Title Missing

TO LOVE AND TO PERISH
A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette True Crime Podcast
Copyright 2018, PG Publishing Co.

Chapter 1 -- "The Good Dentist"

Before we begin, listeners are cautioned. This podcast includes depictions of violence not suitable for everyone.

MICHAEL FUOCO: The blood began on the porch. To the left of the front door, blood streaked a white panel beneath a shattered ornamental window and formed a pool. Triangular glass shards were colored crimson.

Inside, the scene resembled the set of a Hollywood slasher movie. Everywhere, there was blood. In the foyer. To the left, in the living room. All over the hardwood floor. On an Oriental rug. On a pulled-down rod and curtains. High up on the walls. By the fireplace. On a light switch.

And blood was on unsigned divorce papers near the body.

The victim was face-up in the living room, nearly decapitated and slashed all over. Furniture was overturned and papers and photographs were scattered about. The only sounds came from the large-screen TV, where the animated children’s show, “Jimmy Neutron,” was playing. Bloody sneaker prints led to the kitchen and a back door.

It was 3:25 p.m. on Holy Thursday, April 13, 2006. Neighbors discovered the grisly scene. They called police. News of the gruesome murder at 233 S. Spring St. spread throughout Blairsville, a usually sleepy rural community 42 miles east of Pittsburgh.

The slaying shook the borough's 3,600 residents to their core. It had been more than two decades since the last murder in this Indiana County town. Tim Evans, who had become borough manager just one week earlier, was stunned.

TIM EVANS: I think the biggest thing was the shock of that night because I can almost remember when I got the phone call. "You must be kidding me, right? What do you need?" I went to block roads and I could see the shock on people's faces. "Oh, my goodness, what happened?"

That has never happened here before. What do people always say? You didn't think it would happen here, you didn't think it would happen to me. I think it was that attitude. What in the world is going on? I hope this isn't something more than this.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Nearly three years would pass before that question would be largely answered. But for many people touched by the crime, there was a nagging feeling that justice had not been completely served. Disturbing questions remained then as they do now, 12 years since something horrible happened in a tiny town where horrible things just don't happen.

Until they do.

* * *

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, this is "To Love and to Perish," Season 2 of our True Crime Podcast. I'm host Michael A. Fuoco alongside producer Ashley Murray. We're the team that brought you the award-winning Season 1: "Three Rivers, Two Mysteries." That podcast examines the strange disappearances and drownings of two young men in Pittsburgh's rivers. This season, we're bringing you a true tale of how love, infidelity, greed and hatred in a small town ultimately resulted in a gruesome murder.

This is the story of how the fates of three people became tragically intertwined. And it is a recounting of choices made and those not made...and the trauma that lingers because of them.

Chapter 1--"The Good Dentist"

Blairsville is from a bygone era. Settled in 1818, it was incorporated in 1825. The town nestled at the foothills of Chestnut Ridge is the kind of place where church bells peal at noon, breaking a stillness otherwise filled with the sound of breezes and chirping birds. Near the Conemaugh River, a gazebo graces the center of a traffic circle. Every now and then, a car or two slowly rolls by.

There's a small park. A marker notes the town was a highly traveled route of the Underground Railroad during the Civil War. There's a Blairsville Area Veterans Memorial. The names of 89 residents who lost their lives in America's wars are etched into black granite slabs.

Drive onto Market Street, the three-block-long commercial district. There you'll find clothing, furniture, resale shops, a bakery, convenience store, restaurants, a bank and an insurance agency. A few blocks away, a train rumbles by, laden with coal.

Elsewhere, the 1.4-square-mile town is populated with 1,700 homes, a few industries and hundreds of acres of farmland, mostly filled with corn and hay.

TIM EVANS: I think it's just quiet. It's a nice, quiet community. Everybody kind of knows everybody and they look out for each other. I think that's the best part of small-town living.

And that's why residents were rocked by the murder. And it just wasn't the gruesome act itself but the victim's identity--John J. Yelenic, Extremely well-liked and a pillar of the community. John had a thriving dental practice in his hometown.

In fact, he was so successful with his practice and investments that he became a millionaire. But he cared little for money. John lived such a simple, unpretentious life. He didn't own a cellphone or computer. He drove an old car with rust spots and lived in a house that was comfortable, but far below his means.

He was flush with close friends, laughter and happiness for most of his life. He enjoyed helping others financially, always picking up the tab and even giving loans to friends and neighbors.

You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who didn't like Dr. John Yelenic, said neighbor Tom Jennings. His daughter, son-in-law and grandsons were John's next-door neighbors.

TOM JENNINGS: Do anything for you Well-liked. I guess everybody was in shock in little Blairsville. If you're a good guy, it's more meaningful- the talk in town- than if you were a bad hombre, "So what, he's gone?" But in John's case, he was excellent. Excellent."

MICHAEL FUOCO: The fact that something was terribly wrong inside the Yelenic home was first discovered by Tom Jennings' 9-year-old grandson, Zachary. He was returning a video game John had lent him when he saw the broken window and the blood. Peering inside, he saw bare feet peeking out of the living room. Terrified, he ran to get his 17-year-old brother, Craig. And then they ran to get their grandfather and uncle, Kevin. The two adults tentatively entered the home and discovered the horror within. There they found John. He was wearing a blood-soaked, gray T-shirt with large slashing tears and gray sweatpants.

TOM JENNINGS: It was a mess. Blood everywhere, and at first I thought maybe he had fallen down the steps, then obviously the more you looked around, that wasn't the case.

We didn't look for any obvious wounds or anything like that. We were just concerned if he was still breathing.

I'll never forget that day. You know, I guess, in a way, I felt bad, because Kevin or I couldn't do anything to help him. It was just too late.

Nobody deserves that.

MICHAEL FUOCO: The borough manager recalled that initially, residents were panicking.

TIM EVANS: I think when the news first spread, there was concern this was not an isolated incident, that someone was on the loose who would be randomly doing something to commit harm to this community. I guess [in a] small town there are rumors, so people were very concerned for a short while, but then it did come out that it was, I guess, targeted or directed at an individual because of a domestic situation. That calmed people's fears but it didn't help because it was pretty brutal, the murder.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Indeed, the murder was beyond brutal. Cyril Wecht conducted the autopsy. The renowned forensic pathologist has been involved in some of America's most prominent and perplexing murder cases. A Pittsburgh resident, he had a contract with Indiana County to perform its autopsies. It took five hours to complete the procedure--twice as long as normal, because there were so many severe wounds that needed to be examined.

CYRIL WECHT: From the standpoint of sheer brutality, of one-on-one--one murderer, one victim -- it certainly ranks in the top 5-10 percent of all of the cases in which I have done autopsies on people who have been murdered.

MICHAEL FUOCO: After the autopsy, Wecht visited the murder scene. Based on his observations and autopsy findings, he came up with a scenario of how the barbaric attack played out. This was not a home invasion gone wrong. No, this was a murder committed with deep, uncontrollable malice. A frenzied killing.

The killer likely entered through an unlocked kitchen door. This, after all, was Blairsville, where residents often left their doors unlocked. John likely had fallen asleep, as he often did, on his black leather couch while watching classic sitcoms on Nickelodeon's "Nick at Nite." The attack likely began there because the room was in total disarray.

The fatal assault occurred in the early morning hours of April 13, 2006. Five neighbors later reported hearing unusual noises from the vicinity of John's house between 1 and 2 a.m. They variously described them as men arguing, blood-curdling screams and sounds like the squealing of a pig. Dogs barked. Yet no one called police. Neighbors thought it was just kids acting up on a warm night during spring break.

More than 12 hours would pass before John's body was discovered.

While under attack, John apparently tried to escape through the front door, which was locked. That's when his assailant, with great force, pushed his head through the ornamental window beside the door, nearly decapitating him. As John continued to struggle, the attacker apparently pushed his head back and forth, repeatedly slicing his neck on the jagged glass.

CYRIL WECHT: The injuries that he had sustained earlier obviously could not have been fatal, otherwise he would not have been able to run through the house and attempt to escape. The injuries that were inflicted when he his head was pushed through that window/that pane area, those injuries would definitely been fatal. He would have bled out very quickly because you have the carotid artery and the jugular vein, major blood vessels with significant pressure and it would not take much then to lead to unconsciousness in a matter of maybe 15, 20, 30 seconds at the most and then death would ensue. Theoretically, you're dead, you're just not brain dead for maybe another four minutes or so.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Wecht theorized that John staggered or was thrown into the living room, where he fell face-up on the floor. There, the murderer delivered what Wecht called the coup de grace--slicing John's throat from ear to ear while staring into the eyes of his helpless victim.

