Detectives find key evidence after man said he shot his wife by accident | 48 Hours Full Episode | Forensic Files

At the end of the day, I put my son to sleep and uh I went to head and I remember my phone going off and it was
my father. There's been an accident. Your mom's okay. The ambulance is on the way. And I was like, and I just ran out
the door. I lived right next door. I had no idea what happened until I got over there.
Soon as I walked in, you could see right here, she was laying on the bed. The blood was just all over the floor, the
side of the bed. >> Where's your dad at this time? >> He was on the phone somewhere, maybe
downstairs, and I couldn't really see what he was doing. And then I grabbed a towel off the floor
and I held a towel on her head. I just remember yelling to him to please help me and and I remember asking her please
mom just like squeeze my hand. >> Did your mom respond to you? >> No. >> Do you remember asking him what
happened? >> Not that night. At one point I remember him saying he was putting the gun away
under the bed and and she sat down and the gun went off. >> Did you know at the time that he had
also been shot? I remember his hand being wrapped up. I didn't know if he was just holding a towel or what he was
holding. >> He had shot through his hand when he shot my mom. He just said it was like
this freak accident. And we thought like, well, who was going to who's going to shoot themselves?
>> He never wavered from his story that it was an accident. At >> trooper PJ McDuran, we're here at the
residence with the homeowner, Bruno Rakuba. Why do you think your father was so open
about talking with the police? I >> think he was trying to prove that he was innocent.
>> So, we were both in bed and I reached over. I grabbed it. My wife was sitting
on the bed on that side. I was on this side and I pulled the trigger by accident.
>> My sister Melissa died Saturday morning. I'm worried about the girls. Their mother is gone.
>> My dad, everyone felt horrible for him. That's his wife of 25 years. >> I just lost my mom and I was probably
going to lose my dad. >> Did you expect that your father would be charged with something?
>> I thought maybe negligent homicide because he was negligent with a gun. >> I just went like this.
>> He didn't spend a single night in jail. >> And not every shooting is a crime. you
really do look at circumstances, but apparently they did and they were convinced that they couldn't prove a
case. >> I was reviewing all of the open case homicides and this one caught my attention and we just went down that
rabbit hole of putting all the pieces together >> and the alarm bells went off when I saw
a surveillance system and evidence and no one had looked at this. This is the last time she's ever seen
>> that time of year. Their window was open so you could also pick up sound from
inside of the bedroom as well. >> We were able to hear their last conversation together
and then a gunshot goes off. >> There's so many twists and turns and this is the story for generations that
we have to tell and that's pretty sad. On a steamy August night in 2013, Melissa Ruba was airlifted to this
hospital. still clinging to life with a bullet wound to her head. Her then 22-year-old daughter Chelsea was already
there when the helicopter arrived. >> I had no idea how I got down there. I was just panicked and frantic.
>> Her sister Sabrina, who lives in Wisconsin, sped to the airport in tears. >> It was just a lot of me just praying to
God that my mom was going to be okay. Melissa's sister Joanne and their father, then a police sergeant in
another county, raced to Melissa's bedside. It's a few hours of driving. >> Not that night. We got there really
fast. >> Bruno was being treated at a different hospital where specialists operated on
his hand. >> He had a hole through the middle of his hand. Pennsylvania State Police detectives
wanted to know how the bullet went through Bruno's palm and hit Melissa in the head.
>> Got home from work at 3:30 in the afternoon. >> Less than 15 hours after the shooting
with Bruno's hand freshly bandaged and Melissa on life support. Detectives asked Bruno to walk them through his
house and explain what happened after the couple arrived home from a night out with friends.
And we came home just before 10:00. And after that, we went downstairs, washed up, came up to go to bed.
>> Using a toy gun provided by police. Bruno demonstrated how he claims his 40 caliber pistol went off accidentally.
>> My wife was home alone all last week, so I left him top drawer on the nightstand
for because of recent breakins. He said their grandson was coming over the next day and he wanted to safely
store the gun. >> I went to check them um chamber to see if there was a round in there.
>> Okay. >> Sitting on the mattress still stained with his wife's blood. Bruno tried to
show them what happened. I went like this and she was sitting in the bed there and I went like this and she was
watching TV and it was it I just went like this and she leaned back toward me and I must
have pulled it away and then shot through my hand. >> Earlier, investigators had gone through
the house shooting video of the scene and collecting evidence and didn't note any signs of a struggle. Hospital staff
found no other injuries on Melissa and Bruno said they had been getting along just fine.
>> Any discussions or any arguments or anything before that happened? >> No. Okay.
>> He looked me in my face and said, "We walked in the house holding hands. There
was no arguments that night." >> Jack Wilchesy and his wife Tanya were out to dinner with Bruno and Melissa
that evening and he says everything seemed fine. >> No arguing? >> No arguing, no nothing. They were fine
that night. >> The day after the shooting, Bruno agreed to a polygraph exam. According to police
records, the results were inconclusive. Worried about her father, Chelsea says she suggested he speak with attorney Joe
Deandria. Did you wonder why he was calling you? >> Well, I'm fairly well-known criminal
defense lawyer around and uh police had talked to him without my participation or knowledge. I guess he was curious if
there was anything he had to worry about. >> Melissa spent several days in intensive
care. >> I remember talking to the neurologist and I was like, "There's got to be
something you can do." And they were just trying to calm me down and tell me that there's no hope.
>> 3 days after the shooting, Melissa's family made the agonizing decision to take her off life support.
>> We knew she was she was suffering. It was August 10th, 2013 at 1:45 a.m. when Melissa passed away.
