Pennsylvania woman’s final moments captured on home security video. Will it help prove she was murdered?

On a steamy August night in 2013, Melissa Rocuba was airlifted to a hospital still clinging to life with a bullet wound to her head. Her then 22-year-old daughter Chelsea Cicio, who lived next door,  was already there when the helicopter arrived.

Chelsea Cicio: I had no idea how I got down there. … I was just panicked and frantic.

Her sister Sabrina Rocuba, who lives in Wisconsin, sped to the airport in tears.

Sabrina Rocuba: It was just a lot of me just praying to God that my mom was gonna be OK.

Melissa’s sister Joanne Swinney, and their father — then a police sergeant in another county — raced to Melissa’s bedside.

Anne-Marie Green: It’s a few hours of driving.

Joanne Swinney: Not that night. … we got there really fast.

AN ACCIDENTAL SHOOTING?

Bruno was being treated at a different hospital, where specialists operated on his hand.

Sabrina Rocuba: 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.

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.

BRUNO ROCUBA (to detectives): Got home from work at 3:30 in the afternoon.

BRUNO ROCUBA: And we came home just before 10, 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.

BRUNO ROCUBA (to detectives): My wife was home alone all last week. So, I left it in the top drawer on the nightstand for her because of recent break-ins.

He said their grandson was coming over the next day, and he wanted to safely store the gun.

BRUNO ROCUBA: I went to check the, um, chamber to see if there was a round in there.

TROOPER MCGURRIN: OK.

Sitting on the mattress still stained with his wife’s blood, Bruno tried to show them what happened.

Bruno demonstrated how he says he was sitting, pointing his gun to the left side of the bed with his right hand.  He said Melissa was sitting in bed, watching TV, when she leaned back and that’s when he “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.

TROOPER MCGURRIN: Any discussions or any arguments or anything —

BRUNO ROCUBA: No.

TROOPER MCGURRIN: — before that happened?

BRUNO ROCUBA: No. There was nothing.

Sabrina Rocuba: He looked me in my face and said, “we walked in the house holding hands … there was no arguments that night.”

Jack Wilczewski and his wife Tonia were out to dinner with Bruno and Melissa that evening, and he says everything seemed fine.

Anne-Marie Green: No arguing?

Jack Wilczewski: 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 D’Andrea.

Anne-Marie Green: Did you wonder why he was calling you?

Joe D’Andrea: Well, I’m a 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.

Sabrina Rocuba: I remember talking to … the neurologist, and I was like, there’s gotta be something you can do. … And they were just trying to calm me down and tell me that there’s no hope.

Three days after the shooting, Melissa’s family made the agonizing decision to take her off life support.

Joanne Swinney: We knew she was — she was suffering.

It was Aug. 10, 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.

Sabrina Rocuba: My grandfather said … if that happened in Bucks County where my grandfather was a police, 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 D’Andrea 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.

Joe D’Andrea: 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.

Anne-Marie Green: No one said to you, we’ve concluded, it was an accident —

Chelsea Cicio: 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.

Chelsea Cicio: I just couldn’t — I couldn’t justify any of his stories.

“IT’S LIKE HE WANTED HER ERASED”

The daughters of Melissa and Bruno Rocuba say they grew up believing they had the ideal family.

Sabrina Rocuba: 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.

Joanne Swinney: 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, was a police officer. Bruno, 22, was enlisted in the Navy.

Anne-Marie Green: And what did you think of Bruno when you met him?

Joanne Swinney: I loved him. … He seemed to love my sister.

Sabrina Rocuba: She loved being a wife and she loved being a mother.

Chelsea Cicio: She was an amazing mom.

And Bruno was a great dad, says Sabrina.

Sabrina Rocuba: My dad was wonderful. I mean, I can’t complain about him as a dad.

Chelsea Cicio: 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 parent’s marriage.

Sabrina Rocuba: We had moved in there, me and my ex-husband, with my parents, when my daughter … was … about nine 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.

Sabrina Rocuba: 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.