CYRIL WECHT: The assailant had such a deep feeling of personal animosity toward Dr.Yelenic that just having inflicted the injuries in the manner I have described that was not adequate, that was not cerebrally sufficient for him. He had to make sure that he inflicted that additional wound, not only to assure Dr. Yelenic's death, but also to play out in venomous fashion, the depth of his hatred for Dr. Yelenic.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Wecht's autopsy found multiple, extensive lacerations to the scalp, face, neck, trunk, right arm and through the right wrist bone. One wound measured more than six inches on his right arm. John's chest had a large gaping wound of more than 5 inches. Across the neck, there were gaping lacerations--one more than 7 inches, the other more than 11 inches. His right jugular vein had been severed. He had been slashed on the face. His left ear had been completely severed.

Most of the lacerations were consistent with slashing knife wounds. The attack and the wounds he suffered would have brought John much pain and suffering before he died, Wecht said. He ruled the cause of death as exsanguination, or severe blood loss. John had bled out. He had lost so much blood that some of it seeped through the hardwood floors, forming a large pool in the basement. Obviously, the manner of death was homicide.

CYRIL WECHT: I came to learn early on that this was a highly respected individual in the community. I remember everybody speaking so well of him, professionally as a dentist, personally as a human being in every way and the fact that somebody like that should be murdered in such an incredibly egregious fashion ... that indeed was very disturbing.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Who could have committed such a monstrous act? And why John? His life was free of conflict. Or was it?

Despite outward appearances, all was not perfect in John's world. For years, he had been suffering through an ugly estrangement and custody battle with his wife, Michele. Those divorce papers splattered with blood near his body? John was scheduled to sign them that very day, finally ending a nearly three-years-long, volatile divorce process. He had been happy in his final hours, happier than he had been in some time. That's because had he lived but one more day, there would have been an end to the bitter battle over John's large estate, including a $1 million life insurance policy.

This was no ordinary contested divorce. It included false accusations by Michele that John had physically and sexually abused their 6-year-old son. Named for his father and nicknamed Jay Jay, he had been adopted by the couple in Russia when he was nearly 2. The investigations, criminal hearings and tensions had taken a toll on John and Jay Jay. But with the divorce behind him, John hoped to resurrect a relationship with the son he so loved.

It was not to be.

* * *

John Yelenic Jr.'s too-short-life was bookended by violent tragedy. He was born Feb. 20, 1967, in Latrobe. An only child, he was just 3 months old when his 37-year-old father John Sr., a teacher in the local school district, died in a car crash. Like his father, John died an early, unnatural death. A fortune teller had predicted he would die before 40, John had told friends. He was 39 when he was murdered.

With his father gone, John and his mother, Mary Lois, a middle school teacher, became devoted to each other. She lovingly called him "John John". Friends said they were remarkably similar to each other, both in appearance and in personality. Both were warm, giving and funny. Mary Lois doted on her extremely intelligent son and provided him with piano, singing and dancing lessons. In high school, he acted in plays and musicals.

Even at a young age, John had an abiding curiosity and fascination with dentistry. During his regular visits to his dentist, Thomas Reilly, he peppered him with thoughtful questions about his profession, equipment and procedures.

John attended Juniata College, a small liberal arts school in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, about 80 miles east of Blairsville. He majored in biology, preparing for a career as a dentist. There he met lifelong friend Dennis Vaughn. Among many things they shared were an offbeat sense of humor and a love for classic TV and movies.

DENNIS VAUGHN: John and I came from very similar backgrounds. We both grew up in Western Pennsylvania, we're both only children, we had the same interests, so it was a natural thing for us to become friends.

John had an amazing personality. You hear the phrase, "Larger than life" being used a lot and I think sometimes it's overused, but with John it was very appropriate. You always knew where John was at any gathering because people were drawn to him. That was just his personality. He was funny, he was outgoing, he was approachable, he always made you feel welcome, made you feel important.

MICHAEL FUOCO: John graduated in 1989 and attended the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine, graduating in 1993. There was no question where he wanted to practice. A big city like Pittsburgh wasn't for him -- except for attending Steelers and Penguins games. No, for John there was no place like home, and that meant moving back to Blairsville.

There he approached the dentist that inspired him, Dr. Reilly. The two dentists became partners. Their practice thrived. John had a special touch with children, but all of his patients loved him. He generously served as a campus dentist for the local school district, earning $2 per patient. And he provided dental services to a mental hospital in the county.

John made good money and invested in real estate, earning even more. But he didn't really care for money and he didn't spend it on himself. Friends laugh and recall the clothes he wore. The car he drove. The fact he had no cellphone or computer.

What John liked to do with his money was to help those in his community who were less fortunate. Free dental services. Down payments for home mortgages. Start-up funds for aspiring business owners. Used cars for those without transportation. And he was always treating his friends to nights out, ball games, you name it. He even picked up the tab in restaurants for people he didn't know.

* * *

For most of his life, John had been happy. He enjoyed his profession, his community, his friends, helping others less fortunate. And he dated, but nothing serious. He was popular with everyone and had a magnetic personality, so people, including women, gravitated to him, Vaughn said.

DENNIS VAUGHN: I never knew anybody that did not like John. Even ex-girlfriends liked him. He was just that kind of person.

MICHAEL FUOCO: And then John's mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Still doting on her John John, she told him she wished he would marry and have a family. She didn't want him to be alone after she passed. This created a sea change for John, Vaughn said.

DENNIS VAUGHN: I guess I would say John was not the kind of person that I thought was in any rush to get married. He just seemed to be happy being social, he had his simple life, And I didn't really see him as having a strong desire necessarily to change that. He certainly never talked about any driving desire to get married. But that all seemed to change when his mother got sick, as her cancer progressed.

So I think John felt some pressure, some urgency, to get married for her sake.

MICHAEL FUOCO: During this time, John was dating Michele Magyar Kamler. He was 29; she was 25. John was smitten with the attractive blue-eyed brunette who had two children.

John wondered, "Could she be the one?"

Next time on "To Love and to Perish" --

John seemed to be head over heels in love with her. He was very affectionate, very attentive to her.

All his mom wanted in her dying days was for him to meet a nice girl and be happy so he's not alone. And in comes Michele and I think she took advantage of that whole situation. Played the part to a T.

My father came up to me and just sort of in passing said, "John better watch out for this one."

It's not her looks. She's a pretty girl but it's not like her looks are the be all and end all. That's not what did it.

MICHAEL FUOCO: "To Love and to Perish" was written by me, Michael A. Fuoco. Ashley Murray is the producer. Virginia Linn is our editor.

Steve Mellon is the photographer/videographer. Artist Daniel Marsula designed the logo. Michael Pound gets these podcasts to you. Laura Malt Schneiderman is the web page designer. And artist Alexa Miller designed our social media campaign.

Editorial assistance was provided by Post-Gazette interns Jenna Wise, Adam Duke, Katishi Maake, Marie Fazio, Annie Rosenthal, Trevor Lenzmeier, Caroline Engelmayer, Elena Rose, Emma Honcharski and Marella Gayla.

This podcast was recorded in the studios of the Center for Media Innovation at Point Park University in Downtown Pittsburgh.

For photos, videos and more of "To Love and to Perish" visit our website: post-gazette.com/loveperish

Want to support more journalism like this? You can help the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continue its 232 years of service by becoming a print and/or digital subscriber. It's easy -- just go to post-gazette.com/subscribe.

Thank you for your support. Until next time, I'm Michael A. Fuoco.

END

TO LOVE AND TO PERISH
A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette True Crime Podcast
Copyright 2018, PG Publishing Co.

Chapter 2 -- "Happily Never After"

MICHAEL FUOCO: Previously on “To Love and to Perish” —

I never knew anybody that did not like John. He was just that sort of person.

Blood everywhere, and at first I thought maybe he had fallen down the steps, then obviously the more you looked around, that wasn't the case.

From the standpoint of sheer brutality, of one-on-one--one murderer, one victim--it certainly ranks in the top 5-10 percent of all of the cases in which I have done autopsies on people who have been murdered.

He certainly never talked about any driving desire to get married. But that all seemed to change when his mother got sick, So I think John felt some pressure, some urgency, to get married for her sake.
* * *
MICHAEL FUOCO: John Yelenic was over the moon. The rich, esteemed dentist in tiny Blairsville, Pa., was crazy about the woman he was dating. He happily told friends he had finally gotten the “homecoming queen.”

The year was 1996. The object of John’s affection was Michele Magyar Kamler, a divorced mother of two. Attractive, with blue eyes, dark hair and a statuesque figure, she turned heads. And she didn’t mind the attention.

In March 1997, John’s mother, Mary Lois, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She told her only child she wished he’d marry. She didn’t want her cherished son to be alone when she passed.

Generous, kind and funny, John had dated regularly but never felt he had met the woman to marry. But now with his mother’s wish and being 29, John thought maybe it was time to settle down. Why not with the 25-year-old he was dating?