Joanne says they were all in shock. And even though no one in the family wanted to believe Bruno had deliberately shot
Melissa, they were surprised when he was never arrested. >> My grandfather said if that happened in
Bucks County, where my grandfather was placed, he was like, "Your dad would have instantly been in cuffs." He was
like, he didn't spend a single night in jail, which is really weird. >> Joe DeAndrea says the district
attorney's office felt they didn't have enough evidence to charge Bruno with murder and decided not to charge him at
all. >> They were convinced that they couldn't prove a case. >> Melissa's death certificate listed her
cause of death as a gunshot wound to the head. The manner of death was left pending.
And no one said to you, "We've concluded it was an accident." >> No, it was just still an open open case.
>> But as the family began to catch their breath and process Melissa's death, they
slowly started comparing notes about Bruno's version of what happened and his behavior before and after the shooting.
And a case for murder began to unfold. I just couldn't I couldn't justify any of
his stories. >> The daughters of Melissa and Bruno Rakuba say they grew up believing they
had the ideal family. >> So did all my friends. I remember my best friends were like, "Your family's
so loving and happy and you guys do everything together." >> I always wanted my sister's life. She
had the kids, she had the marriage, the good guy. >> The couple met in the summer of 1988.
Back then, Melissa, who was just 19 years old, was a police officer. Bruno, 22, was enlisted in the Navy.
>> And what did you think of Bruno when you met him? I loved him. He seemed to love my
sister. >> She loved being a wife and she loved being a mother. >> She was an amazing mom.
>> And Bruno was a great dad, says Sabrina. >> My dad was wonderful. I mean, I can't
complain about him as a dad. >> We went hunting together. We went fishing together. When I was really
young, I wanted to cut my hair to be like my dad. Like, that's how close we were.
>> But as the girls grew older and became parents themselves, they say they began
to see flaws in their parents' marriage. >> We had moved in there, me and my ex-husband, with my parents when my
daughter was about 9 months old. And it was like all the time. They were constantly arguing. The breaking point
was when they got really drunk one night and my dad grabbed her by the back of the hair and he whipped her into the
wall. It made a really loud thud and she couldn't breathe. I was like, "We can't
stay here anymore. This isn't healthy." I tried talking to my mom and she was just like, "Well, everybody has like
disagreements." And like she downplayed she never wanted to talk bad about our dad to us.
>> Two weeks before the shooting, Chelsea says her mother shared a startling secret about something Bruno had done to
her. >> She took me for a ride in the car and told me, you know, that he had pulled a
gun on her before. My mom told my sister that my mom didn't want to have sex with my dad one night
and my my dad pulled a gun on my mother over this. >> Why would she tell me this now? She's
never said a bad word about him before. And all of a sudden it was Chelsea, I just need you to know that like your
dad's not always who you think he is. >> Chelsea admits that she had a bad feeling about her mother's shooting from
the start, but stayed silent for the sake of her father. I didn't want to just say something that would have put
him in jail if he really didn't do it. >> Joanne says she also had her doubts about her sister's death because just
months before the shooting, Melissa told her she wanted out of her marriage. >> She was questioning things and asked how
she would be able to to do it on her own. >> Was Bruno controlling? >> Very. My sister couldn't go anywhere
without him knowing her every move. >> Joanne says it wasn't long after Melissa's death when her mind began to
race. >> I started playing back everything, everything that I could remember. >> For starters, says Joanne, Bruno spent
very little time by his wife's side as she lay dying. He would come there, maybe stay like an hour, and then leave.
When she died, he wasn't there. He was at the house. Chelsea says her father's behavior began
to haunt her as well. For instance, just hours after the shooting, Chelsea says her father asked
her to bring him her mother's cell phone, which had not been collected by police. She says her father wanted to
erase a few text messages that he feared investigators might take the wrong way.
>> It was like I don't want them to think anything because of like a little like
argument or something they had. Maybe it was that week or day. >> Did that strike you as odd at the time?
>> It did, but you don't want to believe it. With their mother still in intensive
care and with the police finished collecting evidence, the girls say their father had another strange request.
>> He asked us to get rid of the mattress. >> Bruno asked his girls to clean his house
and get rid of the blood stained mattress. >> He's like, "I can't go home to that. I
don't want to see all the blood." And here I am 21, 22 now as an adult. I'm like, "Wow, I can't believe he asked us
to do that." But I just kept going and I kept wanting to make sure he was okay. >> We were so concerned because he kept
making comments that he was going to take his own life, that he couldn't deal with this.
>> How did you get rid of that mattress? >> We took it in the back of a truck and we
burned it in the woods. >> Chelsea and Sabrina say that before their mother was even buried, their
father asked for help purging all traces of her. >> He wanted us to get rid of everything.
And it's like he wanted her erased. >> All my sister's clothes. We had to go down to the thrift store where they
donated the clothes and I had to get clothes for my sister to bury her in. >> Bruno even got rid of Melissa's dog,
Zeus. >> My mom loved that dog. And my dad got rid of him right after my mom died.
It wasn't long before Joanne says she began to suspect that Bruno had another motive for erasing the memory of
Melissa. >> My sister's best friend said that Bruno contacted her not too long after my
sister had passed away and said, "How long do you think it is before you know you kind of like go public with dating
someone?" And she said, "Are you freaking kidding me?" And he was dead serious. Bruno was talking about Tanya Wilchesky,
Jack Wilchesky's wife, the couple that Bruno and Melissa were out to dinner with on the night of the shooting.