Chelsea Cicio: She took me for ride in the car and told me, you know, that he had pulled a gun on her before.

Sabrina Rocuba: 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.

Chelsea Cicio: Why would she tell me this now? She’s never said a bad word about him before. And all of a sudden it was, “Chels, 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.

Chelsea Cicio: I didn’t wanna just say something that would’ve 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.

Joanne Swinney: She was questioning things. … and asked … how she would be able to — to do it on her own.

Anne-Marie Green: Was Bruno controlling?

Joanne Swinney: 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.

Joanne Swinney: 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.

Joanne Swinney: He would come there, maybe stay like an hour … and then leave.

Joanne Swinney: 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.

Chelsea Cicio: 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.

Anne-Marie Green: Did that strike you as odd at the time?

Chelsea Cicio: 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.

Chelsea Cicio: 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.

Chelsea Cicio: 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 OK.

Sabrina Rocuba: We were so concerned cause he kept making comments that he was gonna take his own life, that he couldn’t deal with this.

Anne-Marie Green: How did you get rid of that mattress?

Chelsea Cicio: 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.

Chelsea Cicio: He wanted us to get rid of everything. It’s like he wanted her erased.

Joanne Swinney: 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.

Sabrina Rocuba: 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.

Joanne Swinney: 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 could 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 Tonia Wilczewski, Jack Wilczewski’s wife. The couple that Bruno and Melissa were out to dinner with on the night of the shooting.

Jack Wilczewski: 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 Tonia and Bruno.

Jack Wilczewski: I thought they were kissing. … Of course, they said they were talking in 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.

Jack Wilczewski: And after a couple times I was like … why are you coming here? Why — can you wait until I get home at 5 o’clock or 4 o’clock?

Anne-Marie Green: And how did Tonia explain it?

Jack Wilczewski: 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.

Jack Wilczewski: I woke up 2 in the morning and she wasn’t there. So, I’m thinking go to Bruno’s house. I went and … pulled out in front, and 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 him right there.

Chelsea now had a new neighbor: Tonia Wilczewski.

Chelsea Cicio: 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.

Chelsea Cicio: 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.

BRUNO ROCUBA’S CHANGING STORY

As the months ticked on, it was now 2015 — about a year-and-a-half since Bruno Rocuba had allegedly, accidentally, shot and killed his wife, Melissa. His daughter Chelsea says she was still struggling with her father’s relationship, with Tonia Wilczewski.

Chelsea Cicio: 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.

Chelsea Cicio: 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.

Chelsea Cicio: 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.

Chelsea Cicio: 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.

Anne-Marie Green: It took a lot for you to go down there. What were you hoping would’ve happened?

Chelsea Cicio: I was hoping they would have reopened it …

Anne-Marie Green: And what actually happened?

Chelsea Cicio: Nothing happened.

Chelsea recalls being told that it was her word against her father’s and she says an investigator suggested that her coming forward could have been motivated by money.

Chelsea Cicio: 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 daughters sign paperwork that gave him complete control of their mother’s estate.

Sabrina Rocuba: He had sent me a paper in the mail, said do not look at it. … go get this notarized and sign and send it back to me, which I did. I didn’t question; it’s my dad.

Sabrina says she knew she was signing away her rights to the money — but felt pressured to do it.

Sabrina Rocuba: 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.

Chelsea Cicio: That hurt, that he would take from us. And especially from his grandson.

The sisters say they began to wonder if money had been a motive for their mother’s shooting. But without police action, they felt they had to move on.

Chelsea Cicio: So, I kind of started letting it go.

Chelsea says she even let her son Greg build a bond with his grandfather.

Chelsea Cicio: 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.

Anne Marie Green: What about this case stood out to you?

Cpl. Greg Allen: To me, it was the original 911 call.

911 OPERATOR: What’s the problem there?

BRUNO ROCUBA: A gunshot wound. My wife.

Cpl. Greg Allen: On the 911 call, I hear three different accounts of what happened.

911 OPERATOR: OK. Was it self-inflicted?

BRUNO ROCUBA: No, we were fighting.