Then as now, friends quickly tick off the reasons -- major differences in education, personality, dreams, desires, character, temperament, priorities. But despite that, the couple wed. John would learn all too soon this would be no fairy-tale marriage.

There would be no happily ever after.

* * *
MICHAEL FUOCO: From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, this is “To Love and to Perish,” Season 2 of our True Crime Podcast. I’m host Michael A. Fuoco, alongside producer Ashley Murray. We’re the team that brought you the award-winning Season 1: “Three Rivers, Two Mysteries.” That podcast examines the strange disappearances and drownings of two young men in Pittsburgh’s rivers. This season, we’re bringing you a true tale of how love, infidelity, greed and hatred in a small town ultimately resulted in a gruesome murder.

This is the story of how the fates of three people became tragically intertwined. And it is a recounting of choices made and those not made...and the trauma that lingers because of them.
Chapter 2--“Happily Never After”
MICHAEL FUOCO: In her early years, Michele could be described as a free spirit. A wild child. Incorrigible.

She was born June 9, 1971, in Johnstown, Pa., the youngest of two children to Betty, a front-end manager in a food store, and John Magyar Sr., a car salesman. Some years later, her father moved out and the couple eventually divorced. That left Betty to care for Michele and her brother John, older by nearly two years.

Those who knew Michele said her mother had little control over her. She would sneak out at night to do who knows what. Her mother and brother and father would search for her. A day or two later, Michele would return home only to disappear again into the night.

Michele showed little interest in her studies at Johnstown’s vocational-technical school. She often skipped class and again would be gone to parts unknown.

She dropped out of high school at 16. Shortly thereafter, in 1986, she married her high school sweetheart, Jeff Kamler. They had a daughter and four years later a son. The marriage didn’t last. The couple divorced not long after her son’s birth. Michele had primary custody of the children.

Eventually, she and the children moved 25 miles northwest to Indiana County. For a time, she worked in Blairsville’s Sheetz convenience store. And she worked for Uncle Sudsy’s beer distributor, promoting Budweiser in local bars.

It was around this time that John asked a high school friend and dental patient if he knew any single women. The friend mentioned Michele. Later, the friend would tell others that he had only meant that John might find her to be fun. He wasn’t suggesting Michele would be the perfect wife.

It’s unclear how John and Michele met. According to one story they met in a bar where she was promoting beer. In any event, they began dating. And John was knocked off his feet. By all accounts, each had found what they desired. For John, Michele provided an instant family for him and he could fulfill the wish of his beloved, dying mother. For Michele, John was a millionaire and a path to a better life for her and her children.

More than a decade later, after John’s murder, Michele’s brother John Magyar wrote a victim’s impact statement for the court. He noted the profound effect his brother-in-law had on Michele and her children, saying he had taken them from “the world of welfare to a world of affluence.”

“All that John wanted in return was a family,” John Magyar wrote. “To John, it was a fair trade. He was a professional giver and Michele was a professional taker, driven by some false sense of entitlement.

“It worked for awhile,” he wrote.

* * *
MICHAEL FUOCO: Michele didn’t make good first impressions with John’s friends. Or second, third or even fourth ones. They described her as aloof, immature, manipulative, self-centered, greedy. All agree she was an expert in the art of sexual politics.

One of John’s best friends from college, Dennis Vaughn, first met her at a housewarming party he and his first wife held in Bradford, Pa. John and Michele had been dating for a while by then.

DENNIS VAUGHN: John seemed to be head over heels in love with her. He was very affectionate, very attentive to her.

She was very attractive. I remember when she came in, she was very quiet. I don’t really remember much about her beyond that. She didn’t say much, she just stayed with John at the party. But the thing that struck me the most about that day was my father came up to me afterwards and just sort of in passing said, “John better watch out for this one,” and the implication sort of was that I think he thought that maybe she was looking out for his money, or looking to get his money and that’s why she was involved with him. And it struck me because it was very out of character for my father to say something like that. My father didn’t really gossip, he didn’t talk about other people’s relationships or anything like that. So it really struck me at the time, and, of course, I didn’t agree with him. I didn’t see it so I just sort of dismissed it at the time. But those words came back to me later when everything happened the way they did.

MICHAEL FUOCO: It’s a little haunting, is it not, in retrospect?

DENNIS VAUGHN: Very haunting. And I wish there was a way to go back in time and communicate that better to John.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Effie Alexander is a Pittsburgh attorney who would come to represent John in his contentious divorce. She explained the couple’s pairing this way:

EFFIE ALEXANDER: She’s a pretty girl but it’s not like her looks are the be all and end all. That’s not what did it. It was her manipulative character. She had a way of weaving a web. And men fell for it.

Here’s how I envision this case. John was a little bit of a geek. Probably got straight A’s in school, went to college, decided to go into dentistry, he played in the band -- nothing against that, I love band people -- but he was this guy that at best would’ve gotten, you know, the girl next door. And here comes Michele, the hot little Budweiser sample girl at the local bar. Probably never had a hot girl on his arm in his whole life. Right?

So, all of a sudden there’s this hot girl who’s doling out Budweiser samples at the local bar, that everybody’s eyeing up because she looks easy, and John has her. And John’s mom was dying at the same time that he met Michele.

And all his mom wants on her dying days was for him to meet a nice girl and be happy so he’s not alone. And in comes Michele and I think she took advantage of that whole situation. Played the part to a T.

MICHAEL FUOCO: At this point, we should note that Michele declined to participate in this podcast. Now living in Savannah, Ga., she hung up on me as soon as I identified myself. Numerous, subsequent phone calls, text messages and letters went unanswered.

In January 1997, John bought a deli for Michele where she and her mother could work. That didn’t pan out when Michele lost interest by March. At the time, John was caring for his terminally ill mother at night while his aunts did so during the day. Michele decided to take over the daytime care duties, dismissing the aunts.

John’s mom died in June 1997. The next month, he signed a will leaving all of his assets to Michele. Eleven days later, he bought her a 2-carat diamond engagement ring.

On New Year’s Eve 1997, John wed Michele in Las Vegas. It was the gamble of a lifetime.

* * *
MICHAEL FUOCO: John moved Michele and her kids, ages 11 and 7, into his South Spring Street home. It was a comfortable house on a quiet street about four blocks from Blairsville’s main drag. But the home didn’t suit Michele’s taste. So, John bought his ready-made family a huge home in White Township, about a half-hour north of Blairsville. This isn’t the unpretentious John we know, friends like Vaughn thought.

DENNIS VAUGHN: I was really struck by how much this house was different than John, didn't meet, didn’t match his personality. It was this large, lavish house. I mean I wouldn't go so far as to call it a mansion per se but it was pretty close. Large, huge house. Great lawn. They had an in-ground pool. It had a hot tub. This large backyard that John had a ice rink installed so that Michele's son could practice hockey in the backyard. It was just so much more than I had ever seen John. John had always driven old used cars. Dressed plainly. Not at all a flashy person. And then suddenly he's living in this large, lavish house and it was obvious that it was Michele's doing. That this was the house that she always wanted or always dreamt of. And John just did not feel comfortable in that house.

He took me around on a tour of the house and the tour ended in the furnace room, which I thought was odd. And John disclosed to me that out of that whole huge house that the furnace room was really the only place he felt comfortable. And all that it had was a furnace and some old storage boxes in it. There was nothing beyond that and it was sad to me that out of all of these things that he had, all of these trappings of luxury and everything, that the only place he could be comfortable was in this sparse little furnace room.

MICHAEL FUOCO: But friends said whatever Michele wanted, John provided. Jewelry, expensive clothes, lavish travel. Breast augmentation. Teeth whitening. He treated her children as his own, buying whatever they needed. As an only child of a single mother, he longed for an even larger family. He so wanted to be a dad, something he didn’t have because his father died in a car crash when he was 3 months old. But the couple was unable to conceive.

John flew the family to Russia where they adopted a nearly 2-year-old boy in March 2000. They named him John Joseph Yelenic after his father. He was nicknamed Jay Jay for his first two initials.
To all appearances, things were going well in the marriage. But John revealed to friends that he believed Michele was having affairs with other men. John’s suspicions reached critical mass in March 2002. He confided to his good friend Vaughn that Michele told him to expect a call from a woman -- the wife of a man with whom she was having an affair. The woman did call. John disclosed to Vaughn that when he confronted Michele, he took the opportunity to confess an affair he once had but ended.

DENNIS VAUGHN: He just thought this would be an opportunity for us to clear the air and start over again and make things right. Well, apparently, according to John, when he disclosed to Michele that he himself had the affair she erupted on him, became very angry, threw him out of the house and told him that she was going to seek a divorce because of his infidelity.

