Justin Vellucci stories, Page 4
At ceremony for Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, grieving families find hope in ‘The White Pumpkin’
White pumpkins were everywhere Sunday at Independence Health System’s Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month ceremony. The pale gourd serves as a symbol for babies who die during infancy or pregnancy, inspired by “The White Pumpkin,” a poem written by a mother who suffered such a loss. Children whose brothers...
Baby Apple Cheeks competition steals the show at bustling festival
The amphitheater stage at a Salem farm felt familiar to Courtney Juliano on Saturday as the Murrysville native paraded her infant son in front of three judges at the Apple ’n Arts Festival. Cameron, just 6 months old, didn’t seem upset to go home without a prize in the annual...
Man headed to trial for homicide by vehicle in deadly, 5-car crash in North Hills
A distracted dump truck driver who allegedly was taking part in a Facetime call when he triggered a deadly five-car crash in Pittsburgh’s North Hills is headed to court on charges including homicide by vehicle. A judge Friday held a preliminary hearing for Franklin R. Simon, 33, of South Union,...
War, apartment fire punctuate Ukrainian woman’s unexpectedly long stay in Western Pa.
Nadiia Koshykova packed light on Dec. 12, 2021, when she traveled by rail, then by plane, from her native Ukraine to visit her son’s family in their Ohio Township home. “I have one suitcase — winter clothes,” Koshykova, 66, said. “I wanted to see America and then return back to...
Beaver County DA: ATF agent justified in fatal shooting of Aliquippa teen
A teen killed in Aliquippa by a federal agent last month was the first to pull the trigger, shooting twice with a semiautomatic handgun before the officer returned fire, Beaver County District Attorney Nathan Bible announced Wednesday. Kendrick Curtis Jr., 18, was shot around 6:20 p.m. Sept. 18 on steps...
Man on trial for killing his mom in Homestead acts as own lawyer
The accused stood nervously in front of an Allegheny County jury and pledged to prove he didn’t kill his mother and her friend in Homestead last year. Defendant John Malcolm Smith V, 26, of McKeesport was acting as his own lawyer Tuesday, the start of his double homicide trial. He’s...
‘A part of you dies’: Pittsburgh vigil recalls homicide victims, 1 mother’s loss
The organizers of a “stop the violence” rally and prayer vigil held Thursday night at a church in Pittsburgh’s St. Clair neighborhood got all the details right. They lined the maroon-carpeted altar steps of The Lighthouse Cathedral with a row of 39 white votive candles, their flaming wicks replaced with...
Pittsburgh woman killed by PRT bus lived near accident site
A pedestrian struck and killed Monday by a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus lived just feet from where she was hit, a transit agency spokesman told TribLive Wednesday. The transit agency bus operating on the 6 Spring Hill route hit Dana Fountain, 50, of the city’s Spring Hill neighborhood, near the...
Police charge teen with fatally shooting his father in East Pittsburgh
Authorities are looking for a teenager charged with killing his father after an argument in East Pittsburgh last week. Allegheny County Police on Tuesday said Tayron Reid, 19, shot his father, Ta’Ron Reid, 45, multiple times on Sept. 16 inside a Ridge Avenue apartment. A witness told police that the...
Trio charged in Pittsburgh with taping pet mice to fireworks for videos
Police say they have charged four men who bought white mice from area pet stores, then killed them by duct-taping them to bottle rockets and igniting the fireworks, all while filming the acts in an effort to create viral videos on social media. Three Pittsburgh men — Nerson Amini, 25;...
Jury convicts Munhall man who shot girlfriend 17 times of 1st-degree murder
An Allegheny County jury on Monday found a Munhall man guilty of first-degree murder in the 2018 shooting death of his girlfriend. The jury deliberated for about five hours on Friday afternoon and Monday morning before convicting Darion Abel of first-degree murder, burglary and carrying a gun without a license....
Closing arguments in Munhall murder trial focus on intent to kill
A prosecutor on Friday offered multiple arguments to back up her claim that Darion Abel made a conscious choice when he kicked in the door of his girlfriend’s Munhall home in 2018 and shot her 17 times. Mental illness, though, played no role, she told jurors, countering the claims of...
Realtors, experts weigh in on Pittsburgh housing market for median income earners
Editor’s note: This is the first in an occasional series on real estate market trends in Western Pennsylvania. Ashlea Lee was tired of hunting for pet-friendly rental apartments for Reese, her 5-year-old golden retriever. The Westmoreland County native and Greensburg Central Catholic alumna knew what she wanted: a modest ranch,...
