Week in Review: Turnpike hike, Ligonier chase and Derry homicide

Turnpike Hike

Turnpike travelers who have not made the switch to E-ZPass will face a hefty increase in the cost of tolls beginning next year. The 45% average increase for drivers who use the toll-by-plate option is necessary to cover the high cost of collecting those tolls, the turnpike CEO said. Approval of the rate increase came in addition to the usual 6% annual increase for all turnpike travelers. Taken together, the increases mean a 10-cent increase for passenger vehicles using E-ZPass, from $1.50 to $1.60, for the most common toll and more than a dollar for non-users — from $2.50 to $3.90. The new rates take effect Jan. 3.

McKees Rocks Homicide

A woman whose body was found May 4 in a refrigerator stowed in the hallway of a McKees Rocks apartment building was slain, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s office said Tuesday.

The remains of 38-year-old Kristy Jefferson, of McKees Rocks were inside a refrigerator that was sitting in a second-floor hallway of a building in the 100 block of Helen Street, according to police. The medical examiner ruled the manner of death a homicide, although the office hasn’t determined what caused her demise.

Jefferson was last seen by a neighbor April 29, authorities wrote in a criminal complaint charging the woman’s boyfriend with abuse of a corpse. Forty-one-year-old Daryl Jones has been held without bail in Allegheny County Jail on the charge since May.

Covid Response Team

The Allegheny County Health Department is deploying a new covid-19 field response team Thursday to monitor businesses and ensure they are following public health orders, officials announced during a Wednesday news briefing.

Team members will visit businesses, like bars and restaurants, and evaluate them using a checklist addressing safety precautions including the state’s masking order, occupancy restrictions and physical distancing requirements. A copy of the completed checklist, as well as educational materials, will be provided to the business at the conclusion of each visit.

The business’s name, the date of the visit and a copy of the checklist will also be posted to the county website, said County Executive Rich Fitzgerald.

Ligonier Chase

A high-speed police chase spanning two counties ended Tuesday when a stolen vehicle the suspect was driving slammed into cars parked at a Ligonier Township restaurant, according to police.

Gary Austin Blough, 18, of Johnstown nearly hit two vehicles head-on during the westbound pursuit on Route 30. State police were notified at 12:30 p.m. that a vehicle that had been stolen this week was reported to be on Route 30 in Jenner Township, Somerset County.

Troopers stopped the Ford Escape, but police said Blough took off.

The chase moved into Westmoreland County over the next six minutes as Blough allegedly reached speeds of up to 120 mph while driving down Laurel Mountain before slamming into a guide rail and a couple of cars parked in the lot of Hansley’s Pub & Grille, just east of Ligonier Borough.

Derry Homicide

A Derry Township woman was killed Monday by a bullet shot into the wrong house in apparent retaliation over a drug deal gone wrong, state police said.

Police on Thursday charged Nathan Joseph Quidetto, 20, last known to reside in Unity Township, in the shooting death of 52-year-old Tracy Marie Squib of Pandora Road.

State police picked up Quidetto Wednesday when he was a passenger in a traffic stop in Hostetter.

According to police, he initially was arrested on warrants for drug delivery charges in Latrobe and was taken to the Kiski Valley barracks. According to court documents, Quidetto admitted to investigators that he drove to the Pandora Road residence, fired rounds in the direction of the house and then fled in the vehicle.

Three other Squib family members were in the house and weren’t harmed during the shooting at about 4 a.m.