John had a very deep sense of morality. And I think he just thought that that was the right thing to do. That she had slipped up so to speak, and he had, too, and that this would be the best opportunity for them to rebuild their marriage on a strong foundation. And it blew up in his face. It just ended up costing him everything.

MICHAEL FUOCO: The couple separated in March 2002. John had rented out the Spring Street home to a family. John being John, he wasn’t about to kick them out because of his marital problems. He informed the family that they could stay until their lease expired. Until then, John slept on a cot in a trailer where a technician made dental appliances. Michele and the kids stayed in the large White Township home.

When John was moving out, he asked another college buddy, Dave Lavrich, to give him a hand. Lavrich in turn asked his then-girlfriend Maggie McCartin to accompany him, and the couple drove to Blairsville from State College. Lavrich was a chemist, so McCartin called her boyfriend “Doc.”

MAGGIE MCCARTIN: We get there and Michele’s there and Jay Jay’s there, and I‘m helping. Dave and John are picking up boxes, packing up boxes. Doc was very cordial with her, because he always told me she was sort of the devil. So he was always very nice to her because he didn’t want any trouble with her. He just said “How are you?” Very cordial.

And then she just started talking about this guy, how wonderful he was, how great he was in bed, that she’s met this wonderful person and she’s really glad she’s going to be happy. And here’s John moving his stuff out and there’s Jay Jay, and she’s saying all of this in front of a little boy who’s 5, 5 ½, and all he can think of is my daddy’s leaving. He was really inconsolable. It was tough for me when my parents separated and my father moved out and I didn’t have these extenuating circumstances. So I just felt a connection to him right right away and felt really badly for him. But right away I knew Michele was all about Michele, all about money. All she could talk about was these lavish gifts this guy bought her, and all these things they did, and how great he was. It was really gauche, if you will.

MICHAEL FUOCO: McCartin said she was stunned that a woman she had just met would say such things in front of her -- and in front of her own child.

MAGGIE MCCARTIN: On the way home I remember saying that was really messed up. And Dave said, ”I said from the beginning he never should have married her.” And then Dave went into, she was married before, she had two kids, John thought he was getting an insta-family, that’s all he really wanted, but you could tell she was all about the Benjamins from the beginning, all about the money from the beginning.

Honestly, that’s who she was. She was inappropriate. Most people who meet her will tell you she’s very entitled. She has a very entitled mindset. Her whole life is “I am owed things. I don’t have to work because I’m pretty or I’m this or that.” She just never had that mindset of anything other than me.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Michele filed for divorce on June 10, 2003. Michele had primary custody of Jay Jay and John had visitation rights on weekends.

From the beginning, the process was excruciating for John with Michele asking for the world in a divorce settlement. And then it got worse. A grand jury investigation into John’s murder found that the divorce proceedings became “overheated.” There were allegations that John physically and sexually assaulted Jay Jay. John had to spend countless hours and thousands of dollars in legal fees defending himself. The allegations ultimately were determined to be unfounded, the grand jury said.

The whole thing had a lasting effect on John’s physical and emotional well-being. Friends said that before he died, he had become a different man than the one they knew and loved.

* * *
MICHAEL FUOCO: As the divorce process wore on, Michele dated other men. One of them was Saul Glosser. They met on Match.com in the fall of 2003. The Glosser name was well known in Johnstown, Michele’s birthplace. Glosser’s family founded Johnstown’s premier department store, Glosser Brothers, in the 1920s. They expanded their business holdings to a large chain of discount department stores, bargain dollar outlets and supermarkets, mostly in Western Pennsylvania. Michele had found another rich man.

The couple exchanged a number of emails and met for dinner on New Year’s Eve -- exactly seven years after her Las Vegas marriage to John. The couple began dating.

Five months later they were engaged, even though Michele was still legally married to John.

Three months after that, Glosser bought a house in Johnstown and moved there with Michele, her two children from a previous marriage, Jay Jay and Glosser’s son from a previous marriage. The couple and children lived there for the next nine months.

But Glosser broke off the engagement when he suspected Michele was having an affair with another man. Michele and the kids moved back to Indiana County.

In the summer of 2004, she began dating Kevin Foley, a Pennsylvania state trooper assigned to the Indiana Barracks. By the end of that year, Kevin moved in with Michele and her kids in Indiana. Twice divorced with no children, he was 39 and Michele was 33.

In fewer than 16 months, John would be savagely murdered. And Kevin, who swore an oath to uphold the law as a Pennsylvania state trooper, would be the murderer.

* * *
MICHAEL FUOCO: Next time on “To Love and to Perish”--

She picked a fine day to accuse him of molestation because as luck would have it he videotaped almost the entire visit other than maybe the time when he turned off the camera to drive to Chuck E Cheese or drive back home.

He got to the place not that he had given up but he was really in dire straights. He was feeling like this is never going to come to an end. The sexual molestation charges were tsort of the nail in the coffin from that perspective.

For me, personally, I think the biggest tragedy in this whole story is in a sense you could say that John died twice. The person that he was, the person that I knew and that John's friends, family, loved ones knew, he died before he was murdered.

At one point he said he was fearful for his life and I said, “Well, you need to share that with somebody or you need to tell the police” and he said, “Why would I bother telling the police because he is a police officer?” I think he just felt like he was in a situation that there nobody to help him.
"To Love and to Perish" was written by me, Michael A. Fuoco. Ashley Murray is the producer. Virginia Linn is our editor.

Steve Mellon is the photographer/videographer. Artist Daniel Marsula designed the logo. Michael Pound gets these podcasts to you. Laura Malt Schneiderman is the web page designer. And artist Alexa Miller designed our social media campaign.

Editorial assistance was provided by Post-Gazette interns Jenna Wise, Adam Duke, Katishi Maake, Marie Fazio, Annie Rosenthal, Trevor Lenzmeier, Caroline Engelmayer, Elena Rose, Emma Honcharski and Marella Gayla.

This podcast was recorded in the studios of the Center for Media Innovation at Point Park University in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Listen to us on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

For photos, videos and more of "To Love and to Perish" visit our website: post-gazette.com/loveperish

Want to support more journalism like this? You can help the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continue its 232 years of service by becoming a print and/or digital subscriber. It's easy -- just go to post-gazette.com/subscribe.

Thank you for your support. Until next time, I’m Michael A. Fuoco.

END

TO LOVE AND TO PERISH
A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette True Crime Podcast
Copyright 2018, PG Publishing Co.

Chapter 3 -- "A Soldier of the Law"

MICHAEL FUOCO: Previously on “To Love and to Perish”--

John seemed to be head over heels in love with her. He was very affectionate, very attentive to her.

She was very attractive. My father said, “John better watch out for this one,” I think she thought was looking to get his money and that’s why she was involved with him.

She’s a pretty girl but it’s not like her looks are the be all and end all. It was her manipulative personality and her manipulative character. She had a way of weaving a web. And men fell for it.

She was inappropriate. Most people who meet her will tell you she’s very entitled. She has a very entitled mindset. Her whole life is “I am owed things. I don’t have to work because I’m pretty or I’m this or that.” She just never had that mindset of anything other than me. He had sort of got to the point that he had given up but he was really in dire straights. He was feeling like this is never going to come to an end. The sexual molestation charges were sort of the nail in the coffin.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: The 20th century had barely begun when the Pennsylvania State Police Department was founded. The first uniformed police organization of its kind, it became a model for state police agencies throughout the nation.

Proud of its long tradition of service, the department has a Call of Honor. In part, it reads:.

I am a Pennsylvania State Trooper, a soldier of the law.
I must serve honestly, faithfully...
It is my duty to obey the law.

Since 1929, Pennsylvania state troopers have been required to memorize the pledge.

Trooper Kevin Foley did so. And for 12 years, he appeared to adhere to it.

But that all changed on April 13, 2006. Early that morning, he slashed and sliced the life out of beloved Blairsville dentist John Yelenic. At the time, Kevin was living with John’s estranged wife, Michele.

Kevin had betrayed his oath to be a soldier of the law. But it took the law a long time to uncover his murderous duplicity.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, this is “To Love and to Perish,” Season 2 of our True Crime Podcast. I‘m host Michael A. Fuoco alongside producer Ashley Murray. We’re the team that brought you the award-winning Season 1: “Three Rivers, Two Mysteries.” That podcast examined the strange disappearances and drownings of two young men in Pittsburgh’s iconic rivers.

This season, we’re bringing you a true tale of how love, infidelity, greed and hatred in a small town ultimately resulted in a gruesome murder.

This is the story of how the fates of three people became tragically intertwined. And it is a recounting of choices made and those not made ... and the trauma that lingers because of them.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: Chapter 3 —“A Soldier of the Law”

Kevin James Foley was born May 30, 1965. He was adopted by Kenneth and Gail Foley and the family lived on Long Island, N.Y., for the first two years of his life. The family moved to Schroon Lake, a skiing area in upstate New York where his parents bought a motel and cabin business and raised their four children.

