kenneth Watkins, who was on administrative leave during the investigation. Finally, the next police chief, Robert Selock, decided to turn Rachel's case over to the Beaver County Detectives Bureau, a different bureau entirely. Years passed without an answer to Rachel's murder. But then, on May 15, 2020, another murder hit this small town. A 30-year-old man named Tyrick Pugh was found shot to death on Keele Street.

He had been shot seven times at close range, mostly in his chest and his head. Now until his death, Tyrick had been living with his friend, Sheldon Jr. Yep, that same Sheldon, the same kid from the car. I mean, at what point do you have to say, all right, is this a coincidence or where there's smoke, there's fire? Now this young kid, this 17 year old kid in a matter of what, a couple of years, he knows two people who have been shot to death at close range? Is that a coincidence or is there something more going on here? Now apparently, Sheldon and Tyrick's relationship was because they had lived together and they had shared a house off and on for a year or so at this point.

Sheldon said that he hadn't seen Tyrick at all that night. However, video footage told a very different story. And in another very strange twisted coincidence, this footage showed the two men leaving so that they could get something. Guess what they were getting, guys? Ice cream. Another trip to get ice cream. It's almost like, I don't know, it's unbelievable.

That's why I said I'm shocked more people haven't talked about this case because it is truly unbelievable. So police, in the world's weirdest deja vu, then searched Sheldon's room once again. This time, they found a gun, and they also found bullets that matched the crime scene. And the bullets also matched the bullets that killed Tyrick. And then testing came back that there was gunpowder in Sheldon's car. The district attorney started a grand jury investigation while Sheldon was waiting to go to trial for Tyrick's murder.

Witnesses, including Frank and Rashawn, testified about everything that we have talked about so far. The goal was to end with a charge of homicide against Sheldon. But once the investigation concluded, there just wasn't enough evidence to charge Sheldon with Rachel's murder. Now what's crazy is that there has never been a motive given for why Sheldon killed Tyrick. The two of them were friends. The two of them lived together. It doesn't sound like anybody could point to any problems between the two of them. But still, Tyrick was dead. He was shot to death. Point blank. Close range. Multiple times. Shot by a gun that was found in Sheldon's room and Not only that but there was video footage that put him with Tyrick that night and

The craziest thing is the fact that Sheldon killed Tyrick after the two of them went to go get ice cream Just like when Rachel was killed after getting ice cream with Lauren. I mean, what are the chances, honestly, that both murders would be so eerily similar, right? Meanwhile, Sheldon's trial for Tyrake's murder went forward. Based on the physical evidence, Sheldon was found guilty of murder in 2021. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole, which his lawyer is currently appealing. Now, there were some juror issues, I do have to say. One juror was actually Rachel's neighbor. And not only that, but this juror was in the middle of divorcing one of Sheldon's distant cousins.

I don't know about you, but I feel like that would be grounds for this juror to not be put on the jury. But again, very, very small town. So after Sheldon's guilty verdict, the DA came out and basically said that he was sure that Sheldon murdered Rachel. He just couldn't prove it. But since the grand jury didn't indict Sheldon, he wasn't going to either. But he said that he did want to give closure to Rachel's family at the very least. A new twist in the baffling murder of a teacher, a former student who was romantically linked to the teacher,

has now been named as the prime suspect. Police labeled the slaying a crime of passion. Jeter was questioned by cops and released. At the time I spoke with Rachel's ex-fiance, Frank Catropa and his attorney. Did you have anything to do with this? No, absolutely not. 100% no. No one was ever charged in Rachel's murder.

But in 2021, Jeter was convicted of an unrelated murder, shooting his roommate to death after going to a local ice cream parlor. Now, the district attorney has announced Sheldon Jeter is the prime suspect in the Del Tondo murder, though we don't have enough evidence to make an arrest. We are seeking help from the public. Michael Sanacola is Jeter's lawyer. Did your client murder Rachel Del Tondo? Absolutely not.

He had a relationship with her for a long time and they had remained friends. He is behind bars for another murder, right? He is and you know that case is on appeal. However, this particular crime that we're talking about now that's remained unsolved for five years plus, nothing has changed and he has maintained his innocence from day one. He still maintains it to this day. Rachel's parents say they've always believed Jeter was the killer. The suspect's parents tell us he's innocent

and is being used as a scapegoat. Okay, so pause, because that was a lot. I feel like, honestly, I feel like I need to be in one of those old school detective movies where I have a board behind me with like a red string trying to keep all of these people together who are involved in this case. So let's try to break this down a little more because I do have some follow-up questions that I want you to think

about and I want you to give your opinion about before I continue. It's hard to say what exactly did happen between Sheldon and Rachel, right? I mean, Sheldon claims that they had this relationship, that it was a sexual relationship, and honestly, it doesn't seem that far-fetched given the circumstances when he and Rachel were found at 2 a.m. in a steamy car with the seat reclined in a completely abandoned parking lot. But Rachel's parents insist that Sheldon was obsessed with Rachel. But then Lauren disagrees. She was friends with Sheldon and Rachel, both of them, and to her,

Sheldon didn't seem obsessed. Lauren knew Sheldon from the time that they were kids, and she was convinced that he wasn't involved in Rachel's murder. Now, if Sheldon and Rachel did have some type of relationship, even if things weren't physical and it was completely innocent, but Sheldon was in love with her. It seems plausible that he could have had some sort of motivation to kill her when Rachel started dating his half-brother, Rashawn, right? Maybe there was jealousy. Maybe there was something to that effect.

And apparently, even Rashawn thought so, because he testified to a grand jury that one time Sheldon saw him and Rachel together and he was visibly upset. However, being visibly upset doesn't exactly prove murder either. At the time of her murder, Rachel was concerned about whoever was stalking or harassing her, right? But she never knew exactly who it was. Rachel had her suspicions that it was the police, but that was never proven. So it's also possible that Sheldon could be the culprit of that.

