Decade in review: Photos, stories that shaped Western Pa. during 2010s

The past decade was filled with major moments, both horrific and heartwarming, in local and regional news.

Police officers, white and black, died in the line of duty. Protestors took to the streets after a white police officer shot and killed a black teenager.

One Pittsburgh sports team ended a two-decade playoff drought. Another won back-to-back championships — for the second time.

A giant rubber duck floated down the Three Rivers, and soon a million people flocked to see.

A kid took knives to school and slashed classmates in a hallway. A gunman carried firearms into a synagogue and opened fire, taking 11 souls and steeling a city’s resolve against hate.

Here are some of the top stories from 2010-19 told through Tribune-Review photos.

2010

Jennifer Daugherty murder

Outside the Westmoreland County Courthouse in February 2010, friends of Jennifer Daugherty plead for the district attorney to seek the death penalty. Daugherty, a 30-year-old cognitively challenged women from Mt. Pleasant, was tortured and murdered inside a Greensburg apartment. Her body — bound by Christmas lights and stuffed in a trash can — was found Feb. 11, 2010, in a snowy school parking lot. Six people were convicted of her death, including two sentenced to death.

2011

Officer Derek Kotecki killed

Lower Burrell residents Elizabeth and Richard Kotecki, parents of slain Officer Derek Kotecki, are escorted by police at the beginning of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Vigil in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, May 13, 2012. The 40-year-old was ambushed and murdered in a Dairy Queen parking lot by a fugitive on Oct. 12, 2011. The gunman also died in a shootout with police.

Tornado touches down in Hempfield

Below is an aerial view of damaged homes along Fosterville Road in Hempfield Township on March 24, 2011, the day after a tornado touched down. Dozens of homes across Hempfield and Sewickley townships were heavily damaged along with the auditorium and athletic field at the Hempfield Area Senior High School. Damage from the F2 tornado was estimated at $4.5 million.

Podlucky pleads guilty

Gregory J. Podlucky, chairman and CEO of LeNature, is seen of outside the company’s Latrobe beverage manufacturing facility on July 20, 2006. The Ligonier businessman pleaded guilty his role in a $685 million fraud scheme in 2011 and was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. Podlucky pleaded guilty to bank, wire and mail fraud for bilking investors and lending institutions out of about $856 million they thought he was investing in his bottling company.

2012

Shooting at Western Psych

On the afternoon of March 8, 2012, a former graduate student from California who was angry at doctors walked into Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic and opened fire with two pistols. John Shick, 30, killed Michael Schaab, 25, a therapist and Greenburg native, and injured five people before University of Pittsburgh police officers who responded fatally shot him. The shooting brought an extensive review of security at hospitals by Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. Hospitals responded by implementing upgrades and changes to safety protocols.

Child fatally mauled at Pittsburgh zoo

A makeshift memorial is seen at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012. A visit to the zoo with his mother and other relatives on Nov. 4, 2012 ended in unspeakable horror as Maddox Derkosh, 2, of Whitehall fell from a railing into an exhibit of African painted dogs. The dogs killed Maddox within minutes, before staff and police could lure them away. It was the first visitor death from an animal since the zoo opened in 1898.

Paterno dies months after Sandusky scandal rocks Penn State

A Penn State student kneels in prayer at the Joe Paterno statue outside Beaver Stadium on Jan. 22, 2012. Paterno died that day at age 85, more than two months after being fired as the Nittany Lions’ head coach in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse sex scandal. In October of that year, Sandusky was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in state prison following his June conviction on 45 counts of child sexual abuse. Sandusky, now 75, is an inmate at the Laurel Highlands state prison in Somerset County.

2013

Pirates end historic losing streak

And just like that, two decades of futility were over for the Pirates. On Sept. 9, 2013, the Pirates beat the Texas Rangers and notched their 82nd win of the year. The victory marked the end of a historic stretch of 20 straight losing seasons, the longest streak in North American professional sports history. The dream season ended when the St. Louis Cardinals won the National League Division Series in five games. In the photo below, players douse manager Clint Hurdle with champagne after the team beat the Cincinnati Reds in the National League Wild Card Game.

Heinz bought out

A group headed by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway bought out H.J. Heinz Co. in 2013. After teaming with Berkshire Hathway on the purchase, 3G cut more than 7,000 jobs, including about 400 in Pittsburgh, and closed five factories worldwide. Heinz would later merge with Kraft Foods Group Inc. in 2015, creating what became the fifth-largest food and beverage company in the world.

Pregnant Seton Hill lacrosse coach, driver killed in bus crash

Members of the Seton Hill women’s lacrosse team become emotional during a memorial Mass at St. Joseph’s Chapel on the Greensburg campus for coach Kristina Quigley, who died March 17, 2013, in team bus crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Also killed were Quigley’s her unborn son and the bus driver.

Rubber Duck floats into Pittsburgh

Before Steelers Nation was swept up in “Duck Mania” with the emergence of quarterback Devlin “Duck” Hodges, the region went gaga over a 40-foot-tall rubber duck that was hauled to the waters around Point State Park by a tugboat. Officials estimated that more than 1 million people turned out to gawk at the duck and get photos of it during its monthlong stay, when it served as the centerpiece of the Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts.

