Police: Derry Township woman slain in revenge shooting into wrong house

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 the Hostetter area of Unity Township, in the shooting death of 52-year-old Tracy Marie Squib of Pandora Road.

Information provided by the public was appreciated in the investigation, said Trooper Steve Limani, a state police spokesman. He declined to discuss specifics of how police homed in on Quidetto as the suspect, noting the investigation is ongoing.

Police on Wednesday picked up Quidetto when he was a passenger in a traffic stop in Hostetter. According to Limani, he initially was arrested on warrants for drug delivery charges in Latrobe and was taken to the Kiski Valley state police barracks.

Quidetto admitted to investigators he drove to the Pandora Road residence around 4 a.m. Monday, fired rounds in the direction of the house and then fled, according to court documents. Three other Squib family members were in the house but were not harmed.

The motive for the shooting “had nothing to do with the Squibs,” Limani said. He said Quidetto was involved in a botched drug transaction and “was trying to scare somebody and had the completely wrong residence, not even close to being at the right house. That was the nature of why he fired shots at the house.”

Court documents note Quidetto said he was targeting a person police said did not reside at the Squib home.

Squib’s husband, Thomas, told police the couple were asleep in bed when his wife thought she’d been bitten by something, investigators reported. He saw she was bleeding from her upper chest and asked the couple’s two children to call 911.

Tracy Squib was taken to Excela Health Latrobe Hospital, where she died.

The suspect in the incident is in custody and there is no further danger to the public, Limani said.

Quidetto is being held in the Westmoreland County Prison without bond on charges of criminal homicide, discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, carrying a firearm without a license and reckless endangerment.

The shooting “was needless and didn’t have to happen. It’s a shame what happened,” Limani said. “Our hearts and prayers go out to the Squib family and all their friends. Maybe this (arrest) gives them the slightest bit of closure.”

A $10,000 reward offered by Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers “was an asset in trying to help get information,” Limani said.

A large police presence Wednesday night on Route 981 near Saltsburg was linked to the investigation, Limani confirmed, as officers were “trying to put to rest exactly who the person was that killed Tracy.”