>> We were together 15 years at that time. Jack says he has no idea when the relationship began, but says he started
noticing a big difference in his wife's relationship with Bruno the day after the shooting when he walked into
Melissa's hospital room and found Tanya and Bruno. >> I thought they were kissing. Of course,
they said they were talking each other's ear, but they were embraced with each other.
Jack says in the weeks after the shooting, he would often come home from work and find Bruno's car in his
driveway. >> After a couple times, I was like, "Why you coming here? Why you can you wait
till I get home at 5:00 or 4:00?" >> And how did Tanya explain it? >> Of course, they always made me out like
I was the fool. I was seeing things I didn't see. Within months of Melissa's death, Jack says his wife went missing
from their home and he knew exactly where to find her. >> I woke up 2:00 in the morning and she
wasn't there. So, I'm thinking, "Go to Bruno's house." I went and pulled out in front. I blew the horn and she come
walking out with her purse with barely any clothes on. Got in her car, drove to our house, packed her bags, and moved in
with them right there. >> Chelsea now had a new neighbor. Tanya Wilesy. >> I remember looking out my window and she
was cooking Christmas dinner in my mom's kitchen. I wasn't invited. >> Chelsea says she forced herself to
accept what was because she didn't want her father to be alone. Then about a year and a half later, she says her
father casually revealed an alarming new detail about her mother's shooting. I kind of always knew and I didn't want
to believe it, but when I heard it come from his own mouth, I couldn't get past it.
As the months ticked on, it was now 2015, about a year and a half since Bruno Rakuba had allegedly accidentally
shot and killed his wife Melissa. His daughter Chelsea says she was still struggling with her father's
relationship with Tanya Wesky. I had to live here. I had to see her. She cut her
hair like my mom. She would go get her nails done like my mom. She sat on my mom's front porch in my mom's chair.
With the passage of time, she says she finally had the courage to ask her father for an explanation about his
actions on the night of the shooting and says she got an astonishing answer. >> He said, "I didn't mean to kill her. I
just tried to scare her." >> Chelsea says that Bruno changed his story and admitted that he and Melissa
had been arguing the night of the shooting. The gun, he said, was just meant to frighten her. Then Chelsea says
her father abruptly changed the subject. >> He said he had groceries in the car and
he turned around and walked out like he hadn't just said what he said to me. That's when I knew he actually held a
gun to my mom on purpose and I couldn't ever look at him the same. >> Chelsea says she spent months agonizing
about what to do next and then told her father she was going to share their conversation with investigators.
>> And he was like, "Go ahead. anything you tell them, I'll ruin your credibility
and nobody will believe you." >> Chelsea says she was now determined and went down to the state police barracks
and filled out a report which included information about the incident she says her mother shared not long before her
death. About that time, Bruno threatened her with a gun when she refused to be intimate with him.
>> It took a lot for you to go down there. What were you hoping would have happened? I was hoping they would have
reopened it. >> And what actually happened? >> Nothing happened. >> Chelsea recalls being told that it was
her word against her father's. And she says an investigator suggested her coming forward could have been motivated
by money. >> And at that point, I had no idea I was even entitled to my mom's inheritance.
Melissa left behind a will and over $300,000 meant to be divided between her husband
and daughters. But not long after Melissa's death, Bruno had his daughter sign paperwork that gave him complete
control of their mother's estate. >> He had sent me a paper in the mail said, "Do not look at it. Go get this
notorized and sign and send it back to me." Which I did. I didn't question it. It's my dad.
Sabrina says she knew she was signing away her rights to the money, but felt pressured to do it.
>> He was so good at manipulating me and making me feel guilty. >> Chelsea signed those same papers, but
says she was in shock and didn't understand the consequences. >> That hurt that he would take from us and
especially from his grandson. The sisters say they began to wonder if money had been the motive for their
mother's shooting, but without police action, they felt they had to move on. >> So, I kind of started letting it go.
>> Chelsea says she even let her son Greg build a bond with his grandfather. >> I hated him for taking my mom from me,
but I loved how good he was to my son. Four years later, in 2020, Corporal Greg Allen was assigned to investigate open
cases for the Pennsylvania State Police and says this case caught his eye. >> What about this case stood out to you?
>> To me, it was the original 911 call. >> What's the problem there? >> A gunshot wound my wife.
On the 911 call, I hear three different accounts of what happened. >> Okay. Was it self-inflicted?
>> No, we were fighting. >> He says we were fighting. >> When questioned, Bruno quickly changed
his story. >> You said you guys were arguing. >> No, we we were playing around with the
gun and we were shooting it. We were going to go shooting and I then I pulled the trigger and it went through my hand.
He also offered this version. >> I was playing with the gun. I let it go off. >> Bruno knew his way around guns, says
Corporal Allen. So why would he have his finger on the trigger of a gun that was
loaded? >> This is the gun that was used. >> Crime unit supervisor Corporal Dan Nylon
was asked by Corporal Allen to examine all the evidence, beginning with Bruno's police interview. I grabbed it. My wife
was sitting on a bed on that side. I was on this side. I went to check the um chamber to see if there was a round in
there. >> Okay. >> My wife leaned back toward me. Maybe she didn't know I was doing it and I pulled
the trigger by accident or else I let the slide go and it discharged. >> There were so many red flags that we
knew he wasn't telling the truth. >> To begin with, says Corporal Nylon. If Bruno was really trying to clear the
gun's chamber, he would have ejected the magazine. >> The first thing you're going to do when
you unload the gun is drop the magazine out of it, which >> There were also two safeties on the gun.
Corporal Nylon showed us just how hard it is to discharge the weapon accidentally.