2014

Stabbing spree at Franklin Regional

Alex Hribal, 16, is led away from a district judge office after being arraigned on April 9, 2014, the day he stabbed and slashed 20 students and a security guard at Franklin Regional Senior High School. No one died, but many suffered serious wounds. Hribal pleaded guilty to 43 counts, including attempted murder and aggravated assault. A Pennsylvania appeals court in October 2019 upheld Hribal’s sentence of 23 1/2 to 60 years in prison.

Former Pitt researcher guilty of killing wife with cyanide

On Nov. 7, 2014, An Allegheny County jury convicted former University of Pittsburgh medical researcher Robert Ferrante of first-degree murder for using a dietary supplement spiked with cyanide to fatally poison his wife, Dr. Autumn Marie Klein, 41, in April 2013. Ferrante, 66, insisted he was innocent, telling jurors that he had nothing to do with the poisoning and would never hurt his wife because the two were “like peas in a pod.” Ferrante has appealed his conviction, which carries a mandatory life sentence.

2015

Same-sex marriage ban overruled

A crowd outside the White House celebrated the Supreme Court’s June 26, 2015, decision ruling that same-sex couples have the right to marry. The 5-4 ruling put an end to same-sex marriage bans that existed then in 14 states.

2016

Salem pipeline explosion

Mark Johnston hangs his head on Saturday, April 30, 2016, next to his home that was damaged a day earlier by heat from a natural gas pipeline explosion that sent a huge fireball hundreds of feet into the sky above Salem Township, Westmoreland County. A 30-inch interstate pipeline owned by Spectra Energy Corp. left one man severely burned, destroyed a home and damaged several others, scorched 40 acres of farmland and melted portions of a highway. The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said corrosion was a factor in the explosion.

Former Monsour Medical Center razed

The cylindrical tower of the former Monsour Medical Center, which closed in 2006, in Jeannette is razed on Feb. 26, 2016. Westmoreland County Land Bank entered into a $2.1 million salesagreement with Colony Holding in 2017, the 6.4-acre property officially changed hands in August 2019. Final redevelopment plans are still in the works.

2017

New Kensington Officer Brian Shaw killed

New Kensington police Chief Jim Klein rests his head on a squad car on Saturday, Nov. 18, 2017, at Rusiewicz funeral home in Lower Burrell. A night earlier, Officer Brian Shaw died after being shot by a gunman he chased on foot following a traffic stop. A Westmoreland County jury in November 2019 found Rahmael Holt guilty of murder and sentenced him to death.

Penguins win back-to-back Stanley Cup titles

Bonino! Bonino! Bonino! HBK fever. The rise of goalie Matt Murray. The farewell to Marc Andre Fleury. A memorialized Justin Schultz beer chug during a Downtown parade. These are just a few memories of the back-to-back Stanley Cup championships won in 2016-17 by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Phil Kessel is a Stanley Cup champion.

2018

Tree of Life massacre

Taylor Allderdice High School students who organized a vigil following the Tree of Life massacre sing at the corner of Murray and Forbes avenues in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood on Oct. 27, 2018. That morning, gunman Robert Bowers burst into Tree of Life synagogue and started shooting. Eleven worshippers were killed. Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Bowers.

Antwon Rose II shot, killed by East Pittsburgh officer

On June 19, 2018, an East Pittsburgh police officer fatally shot 17-year-old Antwon Rose II during a traffic stop. Rose, a Woodland Hills High School student, was believed to be involved in a previous drive-by shooting. The following year, a jury acquitted officer Michael Rosfeld of a homicide charge brought by the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office. In the photo below, A woman raises her in front of stopped traffic after more than 150 people took over the Parkway East on Thursday, June 22, 2018.

Grand jury report on priest abuse

Ryan O’Connor, 47, of Verona prays in a pew at St. Paul Cathedral in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood on Monday, Oct. 9, 2018. O’Connor, originally from Johnstown, is a survivor of clerical sexual abuse. A statewide grand jury in August 2018 released a report detailing decades of sexual abuse by 301 priests in six dioceses across Pennsylvania, including 20 from Greensburg and 99 from Pittsburgh. Abuse victims could be eligible for money from various compensation funds that have already paid out millions.

Leechburg police chief caught in child sex sting

Suspended Leechburg Police Chief Mike Diebold, is taken back to jail, after pleading guilty to soliciting sex from a minor, at the Westmoreland County Courthouse in Greensburg, on Tuesday, on Dec. 11, 2018. Six months after blowing off part of his left arm in a fireworks accident, Diebold was arrested in January 2018 after soliciting sex from an undercover agent posing as a teenager. Diebold was sentenced to nine to 23 months in jail in December 2018 after pleading guilty to felony sex assault charges and released from jail the following month, with credit for time served while awaiting trial. As part of his sentencing, the judge ordered Diebold to register as a sex offender for 25 years.

2019

UPMC, Highmark reach unprecedented pact

After years of legal battles, the messy dispute between UPMC and Highmark appeared to end in 2019. The two health giants inked a ten-year contract preserves access to doctors and hospitals within both UPMC and Highmark for more than 1 million people in Western Pennsylvania. It also ensures that everyone will have access to emergency care. The deal capped years of animosity between the rivals.