Cpl. Greg Allen: He says, “we were fighting.”

When questioned, Bruno quickly changed his story.

911 OPERATOR: You said you guys were arguing?

BRUNO ROCUBA: No, we were — we were playing around with the gun when we were shootin’ it. We were gonna go shooting, and I – and I pulled the trigger, and went through my hand.

He also offered this version:

BRUNO ROCUBA (911 call): I was playing with the gun, and I let it go off.

Bruno knew his way around guns, says Allen. So, why would he have his finger on the trigger of a gun that was loaded?

Crime Unit Supervisor Corporal Dan Nilon was asked by Allen to examine all the evidence, beginning with Bruno’s police interview.

BRUNO ROCUBA (to detectives) : My wife was sitting on the 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.

TROOPER MCGURRIN: OK.

BRUNO ROCUBA: 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.

Cpl. Dan Nilon: There were so many red flags … that we knew he wasn’t telling the truth.

To begin with, says Nilon, if Bruno was really trying to clear the gun’s chamber, he would have ejected the magazine.

Cpl. Dan Nilon: The first thing you’re going to do when you unload the gun is drop the magazine out of it.

There were also two safeties on the gun. Nilon showed “48 Hours” just how hard it is to discharge the weapon, accidentally.

Cpl. Dan Nilon: 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.  Allen and Nilon reviewed Bruno’s walkthrough video with police with “48 Hours.”

BRUNO ROCUBA (to detectives): I went like this, and she was sitting on the bed there.

Cpl. Greg Allen: So, you see the way that he’s holding the gun? He is pointing it to the opposite side of the bed.

But Nilon and Allen say there was blood and ballistics evidence on the wall behind Bruno, not the opposite side of the bed.

Anne Marie Green: So, the evidence is here and here. (points to the wall behind the bed)

Cpl. Dan Nilon: Yes.

Cpl. Greg Allen: Everything is behind him right now.

Anne-Marie Green: But he says he shot this way. (points to the left of where Bruno was sitting in the video)

Cpl. Greg Allen: Correct.

They would need DNA testing and a forensic expert to confirm their suspicions that Bruno was lying.

But, in the meantime, Nilon 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.

MELISSA ROCUBA (home security video, talking to Bruno): What is wrong with you?

Turns out that a security camera mounted to the front of the house, had recorded Melissa Rocuba’s last words.

MELISSA ROCUBA’S LAST MOMENTS CAUGHT ON TAPE

The final images of Melissa Rocuba were recorded on this the couple’s home security camera and saved to a DVR.

Corporal Dan Nilon 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.

CPL. DAN NILON: 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.

Corporal Greg Allen says that one thing was clear.

Cpl. Greg Allen: There was definitely an argument that happened between them.

MELISSA ROCUBA (home security video): What is wrong with you?

 Allen 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 Allen’s team did — and could now see that the recording begins in the driveway, where you can hear the couple arguing.

MELISSA ROCUBA (home security video): What?

BRUNO ROCUBA: Next time you get your own f*****’ ride.

MELISSA ROCUBA: Whatever.

BRUNO ROCUBA: Yep, Whatever.

But it doesn’t seem to end there. Once inside the house, Melissa and Bruno are no longer visible, it sounds like they’re still arguing, says Allen.

Cpl. Greg Allen: 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 Rocuba’s death as a possible murder.

Cpl. Dan Nilon (watching footage): This is the last time she’s ever seen…

Cpl. Greg Allen: Dan and I have been doing this a long time and we saw that and … the evidence speaks for itself.

Then-Lackawanna County District Attorney Mark Powell agreed.

Mark Powell: 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.

Anne-Marie Green: Because who would purposely shoot themselves in the hand?

Mark Powell: Sure. Sure.

With Powell’s team now onboard, Melissa’s family was informed that the case was once again active.

Sabrina Rocuba: 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 Cicio says she now had mixed feelings about her relationship with her father.

Chelsea Cicio: 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.

Cpl. Dan Nilon: 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.

