Authorities in Pennsylvania have are seeking the cell phone records of a friend of Rachael Deltondo, the suspended teacher who was shot dead in her driveway on Mother’s Day.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Deltondo, 33, was gunned down on May 13 as she came home from getting ice cream with friends. WTAE reports that police are interested in the phone records of one of those friends’ brothers.
Aliquippa police reportedly filed a search warrant for access to the phone records of 20-year-old Sheldon Jeter Jr, former standout football player at Aliquippa High School, who is believed to have had some type of relationship with the Deltondo, who was a teacher at Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School.
Deltondo was suspended from her position last fall amid accusations of an inappropriate relationship with a male student, now known to be Jeter, WTAE reports.
According to the Beaver Countian, a 2016 Aliquippa police report states that Deltondo and the student, then 17, were found together in a parked car near Aliquippa Hospital at 2 a.m. in February of that year. Someone from inside the police department allegedly leaked the report to the Beaver Countian due to what Beaver County District Attorney David Lozier reportedly said was a “personal vendetta.”
Deltondo was engaged to be married at the time, but the relationship ended as a result of the scandal. She reportedly claimed that her relationship with the then-student was a platonic friendship that was no romantic. Jeter’s attorney Michael Santicola told WTAE that his client and Deltondo had remained friendly.
The attorney also told the news station that Deltondo had told Jeter that she was an informant in an ongoing investigation of the Aliquippa Police Department, and was set to testify before a grand jury in a matter of days. The nature of the investigation is not known.
Before she was killed, Deltondo had been out with two friends: Lauren Watkins and Sheldon Jeter’s brother Tyrie Jeter. The trio reportedly made several stops, including a visit to Hank’s Frozen Custard in New Brighton, before Watkins drove Deltondo home.
Watkins is the daughter of an Aliquippa police sergeant who is now on paid leave.
Authorities have not yet named a suspect in Deltondo’s murder, but reportedly believe she knew her killer. According to an affidavit obtained by WTAE, police are seeking Jeter’s phone records “further include or exclude Sheldon Jeter Jr. as the actor or conspirator in the criminal homicide of Rachael DelTondo.”
Through his lawyer, Jeter had denied any involvement in the murder.
“Somebody had a reason, a motive to kill this poor girl in such a violent way, and to us, it looks like somebody had something to hide,” Santicola said.