Kevin’s father had heart problems and doctors advised him to move to a warmer climate to avoid the stress of rough winters. So, it was off to Florida when Kevin was about 12. Kevin graduated from high school in 1983 and enlisted in the Army. He was on active duty as a military policeman for three years, spending half of his time in West Germany.

Honorably discharged, he moved back with his parents, worked in a supermarket and enrolled in St. Petersburg Junior College. After earning an associate’s degree, he attended the University of South Florida.

While in school, he worked at a Walgreens. There he met a pharmacist. They dated and eventually married. Kevin graduated in 1992 with a criminology degree. The couple moved to Armstrong County, Pa., because his wife wanted to move back home.

But the couple divorced. Kevin married another woman in 2002 but that marriage lasted less than a year.

In 1993 he became a part-time officer in Freeport, a small Western Pennsylvania town. The following year, he was selected as a cadet at the Pennsylvania State Police Academy in Hershey. After six months of training, he became a trooper and memorized the Call of Honor.

His first station assignment was in Indiana, Pa., the county seat and not far from Blairsville. After serving as a uniformed patrol officer for about six years, he was assigned as a criminal investigator. He received several letters of commendation.

Jeff Witmer, who retired as a state trooper in January 2007, worked with Kevin in the criminal investigation unit.

JEFF WITMER: He was a hard worker. The one thing about Kevin, though, was he was, uh, he had a snarky-type personality. I mean, he wasn’t mean to you but he'd give a wisecrack to anybody. He was just that kind of guy. Kinda snarky, but not all the time. I mean he was a nice guy, too, but there were times when he would just say a wisecrack more so than other people. I was always more of a quieter person. I mean you'd laugh about it. It wasn't like he was a jerk about it but he was more prone to that.

I’d say a funny guy. I think at times maybe guys thought his snarkiness might have rubbed a particular person the wrong way but not to the point they didn't want to associate with him.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Years later, Kevin would use that sense of humor as a defense. He said he was just joking when he told fellow troopers and others that John should die — and when he asked another trooper to help kill him.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: Kevin began dating Michele in the summer of 2004. The muscular, athletic trooper with a buzz-cut was 39. The attractive brunette who was divorcing John was 33.

Kevin had met Michele several years earlier while on duty. He had accompanied another trooper to an interview with Michele. She was under investigation for computer crimes after a former boyfriend said she had hacked into his email account. No charges were ever filed.

When Michele and Kevin began dating, she was already two years into a nasty divorce process with John. She and her three kids had just moved back to Indiana, Pa., from Johnstown where they had lived with her wealthy fiancee, Saul Glosser. Glosser told others that he broke off the engagement when he suspected she was having an affair. Later, he said he suspected Kevin may have been the other man.

The divorce process between Michele and John had been ugly and protracted. Michele refused to sign a settlement without getting a huge amount of John’s sizeable estate. And at one point, Michele accused John of physically abusing their adopted son, Jay Jay, who was about 6 years old.

A court determined the allegation was baseless but John was wounded by the experience. He and his friends feared more unfounded retribution from Michele. John’s good friend Dennis Vaughn said they weren’t surprised Michele was dating another man, but they wondered, “Why Kevin?” And then it hit them.

DENNIS VAUGHN: The one thing that all of these men seem to have in common were that they were all successful, fairly wealthy individuals and that certainly seemed to fit Michele's pattern. And then we found out that Michelle was dating a Pennsylvania state trooper. And while, you know, certainly being a Pennsylvania state trooper is an admirable profession and a respectable profession, it didn't fit with what our expectations were.

Michele seemed to continually social climb and her relationships, getting more and more wealthy men to be involved with her. So, for her to start dating a Pennsylvania state trooper from a socio-economic standpoint seemed to be a big step downward and it didn't make sense to us at first why she would do this. But it didn't take long for us to realize what was happening because it was shortly after she became involved with Kevin Foley, the Pennsylvania state trooper, that we started hearing, and John started hearing, these allegations of abuse of Jay Jay, and suddenly it was like a light bulb went on. Oh, she's dating a Pennsylvania state trooper and she's pursuing possible criminal charges against John. That makes sense.

MICHAEL FUOCO: What they feared came to pass. Michele told Kevin that John had sexually abused Jay Jay. Kevin took that allegation to a fellow trooper and asked her to investigate. She did so, and Children and Youth Services got involved. A protection from abuse order was issued preventing John from having contact with Jay Jay and Michele. And then Michele reported to police that John had violated the PFA and a court hearing was held.

During the sexual assault investigations, John took state police and independent lie detector tests and passed both, his attorney Effie Alexander recalled. Kevin later testified that when no charges were filed, he went back to the investigating trooper and asked her to reopen the case. But again no crime was found.

At a hearing, Alexander said, it quickly became clear there was no evidence to support the allegations.

EFFIE ALEXANDER: She picked a fine day to accuse him of molestation because as luck would have it he videotaped almost the entire visit,other than maybe when he turned off the camera to drive to Chuck E Cheese or to drive home, and you could tell until the very, very end when he turned off the camera that that boy was having the time of his life. And that video was entered as evidence. And at the conclusion the judge basically threw out the PFA, the criminal charges were never processed.

Jay Jay pretty much told the judge that that's what his mommy was telling him to say. He was repeating the same thing related to an act upon him that his dad did, and he kept repeating himself. And the judge said, “He’s been coached. He’s been coached. I don’t believe it, I watched the video. This didn’t happen. He can have custody of his child.”

But you can win the battle and still lose the war because after that the visits were just horrific for John with the trooper’s involvement. They would call John names, they would tell him he’s a terrible father, they wouldn’t show up, they would tell Jay Jay to say things like, “You’re not my father, the trooper’s my father. I hate you. I don’t want to come with you.” They were working overtime on this kid to the point where John and I had wanted to take him to counseling. The child was clearly traumatized by everything he had been told.

MICHAEL FUOCO: A month before John’s murder, Kevin adopted a 9-month-old son from Guatemala. The couple moved the baby into the home where they lived with Michele’s two children from a previous marriage and Jay Jay.

Kevin would later say it was the best period of his life.

We should note here that both Kevin and Michele declined repeated requests by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to participate in this podcast.

Alexander said that after being exonerated, John had weekly visitation rights. But he voluntarily gave up some of them because Jay Jay was so traumatized that he refused to go with his father. That devastated John.

John’s close friend Maggie McCartin said the effects of spurious criminal charges, the custody battle and divorce proceedings affected John physically and emotionally.

MAGGIE MCCARTIN: Even with all the stuff that was going on he always maintained his sense of humor, he always maintained his wits about him. But then I started noticing he was drinking a lot more, he was depressed a lot more easily, he had gained weight. And he sort of got to the point, not that he had given up, but he was really in dire straits. He was feeling like this is never going to come to an end. The sexual molestation charges were the nail in the coffin from that perspective.

MICHAEL FUOCO: McCartin said some friends advised John to just move away from all of the chaos. He refused to do so.

MAGGIE MCCARTIN: He was a community guy. He loved Blairsville. He went away to school, he hated the city when he lived there, he loved his little nook, his area. He loved his simple existence in Blairsville. He wasn’t going to do that. He wasn’t going to walk away, especially from Jay Jay.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Vaughn witnessed his friend’s deterioration, as well.

DENNIS VAUGHN: Well, for me, personally, I think the biggest tragedy in this whole story is that in a sense you could say that John died twice. The person that he was, the person that I knew and that John's friends, family, loved ones knew, he died before he was murdered, if that makes sense.

The anxiety, the stress, the threats, being taken out of his dental office in handcuffs by the police in front of his patients just systematically tore him down brick by brick from the person that he once was. He, towards the end, I had the opportunity to spend the weekend before he died with him at his house in Blairsville and at that stage he physically wasn't the same person. Just looked unhealthy. His sense of humor while it was still there was very strained. He just wasn't the same person. And actually when I heard that he had died my first thought before anything else was that he had actually ended his own life and committed suicide. I was that concerned about his state of mind at the time.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: Bobbi Mack was a hockey mom. She lives in the Pittsburgh suburb of Murrysville, but her son played on the same traveling hockey team as John’s stepson. That’s how the two met. While attending a tournament in Johnstown, John began opening up about his pending divorce from Michele.

BOBBI MACK: I think that’s when he was talking about he and his wife getting a divorce, and you know I was talking about how I hadn’t been dating for a very long time because I’d been taking care of my mother and with my son, I’d been very active with my son’s hockey, it takes up a lot of time and I just didn’t date a lot. And he said, “Would you be interested in going out to dinner?” And I said, “Oh, I’d love to,” so that’s how that transpired. So it was very innocent. We were going out to dinner not looking at anything beyond just dinner and friendship, then kinda developing a friendship at that point.