Mark Powell: We retained the services of Dr. Wayne Ross. who is a highly respected forensic pathologist … and a blood pattern expert.

About a month later the enhanced DVR audio was back and Dan Nilon says it was clear the couple had been arguing right up until the moment the gun went off.

MELISSA ROCUBA (home security audio): F*** you.

Anne-Marie Green: What do you hear on that tape?

Cpl. Dan Nilon: Lots of curses back and forth, yelling, screaming …

MELISSA ROCUBA (home security audio): Shut up.

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.” 

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’s sounds like things are being thrown. Just seconds later, the gun goes off.

Cpl. Dan Nilon: It was not an accident. They were fighting the entire time. And then a gunshot goes off.

Joanne says she hasn’t been able to listen to the recording but has read the transcript.

Joanne Swinney:  I was horrified, of course I cried. … and I can picture my sister yelling at him and screaming 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.

CHELSEA CICIO (home security audio): Mommy! Mommy! (Crying)

She says she doesn’t remember questioning her father that night, but she did.

And Bruno’s answer gave police yet another version of his story.

CHELSEA CICIO (home security audio): Dad, why did this happen?

BRUNO ROCUBA: We came home and 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.

BRUNO ROCUBA (home security audio): She wanted to go shoot.

CHELSEA CICIO: No, no, this isn’t —

BRUNO ROCUBA: She’s alright. I know —

CHELSEA CICIO: This isn’t real.

BRUNO ROCUBA: I know.

A little over two weeks later, Powell says forensic expert Dr. Wayne Ross confirmed what Allen and Nilon had suspected about how all the blood got on the wall behind Bruno.

Mark Powell: It’s 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.

Anne Marie Green: And so where do you say Bruno was at that time?

Cpl. Dan Nilon: Almost in the middle of the bed.

Cpl. Greg Allen: Turned around.

Cpl. Dan Nilon: Turned around, facing the headboard.

The theory is that Melissa tried to escape Bruno’s grip and there was a struggle.

Mark Powell: And through … a struggle … His hand gets loose. He fires the gun at the same time.

Cpl. Dan Nilon (Watching video of Bruno Rocuba’s walkthrough with detectives): 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 (demonstrates sweeping motion) with his hand after the bullet struck it.

Mark Powell: 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, I — in my world, that’s not accidental. That’s murder with malice.

Anne-Marie Green: What do you think your sister would say about all of this?

Joanne Swinney: Oh, um … If she was here, she would say lock his ass up and get away from my kids and my grandkids.

On June 2, 2022, a warrant was issued for Bruno Rocuba’s arrest. Chelsea says her father was well aware and well prepared.

Chelsea Cicio: He had guns all over … his nightstand was all pictures of my mom. They were never there.

 

JUSTICE FOR MELISSA ROCUBA

On the morning of June 3, 2022, two Pennsylvania State Police troopers followed Bruno Rocuba on his way to work. Corporal Greg Allen says they weren’t taking any chances with Bruno’s arrest.

Anne-Marie Green: Chelsea said he had a lot of guns. Were you concerned something … could go wrong?

Cpl. Greg Allen: Whenever … you have an arrest warrant in your hand … you try to take every precaution that you can.

In the end, they pulled Bruno Rocuba over in a traffic stop on his way to work.

TROOPER (dash cam video): Who got your license plate out here?

BRUNO ROCUBA: Where? What?

TROOPER: Yeah.

TROOPER: Alright, hold up, right here. Hey, you have a gun, or any guns on you?

BRUNO ROCUBA: No, no, no.

TROOPER: Alright, put your arms behind your back.

BRUNO ROCUBA: OK.

It was June 3, 2022, nearly nine years after Melissa’s death, and Bruno Rocuba was charged with her murder. There was also a charge of theft, for the money prosecutors say he took from his daughters.

Cpl. Dan Nilon: And he — he lawyered up.

Anne-Marie Green: Lawyered up right away?

Cpl. Dan Nilon: Within … Couple minutes –

Cpl. Greg Allen: — within a few minutes.

