Post Mortem | Melissa Rocuba’s Final Moments

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2:59Welcome 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 Recuba. 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 eight years later, investigators revisited the case. And after taking a closer look at the evidence, Rekuba was then charged with Melissa's murder. Emery, thanks so much for chatting with me today.

3:43It'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, Anne-Marie, let's jump right into this. So after the shooting, Bruno Rekuba 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.

4:20And I think a lot of listeners are going to be wondering then why wasn't Bruno charged back in 2013?

4:26Natalie Morales:That was the exact question that we all had on the team that worked on this hour. And 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. The district attorney at the time is no longer the district attorney. So there was a new district attorney. His name is Mark Powell. We asked him. Basically, 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 the gun accidentally discharged.

5:09Natalie Morales:Now, I'm learning about guns, Natalie, 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. But it was convincing enough that, you know, the DA at the time thought it's not worth moving forward with the case. Also, you know, Bruno, as you learn in the hour, he lawyered up pretty quickly. And Mr. D 'Andrea is a well-known attorney 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 eight years later?

5:48Because they were working with the exact same evidence that they had back in 2013.

5:53Natalie Morales:Right. So in 2020, we have 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. And when he looks at the Recuba case, he looks at the evidence that's in the file, that 9-1-1 call from Bruno, where almost immediately he starts changing his story. I mean, within seconds of speaking to the 9-1-1 operator, he says something along the lines of, you know, we were fighting. But then later he claims 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.

6:32Natalie Morales: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 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.

7:09Natalie Morales:You know, if you watch the hour and you see the video of Bruno trying to explain what happens, And 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.

7:50And 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.

8:13Natalie Morales:Yeah. 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.

8:52Natalie Morales:In fact, I think that was the only one that was working. And what's kind of remarkable, 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 the investigators, they talk about having to get really, really quiet and get really close to the speaker and turn off all the appliances so they could try to hear and they could just hear that there's something there.

9:26Natalie Morales:And so they pass it on to 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. 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.

10:05It's Melissa's sister. Take a listen.

10:08Natalie Morales: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 repetitively. and if she didn't answer her phone, he was calling my phone or if she was at my cousin, she was calling my cousin's phone. Like, it was excessive, but when we were young, I just thought, oh, wow, he just loves her and, you know, he calls her so much and not realizing also when you're young that 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.

10:59Natalie Morales:And Joanne said to me after the interview, and these interviews, people should know, these interviews are long, like they're like 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.

11:33Absolutely.

11:34Natalie Morales: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. 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, weren't hearing things that weren't quite right. Sabrina spoke about seeing Bruno grab her mother's hair and kind of whip her around. And Chelsea, you know, spoke to us about just a couple of weeks before the shooting that Melissa told her that Bruno had actually pulled a gun on her over some sort of argument. 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 Ann Marie 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.

12:46Natalie Morales: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 day to day things. Chelsea had her son. She had her son, you know, pretty young. She lived right next door to her parents. So she was so grateful that her son had this fantastic environment 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.

13:34Natalie Morales:He kept on kind of suggesting that he would do something to himself. And that was what terrified 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 going back. Clearly very conflicted about that relationship. Yeah. So in the hour, Anne-Marie, 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. So we know that they were frozen.

14:19Natalie Morales:I don't know what's happening now with the money. 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, 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 for him to get. Sabrina says she signed it over because she felt so bad. Mm-hmm. So as to whether they can kind of undo that, I'm not sure.

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17:22Welcome back. So we have to talk about Bruno's alleged affair with Tanya Wolchewski. 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. And Emery, you told me that the two couples were actually planning a vacation together that night, right?

17:44Natalie Morales:Yeah, it was supposed to be to the Dominican Republic to celebrate the Recoupa's like anniversary. Like that's how close they were, that they were going to travel together as a couple. Obviously, that didn't happen. But the Wachewskis went on the trip themselves. And according to Jack, his wife spent basically all her time in the room talking to or texting Bruno. 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.

18:19Natalie Morales:but sort of curiously Chelsea told us that shortly after her father was incarcerated he asked her to essentially transfer money to someone he wasn't clear but Chelsea firmly believes that it's Tanya 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 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.

19:07Natalie Morales:And that's what, you know, just pile on to the things that just don't make sense. I mean, 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.

19:49So on June 3rd of 2022, again, nearly nine years after Melissa's death, Bruno Recuba 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 D 'Andrea again, and D 'Andrea then secured him a plea deal for third-degree murder. However, the theft charge was dropped. And Ann Marie, when you spoke with D 'Andrea, he seemed pretty transparent about the difficulties in representing Bruno in this case. Why do you think that was?

20:24Natalie Morales:You know, initially in 2013, D 'Andrea did not look at any of the evidence. 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. Well, once he took a look at the evidence, he thought this is going to be an uphill battle. And this is not an attorney that's scared of uphill battles. I mean, if you talk to him, he'll tell you about his successes. 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.

21:08Natalie Morales:he wanted to go back on the deal. You know, D 'Andrea said that that's not going to happen. He since fired D 'Andrea. 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, enhanced that audio and you could hear that fight going on, did D 'Andrea think that he wasn't going to be able to fight that? Yeah, he thought that that was one of many big challenges, but it was also the police video. Yeah. 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.

21:47Right.

21:47Natalie Morales:Yeah, exactly. Yeah. 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, you know, for a lot of sort of this isn't really a cold case, but maybe cases that were not closed over time. time. 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. He looks entirely too comfortable on that bed. Anne-Marie, Bruno took a plea deal, as you report in the hour.

22:29So he 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?

22:45Natalie Morales: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.

23:24I imagine it was difficult for everybody working on the story, getting that information as well, right? Absolutely.