MICHAEL FUOCO: The dinner went well. She found John to be gentle, funny and a good guy. For his part, John found himself attracted to the pretty, smart administrator in a local school district. They began dating even as John expressed some trepidation about Michele’s reaction.

BOBBI MACK: At that point, they were just separated and I think he was worried about how she would respond to the fact that he was seeing me. I said I wasn’t really worried about that because, I mean, we were just dating and the fact that they were moving towards a divorce and I don’t think at that point he had a divorce attorney.

So, I shared that I had worked with somebody in Pittsburgh who was really on top of things and very savvy and could support him. So I gave him Effie’s name.

MICHAEL FUOCO: The couple dated for nearly two years and became close during John and Michele’s estrangement. But Mack broke it off because of how Michele reacted. Among many cruel and frightening things Michele did was mail Mack a sympathy card for the death of her mother — even though Michele knew full well Mack’s terminally-ill mother was still alive.

BOBBI MACK: She was just very strange towards me after the fact that we were dating, which didn’t make sense to me, because she’s the one that left him, so I don’t know what ... it didn’t make sense to me. But she ... yeah, I just didn’t feel comfortable being in the same area with her or around her. It was just kind of a weird feeling. We were at a tournament in New York maybe and we were driving home, John wasn’t at the tournament, I was driving my son and another one of the hockey players home, and she would try to intimidate me. Like she would follow me in my car or at one point I ended up calling the police in Murrysville to let them know that I’d been threatened. She had made phone calls to me and actually put something in writing and said that I need to be worried about my son coming home from school. It was pretty threatening, and that’s when I stopped my relationship with John.

MICHAEL FUOCO: John’s friend Maggie McCartin knew of the problems between Michele and Mack. She and John understood why the relationship had to end. John wanted Mack to be happy and was sorry for how Michele treated her.

MAGGIE MCCARTIN: It had everything to do with his money and control over him. She did not like the fact he was dating Bobbi, she did not like the fact this was a woman who was educated and classy and had a lot going for her and so she did everything she could to make her life difficult.

That was devastating to him. He really, really loved her. She is a wonderful woman. She is.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Mack remembers that John expressed concern for his safety when Michele began dating Kevin.

BOBBI MACK: At one point he said he was fearful for his life and I said, “You need to share that with somebody or tell the police,” and he said, “Why would I bother telling the police because he is a police officer?” I think he just felt he was in a situation there nobody could help him.

MICHAEL FUOCO: So he did express fear for his safety?

BOBBI MACK: He did. He did. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think he was worried about officers following him or some sort of situation...he had weathered PFAs, CYS involvement, she was pretty conniving in how she would cause just chaos for him.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Were you worried for him?

BOBBI MACK: I was worried for him. I was very worried for him. Yeah. I said, “You need to let Effie know, too,” to see if she could give him any advice about what he needed to do. But it was, it was pretty ... .

MICHAEL FUOCO: About three weeks before he was murdered, John told Alexander that his car had been spray-painted in the middle of the night. He suspected Kevin because Kevin played on a police hockey team in a neighboring town late at night. John didn’t report the vandalism to police because he felt that would be fruitless.

EFFIE ALEXANDER: He told me unequivocally that he was 100 percent sure it was the trooper. He also expressed dire concern that he would end up dead. And I said, “John” — and you know I relive this conversation with John repeatedly because this is one of those things in your career that never leaves you. You always feel like maybe you had something to do with it because of advice or — you know, this is just something that I’ve lived with. I think of John and I still remember him so vividly and it still breaks my heart. But John said he was afraid the trooper would kill him and I said, “John,” literally I said, “He might throw eggs at your house next time or do something to scare you, but he’s not going to kill you. Everybody would know it was him. How could this guy kill you when it would be the most obvious thing that it was him?

But he was like, “Can I send you $10,000?” And I said, “For what?” And he said, “I’m going to be killed and nobody’s going to prove that he did it. He’s going to get away with murder because he’s a homicide investigator for the state troopers. He knows what to do and they’re all going to cover it up and it’s going to be buried just like me, and I want to send you $10,000 just so you can hire an investigator to prove that he did it.”

MICHAEL FUOCO: Alexander refused to take the money for ethical reasons. She felt the murder prediction was far-fetched. She advised John to have surveillance cameras installed to catch the perpetrator in the act if there was any more vandalism.

Less than a month later, John was murdered. Surveillance cameras were in his house — in boxes. They hadn’t been installed.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: About two weeks before the slaying, the final terms for the divorce were worked out in the Valley Dairy Restaurant outside Blairsville. Michele, John and their two attorneys were there. The divorce settlement would decrease Michele’s monthly support from about $3,800 to $1,300. She also would receive money from the sale of some property they owned. And she would remain the beneficiary of John’s $1 million life insurance policy, but only for an amount representing child support for Jay Jay until he was 18. After that, Jay Jay would be the beneficiary of what was left of the policy payout. And of John’s entire estate.

The couple had come close to reaching a settlement numerous times before only to have Michele change her mind about the terms. And she tried to renege on the latest tentative agreement. But Michele’s attorney told her she had no choice but to sign. She had formally agreed to the terms at the restaurant, and he had given his word to Alexander there would be no changes.

Throughout the estrangement, Michele repeatedly called John’s dental practice and asked for more money. He always gave Michele what she wanted. But Alexander told John that he had to stop taking her calls and he followed the advice. Michele persisted with a barrage of calls, telling his receptionist she needed more money and wouldn’t sign without it. She said that she would have to go on food stamps otherwise.

But she did sign the papers. And John was set to do the same on the day he was slashed and cut to death in his home by an intruder with a knife.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: It so happened that Kevin had a fascination with knives. His co-workers would later testify that he habitually played with a knife at work. One trooper, James Fry, testified it wasn’t uncommon to see him at roll call or walking down a hall with the knife out, flicking it open and closed, open and closed, open and closed.

Fry testified that on one occasion, Kevin cut Fry’s pants in the groin area. “He like, came up, flicked it open and like slashed it back and forth. I mean, it caught me right in the groin and I jumped back,” Fry testified. On the witness stand, Kevin said the knife he regularly carried was a Spyderco. He admitted he also had about four knives in his locker and a Beretta commemorative Pennsylvania State Police knife at his home. And troopers and others later testified, Kevin made no secret of his hatred for John. He said the dentist should die, that he prayed for his death in a car crash. And he even asked a fellow trooper to help him kill John. Yet, no one went to their supervisors to report what can at best be described as troubling comments. The troopers said later they thought Kevin was joking.

But John’s murder was no joke. John’s friends and family were grief-stricken by the savage slaying. They consoled each other at the viewing and funeral. Michele and Jay Jay didn’t attend either but her other children did. Given the animosity Kevin and Michele held for John, those close to him believed an arrest — or two — wouldn’t take long. After all, who else had motive, means, opportunity? A year passed. No arrest. On the anniversary of John’s death, more than 130 friends and family held a vigil outside his home. They lit white candles, sang hymns and talked about the wonder that was John. Amid the sadness was the haunting feeling that maybe justice would never be served on a person still acting as a soldier of the law. Would Kevin really get away with it? Would John’s dire prediction prove true?

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: Next time on “To Love and to Perish”—

While I was driving into Blairsville, the fire whistle was blowing off but at the time I didn’t think anything of it. But as I got home and ran into the house to get my grocery list, my phone was ringing so I almost didn’t answer it, but I thought, “Oh, I better before I go.” And it was my good friend who lives up the street and she said, “Mary Ann, you better get over here, something’s happened to John.”

I mean, I knew there was bad blood for lack of a better term but I never thought it would come to this.

As soon as the word homicide was mentioned, my thought went immediately to Kevin — Kevin/Michele — because they were the only people I would ever ever imagine would have any desire to hurt John. John was not somebody that instilled feelings of hatred or anger. John didn’t piss anybody off, except these two people.

I was that convinced at the beginning of all of this that it was only going to be a couple of weeks before he was going to be arrested, they’re going to find everything. Little did I know all of this time would pass and it would continue to kind of build and nothing happened.

I told him he was going to rot in hell for what he did, which I guess was stupid on my part, but I just said that to him, and when Michele, they both yelled at me and called me names.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: “To Love and to Perish” was written by me, Michael A. Fuoco. Ashley Murray is the producer. Virginia Linn is our editor.

Steve Mellon is the photographer/videographer. Artist Daniel Marsula designed the logo. Michael Pound gets these podcasts to you. Laura Malt Schneiderman is the web page designer. And artist Alexa Miller designed our social media campaign.

Editorial assistance was provided by Post-Gazette interns Jenna Wise, Adam Duke, Katishi Maake, Marie Fazio, Annie Rosenthal, Trevor Lenzmeier, Caroline Engelmayer, Elena Rose, Emma Honcharski and Marella Gayla.