>> So, your grip, your hand would have to be on the grip. Additionally, there is a
trigger safety. There is a small piece of the trigger that has to be depressed in order for the gun to fire. So, both
things need to occur. >> There were also questions about where Bruno and Melissa were sitting when the
fatal shot was fired. >> I went like this and she was sitting in the bed there. >> So, you see the way that he's holding
the gun. He's pointing it to the opposite side of the bed. >> But Nylon and Allan say there was blood
and ballistics evidence on the wall behind Bruno, >> directly behind him. So, the evidence is
here and here. >> Everything is behind him right now. >> But he says he shot this way.
>> Correct. >> They would need DNA testing and a forensic expert to confirm their
suspicions that Bruno was lying. >> I might have went downstairs. >> But in the meantime, Corporal Nylon
found a key piece of evidence that he says no one had ever examined. Video and audio from the night of the shooting.
recorded on a home security system. >> Turns out that a security camera mounted on the front of the house had recorded
Melissa Rakuba's last words. These are the final images of Melissa Ruba recorded on this home security camera
and this DVR. Dan Nylon says when he first discovered the recording, he could see Melissa and
her husband Bruno arriving home from their night out, but it was difficult to make out most of what they were saying.
I remember sitting in our office with the door closed, headphones on, the office refrigerator unplugged,
>> trying to get as many words as I could. >> Whatever. >> Greg Allen says that one thing was
clear. >> There was definitely an argument that happened between them. >> Allan says the original investigators
told him they had no way to review the recording because they didn't have access to the necessary technology. But
Allan's team did and could now see that the recording begins in the driveway where you can hear the couple arguing.
>> Whatever. >> Yep. Whatever. >> But it doesn't seem to end there. Once inside the house, it sounds like they're
still arguing, says Allan. >> That time of year, their window was open, so you could also pick up sound
audio from inside as well. The sound was just much harder to hear. But with Bruno's changing stories and
possible evidence of an argument, investigators were now treating Melissa Rakuba's death as a possible murder.
>> This is the last time she's ever seen. >> Dan and I have been doing this a long
time and we saw that and the evidence speaks for itself. >> Then Lacawana County District Attorney
Mark Powell agreed. My gut reaction was this is probably a case that should have
been charged back in 2013. And I can only guess that they thought it didn't warrant charges because he shot himself
through the hand. >> Because who would purposely shoot themselves in the hand? >> Sure. Sure.
>> With Pal's team now on board, Melissa's family was informed that the case was
once again active. time. I was like, "This is different. They are very, very sure about
themselves that this was a crime. My dad did this on purpose." >> Chelsea says she now had mixed feelings
about her relationship with her father. >> I live next door, so my son's very close
with him. It's not black and white. >> Investigators then sent a portion of the DVR recording to an FBI crime lab for
enhancement. I remember thinking the chances of this helping us are probably slim because
this system is old. >> DNA testing was also ordered on some of the blood evidence and a forensic expert
was hired to help determine how the shooting took place. >> We retain the services of Dr. Wayne Ross
who highly respected forensic pathologist and a blood pattern expert. About a month later, the enhanced DVR
audio was back. And Dan Nylon says it was clear the couple had been arguing right up until the moment the gun went
off. >> What do you hear on that tape? >> Lots of curses back and forth, yelling,
screaming. It's still hard to make out every word, but the official police transcript notes
that Bruno and Melissa can be heard cursing and calling each other names. The transcript also notes the sound of a
dog barking. Then Melissa shouts, "I didn't do anything. Listen closely." Nearly 30 minutes after they first
pulled into the driveway, Melissa told Bruno that he had to leave because of something he'd previously done hundreds
of times, said Melissa. A bit later, Melissa can be heard talking. Then it sounds like things are being
thrown. Just seconds later, the gun goes off. >> It was not an accident. They were
fighting the entire time and then a gunshot goes up. >> Joanne says she hasn't been able to
listen to the recording, but has read the transcript. >> I was horrified. Of course, I cried. And I can picture my
sister yelling at him and screaming it and and those very last few moments realizing
that this is it. Also horrifying is the sound of Chelsea screaming after her father called her
over and she first discovered her mother. She says she doesn't remember questioning her father that night, but
she did. Dad, why did this happen? >> And Bruno's answer gave police yet another version of his story.
>> He came home. She wanted to take the gun out and play. And I told her, "No, we're
not doing that." >> He implied that Melissa had been the one holding the gun. >> Oh.
No, this is all right. >> A little over two weeks later, Mark Powell says forensic expert Dr. Wayne
Ross confirmed what Greg Allen and Dan Nylon had suspected about how all the blood got on the wall behind Bruno.
>> It was very clear that he was on top of his wife, that he was using his hand to
hold her and threaten her with a gun. And so where do you say Bruno was at that time?
>> Almost in the middle of the bed. >> Turned around. >> Turned around facing the headboard.
>> The theory is that Melissa tried to escape Bruno's grip and there was a struggle
>> and through a a struggle. His hand gets loose. He fires the gun at the same time.
There's blood evidence that starts here and travels in a right to left pattern. And that is Bruno's blood. And the only
way that that could be explained is if Bruno did a motion like this with his hand after the bullet struck it. I don't
know how you have an accidental shooting when you're standing over your wife with
a gun threatening to shoot her and you discharge a bullet by pulling the trigger. So, in my world, that's not
accidental. That's murder with mouse. >> What do you think your sister would say
about all of this? >> If she was here, she would say, "Lock his ass up and get away from my kids and my
grandkids." >> On June 2nd, 2022, a warrant was issued for Bruno's arrest. Chelsea says her
father was well aware and well prepared. He had guns all over. His nightstand was
all pictures of my mom. They were never there. >> On the morning of June 3rd, 2022, two
Pennsylvania State Police troopers followed Bruno Ruba on his way to work. Yeah, he's looking he's looking for a
good spot to pull over. >> Corporal Greg Allen says they weren't taking any chances with Rakuba's arrest.