Chelsea, who was still feeling conflicted, decided to help her father pay his legal bills.

Chelsea Cicio: I loved him. I still, I – I didn’t want it to be worse.

Bruno Rocuba once again hired Joe D’Andrea and pleaded not guilty.

Anne-Marie Green: Is Bruno still telling you the same story?

Joe D’Andrea: He never wavered from his story … that it was an accident.

But D’Andrea says he was now seeing and hearing the evidence for the first time — and says there was a lot to explain to a jury. Like the various versions of Rocuba’s all captured on tape.

TROOPER (police walkthrough video): Any discussions, or any arguments, or anything?

BRUNO ROCUBA: No.

TROOPER: Before that happened?

BRUNO ROCUBA: No.

The most challenging, says D’Andrea, was that police walkthrough.

Joe D’Andrea: If Bruno didn’t make a statement — he probably would never have gotten charged.

Also concerning to D’Andrea was how a jury would feel about Bruno Rocuba’s relationship with Tonia Wilczewski, and the question of when it began.

Anne-Marie Green: Possible motive?

Joe D’Andrea: Oh, clearly. … if not a motive … the jury sure wasn’t going to like him for doing it.

Tonia Wilczewski declined “48 Hours”‘ requests for an interview, but sent a text saying, “there was never an affair.”  Bruno Rocuba never responded to our requests for an interview.

But D’Andrea says he was most concerned about how a jury would react to Melissa’s final moments.

Joe D’Andrea: When you hear screaming and … somebody’s shot, the jury could conclude you shot her on purpose. … I didn’t want … to … take any chance of being, uh, found guilty of first-degree murder and spend the rest of his life in jail.

D’Andrea says he spent the next two years building his case around his best evidence: that bloody wound to his client’s hand.

Joe D’Andrea: Who would … put a bullet through their hand to — to kill somebody?

But in May 2024 — two years after his arrest — as Bruno Rocuba’s trial approached, both sides agreed to a plea deal: third-degree murder and no charge of theft.

Joe D’Andrea: It wasn’t that he intentionally killed Melissa … his actions were reckless.

Anne-Marie Green: Having a gun, drinking, bullet in the chamber, safeties off, in a pretty passionate argument?

Joe D’Andrea: That’s a prescription for some bad stuff to happen, which it did.

MELISSA ROCUBA (home security video): What is wrong with you?

Anne-Marie Green: It may very well be your sister’s own voice that ultimately put him behind bars.

Joanne Swinney: I never really thought about it like that. Yeah.

On Jan. 8, 2025, Joanne attended Bruno’s sentencing hearing and read him her victim impact statement.

Joanne Swinney: I looked at him first and made him look at me, cause I know it’s like seeing a ghost, because I look like my sister.

Cameras were not allowed in the courtroom, so Joanne shared her statement during our interview.

Joanne Swinney (reading): Through all of this you have never shown an ounce of remorse. … 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.

Anne Marie Green: If there was a trial, would you have testified against him?

Chelsea Cicio: Yes.

Anne Marie Green: You said that quickly.

Chelsea Cicio: Yeah, I would’ve. … you know, my mom deserves justice. And my mom — she should be here.

Bruno Rocuba was sentenced to 12 to 40 years behind bars. With time served, he will be up for parole starting in 2035.

Joanne Swinney: 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. 

Sabrina Rocuba: 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 miss him.

Chelsea Cicio: 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.

Anne-Marie Green: How are you keeping your mom’s memory alive?

Sabrina Rocuba: 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.

Chelsea Cicio: She cared about my son more than anything. She loved that little boy.

Chelsea Cicio: And I think she wouldn’t want my son to hurt the way this has hurt him.

Just weeks after “48 Hours”‘ interview, on March 10, 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.

Joanne Swinney: 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.

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Produced by Judy Rybak. Emily Wichick Hourihane is the field producer. Michelle Sigona is the development producer. Michelle Harris, Diana Modica, Michael Baluzy and Jake Day are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior broadcast producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.