This podcast was recorded in the studios of the Center for Media Innovation at Point Park University in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Listen to us on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. For photos, videos and more of “To Love and to Perish” visit our website: post-gazette.com/loveperish

Want to support more journalism like this? You can help the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continue its 232 years of service by becoming a print and/or digital subscriber. It’s easy — just go to post-gazette.com/subscribe. Thank you for your support.

Until next time, I’m Michael A. Fuoco.

END

TO LOVE AND TO PERISH
A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette True Crime Podcast
Copyright 2018, PG Publishing Co.

Chapter 4 — "A Case is Made"

MICHAEL FUOCO: Previously on “To Love and to Perish” —

The anxiety, the stress, the threats, being taken out of his dental office in handcuffs by the police in front of his patients just systematically tore him down brick by brick from the person that he once was.

She was just very strange toward me after the fact that we were dating, which didn’t make sense to me, because she’s the one that left him, so I don’t know what...it didn’t make sense to me.

He was like, “Can I send you $10,000?” and I said, “For what?” and he said, “I’m going to be killed and nobody’s going to prove that he did it. He’s going to get away with murder because he’s a homicide investigator for the state troopers.”

And I just think he just felt he was in a situation there was nobody to help him.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: On Holy Thursday in 2006, Mary Ann Clark waited with her parents in their Blairsville home for her first cousin John Yelenic. Clark was 18 years older than John, so they weren’t close growing up. But she loved her cousin and wanted to congratulate him on his long-sought divorce from his estranged wife Michele. John was ecstatic that the acrimony would be in the past.

John had asked Clark’s parents — his aunt and uncle — to witness his signing of the settlement. He said he’d be there at 3 p.m. But a half hour passed and John hadn’t arrived. That was odd for John. Clark had grocery shopping to do for Easter, so she told her parents to congratulate John and left.

MARY ANN CLARK: And when I was driving into Blairsville, the fire whistle was blowing but at the time I didn’t think anything of it. But as I got home and ran into the house to get my grocery list, my phone was ringing, so I almost didn’t answer it, but I thought, “Oh, I better before I go” and it was my good friend who lives up the street and she said, “Mary Ann, you better get over here, something’s happened to John.”

MICHAEL FUOCO: A million things rushed through her head. Was it a fire? A medical emergency? An accident? What she didn’t consider was that John had been savagely murdered. But that’s what she came to learn shortly after arriving at John’s home, now cordoned off by yellow crime scene tape.

She was in shock. She was haunted by dismissing John’s fears that something would happen to him because Michele was living with a Pennsylvania state trooper, Kevin Foley. Neither Kevin nor Michele made a secret of their hatred of John. Clark and others immediately suspected Kevin had been the person who brutally cut John to death. And they suspected Michele might be involved as well. They made their feelings known to investigators.

MARY ANN CLARK: What was going through my head was I could have prevented it, the family could have prevented it, his friends could have prevented it, but we were all so naive about police. When he would express his feelings of fear and say, “I can’t be in town on the weekends,” and, “They’re following me,” we were like, “John, state police don’t do that. Why would they bother with you?”

But what do you do when you can’t go to the police? I still can’t wrap my mind around it. What you do when you can’t go to the police and have them believe you? We knew all that we could do at this point then was to find out who did it and make sure they pay the rest of their life for what they had done.

I don’t know ... . I felt because I didn’t do it for him in life, I had to do it for him in death. It became the position I had, and I was determined to see it through to the end.

MICHAEL FUOCO: She had no way to know it then, but the end was far, far away.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, this is “To Love and to Perish,” Season 2 of our True Crime Podcast. I’m host Michael A. Fuoco alongside producer Ashley Murray. We’re the team that brought you the award-winning Season 1: “Three Rivers, Two Mysteries.” That podcast examined the strange disappearances and drownings of two young men in Pittsburgh’s rivers. This season, we’re bringing you a true tale of how love, infidelity, greed and hatred in a small town 42 miles from Pittsburgh ultimately resulted in a gruesome murder.

This is the story of how the fates of three people became tragically intertwined. And it is a recounting of choices made and those not made ... and the trauma that lingers because of them.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: Chapter 4 — “A Case is Made”

At the Indiana County state police barracks, Kevin was vocal in his hatred of John. Testimony would later show that Kevin regularly told troopers — and others, including even his mother — that John should die, that he prayed for his death in a car crash. And, a trooper testified, Kevin asked him if he would help him kill John.

Yet, no one told their supervisors. They said they thought Kevin was joking. Now-retired state trooper Jeff Witmer worked with Kevin in the criminal investigation unit. He said he knew of the messy divorce and the contentiousness among Michele, Kevin and John. But he said he never heard Kevin threaten John.

JEFF WITMER: I mean, I knew there was bad blood, for want of a better term, but I never thought it would come to this.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Witmer got a call from his supervisor, Sgt. George Emigh, on the day John’s body was discovered. Sgt. Emigh told him there had been a homicide in Blairsville, and he should go there.

A note to listeners: During this interview, John’s last name was mispronounced, as was common during his lifetime because of the way it’s spelled.

JEFF WITMER: He said, “Blairsville gonna handle it.” And he said, “The victim is Dr. Yelenic,” and there was a pause, and I said, “George, I'm sorry, that name doesn't ring a bell with me.” And there was pause in his voice, as if he thought I was going to know who that was, and when I said that, he reminded me of Kevin Foley, Michele Yelenic and Dr. Yelenic. And I told George, I said, “OK, it’s ringing a bell now,” so I went from there down to the crime scene.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Does it ever pass through your brain the possibility that Foley could be involved?

JEFF WITMER: The possibility that, just from a policeman’s point of view, knowing that there was bad blood there, and that's always a possibility. Not that I knew, not that I thought, “Oh, Kevin did it.” Yeah.

MICHAEL FUOCO: And as a criminal investigator — I understand that at this point, this was not your case — but don’t you work from the inside out, from the people closest to the victim looking at them as suspects?

JEFF WITMER: Sure, I was gonna use that term in my last answer to you, but I didn't know how to say it. Inside out, you work your way out.

MICHAEL FUOCO: So wouldn't it have made sense at some point that Michele and Foley would have been looked at by investigators…

JEFF WITMER: Yes.

MICHAEL FUOCO: ...early on in the investigation?

JEFF WITMER: Yes.

MICHAEL FUOCO: But that’s not what happened, to the consternation of many, including Clark. Standing outside the murder scene, she quickly told Blairsville Police Chief Don Hess and Indiana County District Attorney Robert Bell of the ugly divorce proceedings. And of Michele and Kevin’s unfounded allegations that John physically and sexually abused his adopted son, Jay Jay. And especially of John’s fear that Kevin would kill him.

For John’s friends, like Dennis Vaughn, there was no question of who was behind John’s murder.

DENNIS VAUGHN: As soon as the word homicide was mentioned, my thought went immediately to Foley — Foley/Michele — because they were the only people I would ever imagine would have any desire to hurt John. John was not somebody that instilled feelings of hatred or anger. John didn’t piss anybody off, except these two people. I don’t know anybody, John’s friends or family, that thought anything different.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Given what she and others had related to authorities, Clark was stunned that Kevin and Michele weren’t separately questioned after John’s body was discovered.

MARY ANN CLARK: Dumb me, naive me, watching too much TV, I never, ever thought they were not going right up to the house and questioning Michele. Isn’t that what they do right away? Isn’t it the wife, the closest people? Never did they go and haul in Kevin and Michele, ever. They quietly went up, knocked at the door, and nicely told them “Michele, we have bad news for you. Your husband was murdered,” with Kevin in the house, the kids in the house. And they walk away.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Blairsville police officer Jill Gaston and a deputy coroner had gone to Michele and Kevin’s home. They went there to deliver a death notification since Michele was the next of kin.

During the conversation, Officer Gaston astutely noted a one-inch red and swollen scratch above Kevin’s left eye. Much later, Gaston’s observation would prove crucial.

Knowing there had been a violent struggle during the murder, Gaston wondered if Kevin’s wound could have been made by John as he fought for his life. Kevin’s blood should be tested against whatever DNA might be found under John’s fingernails, she thought.

Kevin noticed Gaston staring at the wound. A criminal investigator himself, he knew exactly what she was thinking. Without her even asking the question, he offered an answer. “Hockey,” he said, indicating how he got the wound. Later, he said he had accidentally hit himself in the head with the blade of his hockey stick while taking it out of the car that morning.

Officer Gaston’s instincts were astute, but District Attorney Bell didn’t feel there was enough probable cause to get a search warrant to obtain Kevin’s blood. Indeed, it would be months before any search warrants would be served on Kevin’s home and vehicle or to get his blood.