>> Chelsea said he had a lot of guns. Were you concerned something could go wrong?
>> Whenever you have an arrest warrant in your hand. Do you try to take every precaution that you can?
>> Jefferson Madron, just start heading north on 171. >> In the end, they pulled Ruba over in a
traffic stop on his way to work. Who got your license plate out here? >> Where? What?
>> Yeah. >> All right. Hold up. Right here. Hey, you have a gun? Any guns on you?
>> Oh, no. >> All right. Put your hands behind your back. All right. >> It was June 3rd, 2022,
nearly 9 years after Melissa's death, and Rakuba was charged with her murder. There was also a charge of theft for the
money prosecutors say he took from his daughters. And he he lawyered up. >> Lawyered up right away
>> within within a few minutes. >> Chelsea, who was still feeling conflicted, decided to help her father
pay his legal bills. >> I loved him. I still I I didn't want it to be worse. >> Ruba once again hired Joe DeAndrea and
plead not guilty. >> Is Bruno still telling you the same story? >> He never wavered from the story that it
was an accident. But DeAndre says he was now seeing whatever >> and hearing the evidence for the first
time and says there was a lot to explain to a jury like the various versions of Rakuba's stories.
>> I went like this and she was sitting in the bed there. >> All captured on tape.
>> Any discussions or any arguments or anything before that happened? >> No. The most challenging, says Deandria,
that police walk through. >> Now, if Bruno didn't make a statement, >> he probably would never have gotten
charged. >> Also concerning to DeAndrea was how a jury would feel about Rakuba's
relationship with Tanya Wilesy and the question of when it began. >> Possible motive.
>> Oh, clearly it's not a motive. M motive. The jury sure wasn't going to like him
for doing it. Tanya Weski declined our requests for an interview, but sent this text saying there was never an affair.
Bruno Ruba never responded to our requests for an interview. But Joe Deandria says he was most
concerned about how the jury would react to Melissa's final moments. When you hear screaming and somebody
shot, a jury could conclude you shot her on purpose. I didn't want to take any chance of being found guilty of a
first-degree murder and spend the rest of his life in jail. >> Deandria says he spent the next two
years building his case around his best evidence, that bloody wound to his client's hand.
>> Who would put a bullet through their hand to to kill somebody? >> Do you have anything you'd like to say?
No, nothing at this time. >> But in May 2024, 2 years after this arrest, as Rakuba's trial approached,
both sides agreed to a plea deal, thirdderee murder, and no charge of theft. >> It wasn't that he intentionally killed
Melissa. His actions were reckless. having a gun, drinking, bullet in the chamber, safeties off
in a pretty passionate argument. >> That's a prescription for some bad stuff to happen, which did.
>> It may very well be your sister's own voice that ultimately put him behind bars.
I never really thought about it like that. >> Yeah. >> On January 8th, 2025, Joanne attended
Rakuba's sentencing hearing and read him her victim impact statement. I looked at him first and made him look
at me cuz I know it's like seeing a ghost because I look like my sister. >> Cameras were not allowed in the
courtroom. Through all of this, you have never showed an ounce of remorse. >> I will make
>> So Joanne shared her statement during our interview. >> As far as what you did to your
daughters, Bruno, you killed their mother. You tried to erase her existence, but
you cannot erase her memories. >> If there was a trial, would you have testified against him?
>> Yes. >> You said that quickly. >> Yeah, I would have. You know, my mom deserves justice and my
mom, she should be here. Bruno Ruba was sentenced to 12 to 40 years behind bars. With time served,
Ruba could be up for parole starting in 2035. Now that he's gone, we can breathe a
little bit better, but it doesn't change the hurt or the pain or what we have to
work through as a family. And we'll revisit this in 10 more years because every single time he comes up
for parole, I will be there to protest it. >> Chelsea and Sabrina both say they have
very mixed feelings about their father and what justice looks like. He took someone's life and it wasn't an
accident. He doesn't deserve to get out. I want him to get out at the same time because I love him and I miss him.
Everybody's like, "Oh, we finally get justice." Good for you. I got justice for my mom,
but now I just lost my father. My son lost his grandfather, and it's hard on my son. That's who I have to protect.
>> How are you keeping your mom's memory alive? I have all of her pictures all over my fridge and I tell my daughter
how wonderful her grandmother was and how much how much my mom loved being a grandmother.
She cared about my son more than anything. She loved that little boy. >> Where's Gammy? Show me.
>> Right here. >> And I think she wouldn't want my son to hurt the way that this has hurt him.
I want him to come back. >> Me, too. >> Just weeks after our interview, on March
10th, 2025, Chelsea says her son Greg was out riding his all-terrain vehicle when he collided
with an SUV and died. He was just 13 years old. Another tragic loss for a family that had
already lost so much. >> It's something that you read in a book or see on TV, not your own life.
