Melissa Rocuba's Final Moments | Post Mortem | Forensic Files

Welcome back to Postmortem. I'm CBS News correspondent Natalie Morales stepping in as host today to speak with 48 Hours
correspondent Anne Marie Green about her report on the case of Melissa Rackowba.
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 8 years later investigators revisited the case and after taking a closer look at the evidence, Rackowba
was then charged with Melissa's murder. Emery, 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, Emery, let's jump right into
this. So after the shooting, Bruno Rackowba 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's 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 How. We 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 now, Lee, 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. Mhm. Also, you know,
Bruno, as you learn in the hour, he lawyered up pretty quickly and uh, Mr. DeAndrea 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 8 years later? I mean, because they were
working with the exact same evidence that they had back in 2013. Right. So in 2020 we have a 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
four-county area. Um, and when he looks at the Rackowba 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 onto 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 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, but 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 talked to um, the investigators, you know, they they
talk about like having to get really, really quiet, 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 were 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.
Mhm. 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 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's, she was calling my cousin's phone. Like it was excessive, but
when we were young, I thought I just thought oh wow, he just loves her and um, you know, he calls 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 spot on. 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 or 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, just spoke to us about just a couple weeks before the
shooting that Melissa told her that that Bruno had actually pulled a gun on her over some sort 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, Emery? Um, well, you see how conflicted both of
these young ladies are. 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 day-to-day things.
Chelsea had her son. She had her son, you know, pretty young. She would live 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, but it was really the son's relationship that kept her um going back. Clearly very
conflicted about that relationship. Yeah. >> Mhm. So, in the hour, AnnMarie, 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. 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 cuz she felt so bad. So, [music] as 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
Wilchesky. 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. AnnMarie, you told me that the two
couples were actually planning a vacation together that night, right? Yeah, it was supposed to be to the
Dominican Republic to celebrate the Racubas' 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 Wilcheskys went on the trip
themselves, and according to Jack, his wife spent basically all her time in the room
talking to or texting Bruno. Mhm. 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 onto the things that just don't make sense. I mean,
Ugh. 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. Mhm.
Horrific. So, on June 3rd of 2022, again, nearly nine years after Melissa's death, Bruno
Racuba 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 third-degree murder. However, the theft charge was dropped. And AnnMarie, when you spoke with DeAndrea, he seemed
pretty transparent about the difficulties in representing Bruno in this case. Why do you think that was?
You know, initially in 2013, DeAndrea 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
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.
Bruno 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, DeAndrea 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, enhance that audio, and you could hear
that fight going on, did DeAndrea 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 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.
>> Exactly. 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. Mhm. 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. AnnMarie, 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 him 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 there 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. 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. Ann Marie, once again, thank you so much
for another really well-reported episode, and certainly very thought-provoking. So, thank you again.
Thank you, Natalie. Always great talking to you. And if you like this series, Post Mortem, [music] 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 ad-free with the 48 Hours plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. Once again, thanks for listening.

48 Hours correspondents Natalie Morales and Anne-Marie Green discuss the 2013 killing of Melissa Rocuba that went unsolved for nearly nine years, and how new information retrieved from old evidence led to an arrest in the case.

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 Rackowba was charged with murdering his wife Melissa after new evidence emerged eight years later, revealing inconsistencies in his story.

Key points

Bruno's Tragic Accident Claim. Bruno Rackowba claimed his wife's death was accidental, but evidence later contradicted him.
Revisiting the Case. Eight years later, investigators reopened the case, uncovering new evidence against Bruno.
The Heartbreaking Loss. Chelsea's son, Greg, tragically died just weeks after the interview about her mother.
Support System in Tough Times. A husband provides unwavering support during a challenging time for his family.
Thought-Provoking Episode. Acknowledgment of a well-reported episode that resonates deeply with listeners.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's always good talking to you.

Natalie Morales speaking with Emery.

0:51WatchJan 24, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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