In wake of homicide ruling, police release few details about Troy Hill grandmother's death

Mystery continues to surround the investigation into the death last month of a Troy Hill woman, whose homicide was acknowledged only Thursday by Pittsburgh police.

Patricia Kachinko, a lifelong homemaker and grandmother of three, died June 24 from respiratory complications caused by blunt force trauma to the chest, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said Wednesday.

It listed her as a homicide victim and said the incident that led to her death occurred June 2.

On that day, Pittsburgh police arrested Kachinko’s daughter, accusing her of hitting her 73-year-old mother in the chest at Kachinko’s Troy Hill home.

Police said they were dispatched around 8 p.m. on June 2 for a domestic disturbance in the 1800 block of Ley Street — Kachinko’s home — after an argument between the victim and one of her daughters turned physical, according to a criminal complaint.

Kachinko, a thin woman who suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and relied on an oxygen tank to breathe, told police that her daughter — Krystal Slepski, 43, of Reserve — had punched her in the chest, the complaint said.

Police said Kachinko had chest pain and difficulty breathing after Slepski hit her. She was taken to Allegheny General Hospital for a medical evaluation.

Officers charged Slepski with a misdemeanor count of simple assault in connection with the domestic dispute.

Kachinko died 22 days later.

No one has been charged in her death.

In a statement Thursday, police publicly acknowledged for the first time that Kachinko died from homicide. Police briefly recounted the events of June 2 and said Kachinko “later succumbed to her injuries.”

“Additional charges are expected,” police said, without elaborating.

The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office Thursday declined comment on the case, citing the ongoing nature of the police investigation.

Slepski was taken to the Allegheny County Jail to await a preliminary hearing, scheduled for July 10. A district judge denied bail.

“Defendant is a danger to her elderly mother,” Judge Giuseppe Rosselli wrote in court records.

Slepski remained in the Downtown lockup Thursday. Court records do not list her attorney.

Abigail Gardner, a spokeswoman for Allegheny County, referred all questions about Kachinko’s death to Pittsburgh police.

She said the medical examiner’s determination that Kachinko died from homicide — as opposed to natural causes, an accident or suicide — is a medical ruling, not a criminal one. The ultimate decision to charge someone in Kachinko’s death rests with the DA’s office.

“What charges to pursue, that’s the DA’s decision,” Gardner said.

Gardner was not sure if the district attorney’s office had been notified this week about the homicide ruling. Pittsburgh police in Zone 1, which includes Troy Hill, learned about the homicide ruling Thursday.

‘She lived through us’

Kelly Balint, the younger of Kachinko’s two children, did not want to speak about her mother’s death or the case against her older sister.

On Wednesday, a day after a private funeral for Kachinko, Balint told TribLive she was trying to focus on brighter times.

“I was very close with my mom — we spoke by phone every day,” said Balint, 36, whose Reserve home is just a five-minute drive from her mother’s 125-year-old house in Troy Hill.

“I will cherish the memories that we shared together.”

Kachinko and her husband Albert, to whom she was married for 43 years, both grew up on Pittsburgh’s North Side, Balint said. It was a natural decision to raise their two daughters there.

The family moved to Troy Hill about 25 years ago, Allegheny County property records show.

Kachinko’s need to walk around with an oxygen tank limited her activities, Balint said. Kachinko was a homebody but loved seeing the world through photos of Balint’s children and the family’s vacations.

“She couldn’t do much,” Balint said. “But she lived through us.”