>> It just doesn't feel like this should be our story as a family. Welcome back to Postmortem. I'm CBS News
correspondent Natalie Morales stepping in as host today to speak with 48 Hours correspondent Ann Marie Green about her
report on the case of Melissa Ruba in August of 2013 in the small town of Simpson, Pennsylvania. Melissa was shot
while in her bed by her husband Bruno and later died at the hospital. Now, Bruno claimed it was a tragic accident
and no charges were filed at the time, but eight years later, investigators revisited the case. And after taking a
closer look at the evidence, Rakuba was then charged with Melissa's murder. Emory, thanks so much for chatting with
me today. >> It's really good to be here. It's always good talking to you. Now, I want to
remind our listeners and our viewers, if you haven't listened or watched the 48 hours episode yet, you can find the full
audio and the episode link in our podcast feed. Just take a listen, then come right back here for our
conversation. All right, Emory, let's jump right into this. So after the shooting, Bruno Ruba
told police that his gun accidentally went off when he was checking the chamber and that he claims he even shot
his hand at the time in the process. Now, that was a story at the time that raised his family suspicions from the
start. And I think a lot of listeners are going to be wondering then, why wasn't Bruno charged back in 2013? That
was the exact question that we all had on the team that worked on this hour. Um, and we we never really got a clear
answer. You know, people need to know that the investigators compiled all the information that they felt would make
for a strong case, but ultimately it's up to the DA and the DA at the time said no. Uh, the district attorney at the
time is no longer the district attorney. So, there was a new district attorney. His name is Mark Powell. He asked him,
it's his best guess that the DA decided not to go forward because of Bruno's explanation about how he shot himself in
the hand and that it was an accident that it was that the gun accidentally discharged. Now, I'm learning about
guns, Natalie, since I've been working on 48 hours. And if you know a little bit about guns, it's actually kind of
hard to accidentally shoot a gun. Um, but it was convincing enough that, you know, the DA at the time thought it's
not worth moving forward with the case. >> Also, you know, Bruno, as you learned in
the hour, he lawyered up pretty quickly. And, uh, Mr. Deandria is a well-known attorney um, in the area. And, you know,
who knows, that might have had something to do with it as well, but we'll probably never know exactly why. So,
then what made investigators want to revisit the case eight years later? Jeremy, because they were working with
the exact same evidence that they had back in 2013, >> right? So, in 2020, we have uh Corporal
Greg Allen, right? So, he's assigned to take a second look at open homicide cases for his troop. And I think it's
like a 4count area. Um, and when he looks at the Ruba case, he looks at the evidence that's in the file, that 911
call from Bruno where almost immediately he starts changing his story. I mean, within seconds of speaking to the 911
operator, he says something along the lines of, you know, we were fighting, but then later he claims uh that he
wasn't arguing with Melissa. And then he says later on, well, I was playing with
the gun and I let it go off. I mean, for Corporal Allen and then Corporal Dan Nylon who came on to the case, it seemed
like this was a case that would be open and shut and then they were able to convince the DA's office. And then once
you do that, you have additional resources now that maybe weren't available to the original investigators.
So, they were able to hire a forensics expert and then they were really able to take a second look at the evidence. And
and there was also it seems like forensic evidence that was missed the first time around talking about the
blood spatter behind the headboard. Can you talk about that? >> Yeah. You know, if you watch the hour
and you see the video of Bruno trying to explain what happens, you don't have to
be a forensic expert to see that something's off about that. You know, he says that he's shooting in one
direction, but the blood spatter is located in a completely different direction. But what the forensics expert
was able to do is piece together what likely happened. And his conclusion was that, you know, Melissa was most likely
on the bed and Bruno was above her when he shot and that's how he shot himself in the hand and that's how the blood
spatter ended up where it was. And let's talk about what really I think broke this case once again wide open and that
was that home security footage. Because originally investigators said they couldn't review that security footage
because they didn't have access to the right technology at the time. Can you explain that? Because then when you see
it again and the way they were able to enhance and augment the audio, it tells the whole story right there in front of
them. Yeah. Um, Corporal Greg Allen actually spoke to the original investigators and they told him that
they had contacted the manufacturer of the security camera and even in 2013, the manufacturer said that the
technology was obsolete and the they didn't even have the software that could help investigators view what was on
there and listen to what was on there. So, they sealed it up and gave up on it. Right? But fast forward a few years and
now we have the technology. what we learned from Bruno's daughters. You know, Chelsea said Bruno was really into
security. He had cameras all over the place, but most of them weren't working. In fact, I think that was the only one
that was working. And what's kind of remarkable, if they had been in the living room or the kitchen when this
happened, I highly doubt that camera would have picked up any audio, but it just happened to be in the right
location, happened to be the only camera that was actually working and was able to pick up the audio. But it was so hard
to listen to. And when we talk to um the investigators, you know, they they talk
about like having to get really really quiet and get really close to the speaker and, you know, turn off all the
appliances so they could try to hear and they could just hear that there's something there. And so they pass it on
to uh other experts who are able to enhance the audio and lo and behold, we hear that there is this fight happening.
When Bruno insists that none of that is happening at all leading up to the shooting
>> in her own words, I believe as you said in the hour, it was as if Melissa was
narrating the circumstances leading up to her death. And in the hour, Melissa's family members even shared that there
were some warning signs of Bruno's behavior that they observed right before the murder. I want to play a clip that,
you know, it didn't make it into the show from your interview. It was with Joanne. It's Melissa's sister. Take a
listen. >> Was Bruno controlling? >> Very. He was very controlling um in the sense
of my sister couldn't go anywhere without him knowing her every move. >> He would call her repeatedly.
Um and if she didn't answer her phone, he was calling my phone. Or if she was at my cousin, she's calling my cousin's
phone. Like it was excessive. But when we were young, I I just thought, "Oh, wow. He just loves her." and um you know
you call her so much and not realizing also when you're young that that's that's not normal
>> in doing these stories. Natalie, I know you know this, you don't want to open a
wound. You don't want to do more damage after people have been through such horrific circumstances. And Joanne said
to me after the interview, and these interviews people should know these interviews are long, like they're like
an two hours, you know, an hour, two hours. She said, "People keep telling me I should write a book just to get it all
out, and I keep starting and I just can never do it." And she goes, "Now I don't
feel like I need to write a book anymore. I feel like I finally got it all out." It was sort of cathartic, you
know, and perhaps a lot can be learned by looking back at some of the evidence there, you know, what signs were missed
and those red flags that even Melissa talked about with her very daughters. >> Absolutely. I think that's spoton.
