When an elderly man passes away it’s assumed it was due to his numerous health issues. No crime here, right? Have you ever heard the phrase, “loose lips sink ships?” Listen to the story of Anthony Tomaselli and how that phrase brought to light a murder that may have never been discovered.
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TuneInAnthony Tomaselli Passes Away
On March 6th, 2015 paramedics arrived at the home of Anthony Tomaselli at 530 Nathinham Close in Palm Harbor FL just Northwest of Tampa FL. The home was a whitewashed townhouse and in it lived Anthony, his daughters Linda Roberts,56, and Mary Beth Tomaselli, 59 along with his grown granddaughter.
His daughter, Linda called 911 reporting that she and her sister Mary Beth had found their 85-year-old father, Anthony, on the couch and they thought he was dead. They performed CPR, but he was not able to be revived.
When the paramedics arrived they attempted to revive Anthony but failed, pronouncing him dead at 5:50 am.
Given his advanced age and medical problems, there was nothing suspicious about him having passed away in his sleep. Anthony Tomaselli had been suffering from cancer and dementia and after interviewing his doctor, his cause of death was found to be natural causes.
He was cremated and the family grieved. Three siblings, the sisters, and their brother split the profit from the sale of the home and went on with their lives.
Loose Lips Sink Ships
Then four years later on February 13th, 2018 a man called the Sheriff’s department of Pinellas County with a story to tell. The man claimed that he met Mary Beth Tomaselli in a bar 7 months before. They began a romantic relationship and shortly after that she introduced him to her sister, Linda. Linda, who was married at the time, and this unidentified man began a relationship as well. It is not clear if this included both sisters or if both sisters even knew.
In February of the following year, Linda started acting strange and the man could tell that something was bothering her. On February 12th he was invited to Linda’s home where she confessed that her father had not died of natural causes in 2015. She and Mary Beth had killed him.
Immediately the man took out his phone and began discreetly recording Linda and on recording, she explained that it was premeditated. Linda went on to explain that her father had been accompanied by his long-time girlfriend, but in the time after she passed, he was getting confused and forgetful. They had been arguing about him going into an assisted living facility, but he refused to go.
Cocktails Anyone?
Anthony had a regular routine, watching Wheel of Fortune, walking to the beach to watch the sunset, reading his prayer cards in English and Italian, and enjoying his before bed cocktail of vodka and Diet Coke.
That night, Mary Beth had given her daughter a sleeping pill before she went off to bed and she and Linda proceeded to make their father his nighttime cocktail.
Mary Beth spiked the drink with enough sleeping pills that the sisters thought would kill him. When she mixed the drink she had added too much vodka which diluted the pills.
The mix didn’t kill him but left him breathing belabouredly on the couch.
Linda took the next step trying to smother her father with a pillow, but that didn’t work either. Then Linda said: “We have to get a washcloth and put it in his mouth, and one of us is going to have to hold his nose, and we had to finish what we had started.”
Finally one held down his arms while the other shoved a rag down his throat and pinched his nose.
They believed he would die soon anyway and he was refusing to go and live in an assisted living facility. Linda and Mary Beth decided to “euthanize” Anthony Tomaselli due to his health and decision not to enter a facility.
Secret Recordings Make the Case
After coming to the police with the recordings the sister’s romantic interest began working with detectives. During the next few weeks, he was able to make more recordings of both Mary Beth and Linda making additional statements about the murder.
The more they spoke to the man the more details they gave, like Mary Beth who described how it had been “weird” after killing her father because a faint pulse still fluttered through his body after his death due to his pacemaker.
With these recordings in hand, both women were charged with 1st-degree murder due to the premeditation of their act.
When being questioned by law enforcement both women folded like a deck of cards, each pleading to 2nd-degree murder.
Tampa Unsolved Major Crimes Unit
In 2019, Tampa police established what’s known as the unsolved major crimes unit. Their task is to review hundreds of unresolved sex crimes, homicides, and other violent offenses. The unit is overseen by Detective Sergeant Greg Van Heyst.
In the last two years, they’ve cleared 12 cases. In two, they used a new investigative technique, known as genetic genealogy, to identify a suspect.
Van Heyst, who for several years led the city’s homicide squad, had the idea to form an independent unit to look at old cases after seeing ones that went unsolved, and hearing from the families of victims.
With the blessing of Chief Brian Dugan, the department assigned two detectives, James Smith, and Mark Belmonte, to focus exclusively on cases that have been investigated but remain open. They get assistance from Brittany Jackson, a crime analyst, and other police investigators, along with an agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Their caseload includes in excess of 400 homicides, the oldest dating to the 1930s, and hundreds of sex crimes.
Each detective handles about 10 cases at a time, Van Heyst said. They look at what was done. And they look for what can be done.
Review of Old Evidence
One of their first arrests came through a review of old evidence.
The crime occurred on December 17, 2000. A woman who lived in a home on Mohawk Avenue reported that she was confronted by a masked man who wielded a silver handgun and demanded money. When she said she had none, the woman was forced into a bathroom. The gunman made her sit on a toilet, then raped her.
Investigators at the time obtained a DNA sample from the rape but found no match.
Almost 20 years later, a fingerprint analyst reexamined evidence from the crime scene and identified two palm prints taken from the bathtub. The prints yielded a match to Antonio Rivers.
Rivers would have been 19 at the time of the rape. Detectives obtained a warrant for a sample of his DNA. It matched DNA from the rape. Rivers was arrested in September. He remains jailed awaiting trial and has pleaded not guilty to charges of sexual battery and armed burglary.
Most Recent Arrest
The unit’s most recent arrest came last month. It was rape that occurred after Gasparilla 2007 at the University of Tampa. The victim, a UT student, had attended the festivities and was followed back to the campus by an unknown man. The victim’s roommate returned to find her yelling for help as the man assaulted her. Surveillance cameras captured his image, but no one knew his name.
Genetic genealogy analysis ultimately led police to Jared T. Vaughn. He lived in Tampa in 2007 but now lives in West Virginia. In April, police obtained a warrant for his DNA. Results were enough for an arrest warrant. Vaughn turned himself in June 16 to the Orient Road Jail and was released on bail.
Police Continue to Work on Unsolved Homicides
Work continues on the homicides. Of the dozen cases the unit has cleared, 10 involved a sexual battery. One was a kidnapping and robbery. Another was a burglary and false imprisonment case.
They have also worked to raise the profile of many cases, revamping the department’s unsolved homicides web page.
The oldest homicide featured is the murder of 16-year-old Meredith Fish. On Aug. 9, 1985, she was found stabbed in the parking lot of the Floriland Mall on N Florida Avenue. She was last seen alive a day earlier at a mobile home park on 124th Avenue and 11th Street.
Police say they are working on several strong leads in her case. They believe there are people in Tampa who know something about her death. They are interested in talking to anyone who knew her or frequented the place where she was last seen.
Resources
- Two sisters killed their father. They got caught after sleeping with same man, sheriff says
- Sisters charged with murdering their father after one confesses to their shared lover
- ‘Like Arsenic and Old Lace’: Sisters in Their 60s Hid Secret of Dad’s Murder — Until They Slept with Same Man
- Two sisters committed ‘the perfect murder,’ police say. A bizarre love triangle exposed the truth.