The once-fiancé of the murdered Rachael DelTondo, Frank Catroppa, is entangled in legal trouble following charges of domestic violence. Reports indicate that after coming home inebriated from a wedding, Catroppa noticed a missed call on his girlfriend's phone from another man. As detailed in the criminal complaint reported by CBS News, this spurred a vehement altercation.
In an account corroborated by police documents, Catroppa is accused of verbal abuse, disarming his girlfriend of her phone, throttling her, forcefully jabbing his finger into her throat, and throwing her to the ground. His girlfriend's juvenile daughter was also purportedly hit in the fray. After he retreated upstairs with her son, the two victims left the home, promptly seeking aid from the local police station.
According to WPXI, Catroppa now faces a slew of charges, such as endangering the welfare of children, tampering with records, assault, robbery, and strangulation, according to the police. A preliminary hearing is on the calendar for the following month. He was released from jail post-arrest.
The shadow of DelTondo’s unresolved murder continues to loom large over these proceedings. The investigation into DelTondo's 2018 murder remains unresolved, with police having named Sheldon Jeter, Jr. as the primary suspect. Jeter, who was sentenced for the separate murder of a childhood friend in 2021, claimed innocence in DelTondo's case. Meanwhile, Catroppa, who provided an alibi police accepted, has asserted his desire for justice in DelTondo's case, stating, "When you're with somebody for eight years, that's quite some time, you just hope to see that they at least get justice," in a past statement detailed by CBS News.