He died from pneumonia 17 years after being shot. Now it’s a homicide case.
The December death of a man who was shot more than 17 years ago in North Braddock has been ruled a homicide. William Loughner had been drinking iced tea at Crud’s Bar on Brinton Avenue on June 27, 2008, when a pair of masked gunman stormed in and demanded money,...
‘We will miss u’: Memorial grows to Castle Shannon teen who died in arson
Lakyn Shelleby lived loudly. Friends and neighbors adored her, recalling an upbeat, fierce-willed young woman described by her boss as a “ball of energy.” The 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh, sometimes photographed sporting a nose ring or strands of blue hair, died Sunday, an alleged homicide victim trapped...
Pittsburgh police arrest 1 of 3 suspects in deadly Downtown riverfront attack
Pittsburgh police have arrested one of three suspects in the violent robbery and killing of Stephen Williams, a 42-year-old man whose body was found in the Ohio River earlier this month. Jose Soto, 25, was charged Monday with homicide, robbery and conspiracy in connection with the Sept. 6 killing. His...
‘I just shot my girlfriend 17 times’: Homicide trial opens against Munhall man who police say confessed
A homicide trial against a Munhall man returned repeatedly Monday to a detail the prosecution claimed is undisputed: that Darion Abel told a police officer, “I just shot my girlfriend 17 times.” During opening remarks that ran 22 minutes, Allegheny County Assistant District Attorney Alexa Roberts said it’s not a...
Jewish woman who vandalized Pittsburgh synagogue gets probation
A Jewish woman accused of conspiring with an alleged Hamas sympathizer to vandalize two Jewish organizations in Pittsburgh last summer was sentenced Wednesday in federal court to five years probation. Talya A. Lubit, 25, pleaded guilty in May to misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit a crime against the United...
Trio hurt in Downtown park stabbing tell police shifting stories
Three people who received minor injuries in a stabbing incident Sunday night near a Downtown Pittsburgh park knew each other through a “transactional history with drugs and money,” a Pittsburgh police spokeswoman said Tuesday. Kevin Jenkins, 51, of Pittsburgh remained in the Allegheny County Jail Tuesday on charges that he...
Squirrel Hill apartment building ravaged by stubborn fireVideo
Dozens of Pittsburgh firefighters spent more than four hours Tuesday battling a stubborn blaze in a 30-unit apartment building in Squirrel Hill that displaced tenants and shot a massive tower of smoke into the sky that could be seen for miles. No injuries were reported from the fire, which collapsed...
Reserve bank heist leads to prison for Pittsburgh man
A Pittsburgh man has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison for robbing a bank in Reserve last year. Authorities say Mark Laughner, 38, entered the Dollar Bank on Mount Troy Road on May 16, 2024, and demanded the bank’s large bills. When the teller handed him $100 and...
Owner of Penn Hills care home pleads guilty to $2M health care fraud
The owner of a Penn Hills facility that serves people with intellectual disabilities pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to health care fraud and other crimes that led to $2 million in Medicaid overpayments. Kelley Oliver-Hollis, 61, of Pittsburgh’s East Hills neighborhood, acknowledged responsibility for the crimes alleged in 39...
Baldwin-Whitehall school custodian charged with possessing child porn
Police on Monday arrested a Baldwin-Whitehall School District custodian on numerous child pornography charges after a monthslong investigation found the Whitehall man stored thousands of sexually explicit videos and images on multiple cellphones, authorities said. Michael Siar, 55, was arraigned early Monday on 22 counts of possessing child pornography and...
Pittsburgh police charge Tarentum man in knife attack on bicyclist
A Tarentum man remained jailed Friday on a charge of attempted homicide after police said he sliced a man’s neck during a robbery in Homewood earlier this week. John Reznickcheck, 51, attacked a man around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 900 block of Brushton Avenue as the victim rode his...
Protesters demand action on gun violence, days after school massacre in Minneapolis
Several dozen protesters crowded a Squirrel Hill intersection Thursday — many holding provocative signs, some chanting at passing motorists — to demand an end to the nation’s rash of gun violence. Eight days had passed since a gunman opened fire in a Minneapolis Catholic school. He killed two children while...