I think Melissa took great pains to make sure that her daughters in particular felt very highly of their father. Um he
she wanted them to see a good marriage and a father that they could be proud of. But both daughters, you know, talked
to us about seeing things weren't hearing things that weren't quite right. Sabrina spoke about seeing Bruno grab
her mother's hair and kind of whip whip her around. And um Chelsea, you know, spoke to us about just a couple of weeks
before the shooting that Melissa told her that that Bruno had actually pulled a gun on her over some sort of argument.
Um so that kind of behavior I think is telling, you know. >> Yeah. And and after the shooting, Bruno
then he continued to maintain that relationship with both of his daughters even though there were some of these red
flags. And how was he able to do that, Emory? Um well, you see how conflicted both of these young ladies are. Uh they
love their dad, you know, and the dad that they interacted with was a great father. So, it was very difficult for
them to kind of put these two personalities together. Both women had different relationships. Sabrina did not
live in the state, so there was a certain distance. He didn't see a lot of the the dayto-day things. Chelsea had
her son. She had her son, you know, pretty young. She lived right next door to her parents. So she was so grateful
that her son had this fantastic environment um where both of his grandparents were available to him. And
so because of that, both women had different relationships. After Melissa was killed, the way he approached them
was different. You know, one of the things that Sabrina said to me over and over again was that she was scared that
he would harm himself. He kept on kind of suggesting that he would do something to himself and that was what terrified
um her. When it came to Chelsea, her son was in love with his grandfather and so
she didn't want to break that up and it was really the son's relationship that kept her um going back. Clearly very
conflicted about that relationship. Yeah. So, in the hour, Anmarie, we learned that Bruno had his daughters
sign over their inheritance after their mother's death. And I'm curious where that money is now. So, Corporal Dan
Nylon told us that the accounts were frozen after Bruno was convicted. Um, so we know that they were frozen. I don't
know what's happening now with the money. Um, the backstory for the money though is quite interesting. So
Melissa's mother won like a million dollars at the casino and it was being paid out in installments. But once she
passed away, uh, those payouts were going to Melissa and Joanne. But when Melissa passed away, Melissa's portion
of the money was to be divided between Bruno and his two daughters. Bruno convinces both women to sign over
that money. It's about $300,000 um for him to get. Sabrina says she signed it over because she felt so bad.
So, as to whether they can kind of undo that, I'm not sure. Welcome back. So, we have to talk about
Bruno's alleged affair with Tanya Weski. It's an affair that Tanya denies. As we
heard in the show, Tanya and her husband Jack, they had dinner with Bruno and Melissa that very night of the shooting.
And Emmy, you told me that the two couples were actually planning a vacation together that night, right?
Yeah. Yeah, it was supposed to be to the Dominican Republic to celebrate the Rakuba's like anniversary. Like that's
how close they were that they were going to travel together as a couple. Obviously, um that didn't happen. Uh but
the Weskis went on the trip themselves. And according to Jack, his wife spent basically all her time in the room
talking to or texting Bruno. >> Obviously, we reached out to Tanya several times. Our producers did. Her
feeling was, you know, there's nothing more that can really be said and you guys saw the text message in the hour.
She says, of course, that there was never an affair. Um, but sort of curiously, Chelsea told us that shortly
after her father was incarcerated, he asked her to essentially transfer money to someone.
He didn't he wasn't clear, but Chelsea firmly believes that it's Tanya. like she she sort of says the way he said it,
I knew who he wanted me to send the money to, which she's like, I don't know if they're still together, but I know
that he certainly wanted me to send money and I said no. You know, also we learn in the hour that um Bruno asked
Chelsea to clean up after what had happened. You know, clean up the mattress that her mother Melissa had
been killed on. >> I know. I know. I know. And that's what you know, just pile on to the things
that just don't make sense. I mean, Melissa has just died and he is like, I cannot bear to go back into that house.
I need you to go there and and just get rid of the mattress. Get rid of everything. And I think they said they
might have burned it. Like, just get rid of everything. But you see him in that police video casually sitting on the
edge of the bed. He's literally sitting on top of Melissa's blood on the bed. um
he doesn't seem, you know, turned off by that or, you know, he's not crying. He doesn't seem bothered at
all. So, you got to wonder. >> Horrific. >> So, on June 3rd of 2022, again, nearly 9
years after Melissa's death, Bruno was charged with her murder. Now, there was also a charge for theft, and that was
for the money prosecutors say he took from his daughters. He hired defense attorney Joe DeAndrea again and DeAndrea
then secured him a plea deal for thirdderee murder. However, the theft charge was dropped. And and Amarie, when
you spoke with Deandria, he seemed pretty transparent about the difficulties in representing Bruno in
this case. Why do you think that was? >> You know, initially in 2013, DeAndre did
not look at any of the evidence. um you know, his sole focus when he was originally hired was, you know, to get
this guy out and not charge. And, you know, he was successful. Once he took a look at the evidence, he thought, "This
is going to be an uphill battle." Um, and this is not an attorney that's scared of uphill battles. I mean, if you
talk to him, he'll tell you about his successes. Um, so he just thought, "Let's let's go in with some sort of
deal." Bruno was not happy at all. Rudolph felt like maybe he was in line for sort of a misdemeanor charge. So, he
was not happy. Um, he wanted to go back on the deal. Um, you know, Deandria said
that that's not going to happen. He since fired DeAndrea. >> Yeah. I mean, really, it goes back to
the smoking gun that is the evidence and that's that security camera footage. And
once they, >> you know, enhanced that audio and you could hear that fight going on, did
DeAndre think that he wasn't going to be able to fight that? Yeah, he thought that that was that was one of many big
challenges, but it it was also the police video. >> Yeah. And when you're talking about that
video, this is from the body cam footage when the investigators are able to talk
to him after he's already been treated at the hospital and all of that, right? >> Yeah. A day later.
