Sneak peek: Melissa Rocuba's Final Moments | Forensic Files

[music] [music] >> At the end of the day, I I put my son to sleep, and uh I went to bed.
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 lying
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's going to who's going to shoot themselves? He never wavered from his story that it was an accident.
I'm Trooper P.J. McDurmin, we're here at the residence with the homeowner, Bruno
Racuoglia. Racuoglia. Why do you think your father was so open about talking with the police?
I think he was trying to prove that he was, in a sense, 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.
[music] That's his wife of 25 years. I just lost my mom, and I was probably going to lose my dad.
Did you expect [music] 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 >> [music] >> 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 [music] this one caught my attention, and we just went down that rabbit hole of
putting all the pieces together. And alarm bells went off when I saw a surveillance system in evidence.
No one had [music] looked at this. This [snorts] is the last time she's ever seen.
That time of year, their window was open, so you could [music] also pick up sound from inside of the bedroom as
well. We were able to hear >> [music] >> 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.

ALL NEW: A woman dies after an "accidental" shooting in her bedroom. Eight years later, surveillance video upends the case. "48 Hours" correspondent Anne-Marie Green reports, Saturday, Jan. 17 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.

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Brief Summary

A son's recounting of his mother's fatal shooting leads to an investigation revealing complex family dynamics and legal challenges.

Key points

A Tragic Accident. A son recalls the night of his mother's tragic shooting, believing it was an accident.
Unraveling the Truth. Detectives discover a surveillance system that reveals the last moments before the shooting.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He never wavered from his story that it was an accident.

1:53WatchJan 15, 2026

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