Police probe Niles killing

By JORDAN COHEN

news@vindy.com

NILES

A woman who police say was in her 90s was found dead in her Cherry Avenue home late Tuesday afternoon, the apparent victim of a beating. Police are holding a 15-year-old boy in custody.

Meanwhile, the suspect’s sister said her brother had just been released earlier in the day from the Trumbull County Juvenile Justice Center where he had been held for what she described as “behavioral issues.”

Niles police Capt. Ken Criswell, chief of detectives, said the daughter of the victim had come to the home to check on her mother, saw blood in the house and ran outside for help. Criswell said the daughter saw an ambulance nearby and flagged it down. The detective indicated the ambulance crew, which had been en route to another call, discovered the body.

The victim’s name has not yet been released, but 21 WFMJ-TV, The Vindicator’s broadcast partner, said neighbors identified her as Marie Belcastro. Criswell said the suspect was taken by police to a hospital to “be checked out,” but the detective was unable to say whether the youth had been injured.

Criswell would not speculate on a reason for the killing. “I can tell you the side door was forced open, but I can’t say if robbery was the motive,” he said. He said he believes the woman was killed around 5 p.m., about a half-hour before her daughter arrived.

Neighbors told reporters that a nearby house had surveillance cameras on a garage. Police plan to check the video for any activity related to the victim’s death. Criswell said a next-door neighbor told police he had not seen or heard anything around the time the woman was killed.

Kaela LaRosa, 18, the suspect’s sister, told reporters her brother had been in the juvenile center “for around two months,” but she was unable to state the “behavioral issues” that led to his incarceration there. She was adamant that her brother is innocent.

“My brother would never do anything like this,” she said. “If [the Justice Center] believed that, they would never have let him go home today.”

She did indicate she thought her brother might have been drinking after his release.

Criswell said he did not know if the suspect knew the victim, but a neighbor said LaRosa’s brother “had cut the grass for her a couple of times.” The chief of detectives said police are also trying to find out if anyone else may have been involved in the woman’s death.

Following his release from hospital, the suspect is expected to be returned to the JJC, pending the filing of charges.