>> Yeah. Where he's explaining to them, you know, what happened that night. It's
just it doesn't pass the smell test, as they say. you know, for a lot of sort of
this isn't really a cold case, but maybe cases that were not closed over time. Um, evidence kind of fades away.
Memories fade. This was like a memory that's frozen in time in detail. And that would have been a really hard thing
to explain to a jury. Not to mention, like I said before, Bruno does not exactly look like he's torn up about
what happened. Um he looks entirely too comfortable on that bed. >> And Marie Bruno took a plea deal as you
report in the hour. So he, you know, was sentenced to 12 to 40 years, but he could be eligible for parole as of 2035.
You know, this is a very complicated relationship that Chelsea had with her father. Do we know if they maintain any
kind of contact with him behind bars? >> Yeah, I mean, I don't know what the situation is now, but she was
maintaining. And I think that there's a general feeling even for both sisters, like he doesn't have anybody else. Like,
can we really take this relationship away from this man? They're probably always going to be
conflicted. Well, at the end of the episode, I mean, talk about a family that has had to go through so much. And
then we hear the tragic news that Chelsea's son, Greg, died in an ATV accident just weeks after that interview
that you did with her. I mean hearing that and seeing that I just was so heartbroken and shocked. I imagine it
was difficult for everybody working on the story getting that information as well. Right.
>> Absolutely. You just think this family has been through so much. And now this.
Greg was just 13 years old at the time of the accident. And we had actually met Greg because he came to the location
where we were shooting when his mother was doing the interview and he wanted to see how TV works. And you know the guys
in the crew, you know, the guys in the crew, they're they're such nice guys. They took them around and they showed
him all the gear and then we had ordered lunch. So, we all sat down to eat together and Chelsea talked about how
much he loved off-roading. He loved his four-wheeler. He basically did it every single day. He would come home, you
know, get his chores and his homework done and then he was gone until the sun went down. Um, and their the way their
house is, the backyard is just goes on forever, you know. So, he would just out that backyard and away he would go. I
could see him taking it even more seriously in the future. And Chelsea was incredibly supportive. And throughout
the hour, what you get from her and even in her victim impact statement, everything about her relationship with
her father is because of her son. Like she just doesn't want to break her son's heart. And then to have him ripped away
in this heartbreaking way, it's just it's too much for one family to take. And so it was really incredibly
heartbreaking to hear about Greg's passing. >> And just 13 years old. I mean, so much
of a life still to live and just so heartbreaking that once again, you know, Chelsea has to deal with a huge loss,
the loss of her mother and now the loss of her son. Yeah. Um, what else do we know about how she's doing? I know it
had to be hard to go back to her and see if she was willing to to talk even. >> Yeah, because the plan was actually to
go back later on in the springtime and get B-roll. And for people who don't know, B-roll is sort of all the video
that's not the interviews. Um, but as you can imagine, she was not up for that and we completely understood. But I know
that, you know, Chelsea is married to a wonderful man who was a fantastic stepfather to Greg and incredibly
supportive. And our producers, they were in the courtroom um during the sentencing and her husband was there
holding her, just holding her hand, hugging her, making sure she was okay. And he came to the interview with us,
too, and he was just fantastic. So, I know she has a support system. Um, but it but it's still tough. It's really
really tough. >> Well, of course, our thoughts are with Chelsea and and Sabrina, the whole
family, uh, to go through so much in in in all this time. And Marie, once again,
thank you so much for another really well-reported episode and certainly very thoughtprovoking. So, thank you again.
>> Thank you, Natalie. Always great talking to you. And if you like this series Postmortem, please rate and review 48
hours on Apple Podcasts. And also be sure to follow 48 hours wherever you get your podcasts. And you can listen adree
with a 48 hours plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. Once again, thanks for listening.

Catch up on the 48 Hours "Melissa Rocuba's Final Moments" new season episode and then join Natalie Morales and Anne-Marie Green as they discuss the 2013 killing that went unsolved for nearly nine years.

00:00 Melissa Rocuba's Final Moments 42:19 Watch the Post Mortem podcast

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Bruno Ruba shot his wife Melissa in 2013, claiming it was an accident; he was arrested for murder in 2022 after new evidence emerged.

Key points

A Tragic Accident. Bruno Rakuba claims his wife's shooting was an accident, but doubts linger.
A Family in Shock. Melissa's family grapples with her sudden death and Bruno's behavior.
Unraveling the Truth. Chelsea confronts her father about the night of the shooting, revealing shocking truths.
Bruno's Confession. Bruno claims the gun went off accidentally while checking the chamber, raising family suspicions.
Plea Deal. Bruno accepts a plea deal for third-degree murder, admitting reckless actions led to Melissa's death.
Home Security Footage. Investigators discover crucial video evidence showing the couple arguing before the shooting.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I just lost my mom and I was probably going to lose my dad.

2:55WatchFeb 15, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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