Rostraver police release evidence, video in man’s execution-style slaying
Dawn Brady, mother of a Rostraver Township homicide victim, right, is comforted by Theresa Ritter of Courtney at a news conference Thursday when new evidence in the case was released.
This 2003 Chevrolet Impala was believed to have been driven to a Rostraver Township store by the suspect in the May 11, 2015, murder of clerk Drew J. Molinari.
Drew Molinari
Rostraver Township police Chief Greg Resetar shows members of the media the thick binder of interviews and evidence that has been collected in a cold-case homicide. At left is Westmoreland County Detective Randy Gardner.
BELLE VERNON – Dawn Brady said she last spoke with her son on Mother’s Day two years ago, a day before the Belle Vernon man was shot multiple times in the head and torso with a handgun while working behind the counter of a Rostraver Township auto parts store.
“We almost couldn’t have an open casket,” Brady, of Fayette City, said Thursday when township police released new evidence in the May 11, 2015, execution-style killing of Drew J. Molinari, 34, at Minniti Motorsports near Tri-County Plaza.
Rostraver Township police Chief Greg Resetar said the killer drove a gray or silver 2003 Chevrolet Impala to the scene of the 8:13 a.m. slaying at 123 Tri-County Lane. He also released to members of the media a video showing tiny, distant images of the suspect that gave police little to nothing to work with in identifying the killer.
“It should be noted that there were no wheel coverings on the suspect’s vehicle at the time of the crime,” Resetar said.
Investigators waited two years to release a surveillance photograph of the vehicle because they thought doing so earlier could have compromised the investigation.
He said the killing took place “in broad daylight” and drawing new attention to the case might attract more information – “no matter how trivial or insignificant” – in hopes of solving the case and bringing closure to Molinari’s family.
The store owner, Joseph Minniti, was in the business at the time of the murder, but all he saw was a person walking that morning wearing a blue hooded jacket.
Resetar brought a thick binder of information about the investigation to the news conference, saying police have not let a day go by without discussing the case.
He did not release information about any motive in the cold case or whether an arrest is on the horizon.
“Robbery was not the motive,” Resetar said.
A tearful Brady said she was planning a vigil for her son at 7 p.m. Thursday outside the auto parts store.
“He wasn’t a perfect boy,” she said. “No matter what he may have done, he didn’t deserve that. Please help us.”
She said she misses his phone calls and text messages on holidays.
“I don’t have that anymore,” she said. “I have a stone in a cemetery.”
Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers is offering a $2,500 reward for eligible information that leads to an arrest in the murder. The organization can be reached by calling 1-800-472-8477 or online at www.crimewatchpa.com/crimestoppers/cases/cold.
Tips about the case also can be made by calling police at 724-929-8811 or Westmoreland County detectives at 724-830-3949.