Charges withdrawn against man suspected in Unity woman's disappearance

Criminal charges in three unrelated cases were dismissed against a man authorities have labeled a “person of interest” in a Unity woman’s disappearance.

Charges of attempted burglary, forgery and tampering with evidence stemming from arrests in 2018 and 2019 were withdrawn against Thomas Stanko, 52, of Unity this month. Those cases never progressed to a preliminary hearing and have been stagnant for years, according to court records.

The decision to end the prosecutions was in response to a court ruling last summer that ordered that three other criminal cases against Stanko be dismissed because of prosecutorial misconduct, Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli said Monday.

The judge found prosecutors failed to bring the cases to trial in a timely manner. Those cases included allegations that Stanko stole an SUV, assaulted a man in a bar and violated terms of a drunken driving sentence. The judge’s ruling to dismiss those cases was upheld by the state’s Superior Court.

County prosecutors claimed Stanko was in federal custody awaiting trial on pending weapons offenses, and efforts to return him to state custody to answer to the local charges were unsuccessful.

“The withdrawal of these charges was done out of respect for the rulings of Judge Krieger and the Superior Court earlier this year dismissing three other pending cases,” Ziccarelli said.

Stanko in July was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty in federal court to illegally possessing 17 firearms.

He was jailed in 2018 after a woman he previously dated went missing. Cassandra Gross of Unity was 51 when she last was seen in April 2018 and officially was declared dead by a county judge in 2019. Prosecutors named Stanko as a potential suspect in the case, and, on multiple occasions over the past four years, have searched his property in Unity for evidence.

Police said they believe Gross was killed, but her remains never were found.

“The commonwealth considers Thomas Stanko a person of interest with regard to the disappearance and death of Cassandra Gross. This is a priority for our office, and a team of investigators from Pennsylvania State Police, along with county detectives and assistant district attorneys, are actively working on the investigation,” Ziccarelli wrote in an emailed statement.

In March, Stanko’s 85-year-old mother pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy, forgery and access device fraud charges in connection with allegations she and her son worked together to steal welfare benefits.

At her son’s direction, Almira Stanko used his public welfare benefits to buy about $9 in groceries at a local store. A Westmoreland judge declined to impose a sentence following her guilty plea.