But it hasn't ever been proven that he was the one sending her messages or stalking her. So the question still remains, who did those messages and those death threats come from? Now let's table that for a minute and talk about Frank, the ex-fiance. Did Frank have something to do with Rachel's murder? Now, let's table that for a minute and talk about Frank, the ex-fiancee. Did Frank have something to do with Rachel's murder? He had an alibi, and he was very cooperative with the police right away, which could make sense if he was in cahoots with them if there was some sort of corruption that was happening within the department as suggested.

Shortly after Rachel's murder, he was photographed with his new girlfriend, and he was also wearing a shirt when he was photographed that said, FAKE ALABYE on it. But beyond that one weird shirt that was published in local media, there was literally nothing suspicious about Frank in regards to Rachel's murder, and he's never been charged or implicated with corruption or any other crime. The original mega massive police chief, Don Couch, the one that allegedly let Frank have the report

without filing that formal request, he was suspended for two years before he was reinstated, but then he was demoted to sergeant. He sued the city and settled in 2021 after claiming his due process was violated and his reputation had been damaged beyond repair. After he settled, he retired from the police force entirely. Apparently, the original suspension had something to do with stolen money, although nothing apparently ever came from that.

The next police chief, Joe, the one that had allegedly had Rachel's report right on his desk waiting and was the one who was later caught sending Lauren, the 17-year-old, inappropriate messages. He was arrested for sending obscene messages and also for unlawful contact with a minor, which are both felonies. He said that it was an accident and that the messages were meant for somebody else, which, okay guy. But then in May of 2019, the felonies were dropped, although he was charged with two similar but less severe misdemeanor charges, including corrupting a minor. However, even though the charges were dropped, Joe ended up leaving the police force. It turns out that Joe could have been involved in the allegations of theft that got Don Couch suspended. He reported his suspicions about corruption in the police department to the city council, and also tried to involve the district attorney about his concerns, including misappropriation of funds.

So if anybody was trying to blow the cover of corruption, blow the whistle in the police department, it probably was Joe, not Rachel. was trying to blow the cover of corruption, blow the whistle in the police department, it probably was Joe, not Rachel. I mean, there is so much confusion, but one thing is certain. Rachel was murdered. And to this day, nobody has been held responsible for her murder. And it's especially maddening because it seems like it should absolutely be solvable, right? How could it be that difficult to solve this murder? Rachel was killed in a very suburban neighborhood, right in front of her home, at close range. Someone had to have seen something or heard somebody talking about

this crime, right? I mean, it only makes sense. And if not, the murder took place in 2018. Did anybody have ring cameras in the neighborhood? I mean, ring cameras weren't as common then as they are today, but still, they did exist. However, the police department said in a public statement that they have used every single technology available, as well as every state law agency, federal agency,

private experts, and consultants all to help place Sheldon or anyone connected to him at the scene of the crime. And so far, they've been unable to. They've also said that they were going to release more search warrants and start a reward for anybody that has information on the case. Now this statement really pissed off Rachel's parents because in a statement they said How does this help find the killer of our daughter? Second why make the announcement now the answers to these questions are really clear to us

This was a cheap Underhanded pitiful political stunt pulled by the district attorney all in an effort to boost his campaign for re-election, which, by the way, will occur in approximately two and a half months at the expense of our dead daughter and us. Rachel's family has had to move on without her, and at this point all they want is justice for their daughter, and they continue to fight for it, but they also know that nothing will bring her back. So who actually killed Rachel?

Is it Sheldon? Or could it have something to do with the informant work that Rachel was doing, trying to put the police department in a bad light? And better yet, who was sending those harassing and threatening messages to Rachel before she was gunned down in her own driveway. Now, I'm not saying that Rachel was the model citizen,

not by any means, because we don't know the truth of the relationship between her and Sheldon, and if there was a sexual and inappropriate relationship, that certainly should not have happened, and it's my opinion she shouldn't have been hanging out with minors to begin with. 33 years old, why you hanging out with 17 year olds? But that also does not excuse her being murdered, and that is no reason for her to be murdered. So when you look at all of the possible suspects in this, Frank, the fiance, Sheldon, the team alleged teen lover, the police department who are getting called out for a corruption, who is the one

that has the most motive and who has the means? And in my opinion, the question that comes to my mind, if they still haven't solved this and they haven't been able to find out who targeted this woman, who lurked waiting for her to get home and then gunned her down, who has the means to cover it up? To leave such a flawless crime scene behind that there is no digital footprint, there is no forensic footprint, no evidence, nothing like that. Begs the question, who really is responsible? And I'm curious to know what you guys think.

It is somewhat of a fresher case since it did just happen within the last few years, so I'm hopeful that as more time passes, hopefully not too much, but as more time passes, more information will come to light and Rachel's family can finally get these answers. But I am curious to know what your thoughts are on this case. Who had the most motive here? All right, guys, thank you for tuning in to another episode of Serialistly. With me, Annie Elise.

Whether it was your first time listening or you are a returning listener, I appreciate having you here. Don't forget, before you click out of the app, please take a quick second, look in the top corner, bottom corner, I'm not sure where it is exactly, depending on what platform you're using, but make sure you're following this podcast so that you don't miss future episodes.

Also, if you would be so kind as to leave a rating and review if you are listening to this on Apple, and let me know what you like about this podcast, what you want to hear more of so that I can start to pivot different episodes to what you guys like and deliver the content that you're interested in hearing. Alright, until the next one guys, I'm jumping off the mic. Be nice, don't kill anyone, and I will talk with you again very soon. All right, bye.