We should note here that both Kevin and Michele declined repeated requests by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to participate in this podcast.

Michele didn’t claim John’s body. Neither she nor Jay Jay attended John’s viewing or funeral. Clark was appointed executor of John’s estate. She made the funeral arrangements and got the headstone for John’s cemetery plot.

Kevin remained on the force. He was assigned to desk duty in Indiana, Pa., four days after John’s body was discovered. Five months later, he was transferred to a different barracks with the same restricted status. In response to a right-to-know request filed by me, state police would not explain why Kevin was given restricted status or transferred.

Clark along with John’s divorce attorney, Effie Alexander, went to court. They wanted to get John the divorce in death that he so wanted in life. Alexander said the move was symbolic. Under Pennsylvania law, the divorce settlement the parties had reached would take effect, even though John hadn’t signed the papers. Still, Alexander said, getting the posthumous divorce was important to those grieving John’s murder.

EFFIE ALEXANDER: We didn’t want her to be his widow. We wanted him to be divorced. We didn’t want him — her to be the widow, such an evil woman. We felt like, give the man his divorce and let him rest in the ground in peace.

MICHAEL FUOCO: The effort drew national attention from law journals and the media. But it ultimately failed. Common Pleas Judge Carol Hanna of Indiana County said granting a divorce to a dead man would be redundant. That’s because the marriage ended April 13, 2006, the day John was murdered. She cited a 1927 Pennsylvania Common Pleas Court opinion that said, “You cannot untie a knot which has already been untied.”

Alexander appealed the ruling to Superior Court, but again it was denied.

During this time, Clark and John’s friends kept pushing Bell for some traction in what they believed was an easily solvable case. Among them was Maggie McCartin.

MAGGIE MCCARTIN: I was that convinced at the beginning of all of this that it was only going to be a couple of weeks before he was going to be arrested, they’re going to find everything, and it’s just going to go. And little did I know all of this time would pass, and it would continue to kind of build, and nothing happened.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Bobbi Mack felt the same. She had dated John for nearly two years, but broke it off shortly before his death because Michele threatened her. She ran into Kevin and Michele at a hockey rink.

BOBBI MACK: I told him he was going to rot in hell for what he did, which I guess was stupid on my part, but I just said that to him, and that’s when Michele, they both were yelling, they yelled at me and called me names.

MICHAEL FUOCO: On the one-year anniversary of John’s death, more than 130 people held a vigil outside the murder scene. There had been no arrest. The case seemed cold.

Clark knew something had to change. And soon.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: Clark is a mover and shaker in county and state Republican politics. She personally knew the state’s top law enforcement officer, Attorney General Tom Corbett. In fact, her daughter was a fundraiser for Corbett, a Republican who lives in a Pittsburgh suburb.

She knew that in Pennsylvania, the attorney general must be invited by the local district attorney to take over an investigation. She told Corbett that had to happen in this case.

Corbett, who later would be elected governor, recalls the conversation.

TOM CORBETT: I mean, she wasn’t seeing anything happening. Obviously, it wasn’t an accident. Obviously, it was a murder. John was her cousin, I think, and she wanted to see justice. I knew her from politics, she came to me, she didn’t even come to Harrisburg. I think it was some event that we were at that she brought this up. And I said, “OK, we’ll see if we can take a look at it.” And we just started working very methodically and talking about it, but I mean she wasn’t like demanding or anything like that. She just said, “Can you help me?”

MICHAEL FUOCO: But let me ask you this, if she doesn’t do that …

TOM CORBETT: We’re not involved. I mean, we were watching this, but we’re not involved.

MICHAEL FUOCO: As a former U.S. attorney and an Allegheny County prosecutor, Corbett knew his way around a criminal case. And after looking at the year-long investigation, he felt something wasn’t right.

TOM CORBETT: Well, it was going on for a long period of time when there was maybe some obvious people that should have been interviewed at that point.

As I recall, it jumped out pretty quickly that this was a pretty violent crime. And if you look for motive, and then you look for people who may have motive, then you kind of see that Foley as a state trooper may be a potential witness or subject. And it’s a complicating factor that he is a state trooper, and he’s a crime investigator in that barracks.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Corbett decided his office should take over. He approached Bell and made the case that Bell had to frequently work with troopers in the Indiana barracks where Kevin had been stationed. And, he said, the state AG’s office had more resources. Bell agreed and turned over the case to Corbett’s office.

Corbett said his investigators became convinced that Foley was involved. And Michele was looked at as a person of interest as well.

TOM CORBETT: As a prosecutor you take a look at where is, who has the motive. I couldn’t see any other motive.

How many books have been written about love triangles? Right? Let’s see, Shakespeare did one, didn’t he? You know, because passion is the root of many crimes.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Corbett, now a law professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, put Senior Deputy Attorney General Anthony Krastek in charge. Krastek was a veteran homicide prosecutor with a previous stint in the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office. And Attorney General Special Agent Regis Kelly, a veteran homicide investigator, was assigned to the case.

TOM CORBETT: You got a guy that did a crime of passion, killed somebody in a very violent manner. He happens to be a state trooper, and he’s hiding it. And so we’re going to get him.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Clark and John’s friends were ecstatic. With Corbett, Krastek and Kelly now on the case, for the first time since the murder one year earlier, they believed justice was now a possibility.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: Krastek and Kelly set to work. They took over an investigation first led by Blairsville Police. The crime scene had been processed by state troopers from the Greensburg barracks. After some time, state police investigators from Greensburg took over from Blairsville. Troopers from the Indiana barracks where Kevin had been assigned were never involved in the probe.

ANTHONY KRASTEK: We, and by we I mean Special Agent Regis Kelly and myself, we received the reports, the investigation to that point, what lab reports there were and really importantly, the photographs. The crime scene people, who were also state police investigators, they did a great job, too. They took great pictures.

Agent Kelly and I had a lot of experience in homicide cases and really, looking through the photographs, it was pretty apparent to us what happened. We could piece through the physical act of the entry and the homicide, the actual physical facts of the homicide relatively quickly.

We kind of knew what happened. It was a question at that point who did it.

MICHAEL FUOCO: The likely suspect quickly emerged.

ANTHONY KRASTEK: This wasn’t a burglary. The person that came there didn’t come there to steal a VCR. The amount of wounds, the duration of the attack, the nature of slicing wounds clearly demonstrated this was an act of considerable anger. In trying to decide who did it as opposed to how it happened, certainly the nature of this being angry was very helpful.

Looking at the reports, it seemed to us rather obvious that the main suspect here was Kevin Foley.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Krastek, who’s now retired, began presenting evidence and witness testimony in May 2007 before a statewide investigating grand jury in Pittsburgh. Some of the evidence had been uncovered by former lead investigator State Police Cpl. Randall Gardner, whose work Krastek praised.

Over four months, the grand jurors heard a litany of evidence against Kevin.

They heard of the ugly divorce and custody proceedings between John and Michele.

Those bloody sneaker prints found in John’s house? The FBI determined they were likely from an Asics Gel Creed or Gel Creed Plus running shoe, between sizes 10 and 12½. Kevin, an avid runner, had purchased and worn that brand in a size 10. That is, until the day after John’s murder. Then, Kevin began wearing Nikes.

Jurors also heard that a vehicle resembling Kevin’s burgundy two-toned Ford Explorer was videotaped passing the Blairsville Sheetz gas station at 1:48 a.m. on April 13, 2006. That was not on Kevin’s usual way home from his hockey game that ended at midnight. But it was in the vicinity of John’s home, where John was killed at around the time the vehicle was spotted.

State troopers who worked in the Indiana barracks testified that on a nearly daily basis, Kevin expressed his extreme hatred of John, said he wished and prayed he would die, and even asked a fellow trooper to help kill him. Civilians also testified they heard Kevin wish for John’s death.

And, troopers testified, Kevin was fascinated with knives. He habitually played with one at work, flicking it open and closed. That is, until John’s body, slashed to death, was discovered. No longer did Kevin play with knives.

During the grand jury inquiry, the FBI matched DNA evidence between Kevin and genetic material taken from underneath John’s fingernail. Gaston, the Blairsville officer, had noticed a fresh gash on his forehead in the hours after John’s body was discovered. And troopers said they saw the fresh wound, too.

ANTHONY KRASTEK: I think we were at the point I would have recommended charging even before we had the DNA. The DNA was the final piece of evidence. I certainly felt better about it but it was still a very strong circumstantial case.

MICHAEL FUOCO: On Sept. 27, 2007, Kevin was arrested on a homicide charge. That was more than 17 months after the murder. Corbett announced Kevin’s arrest at a press conference in Indiana, Pa., flanked by the head of the Pennsylvania State Police and Bell, the Indiana County district attorney.

Clark felt her tenacity had been validated.

MARY ANN CLARK: Ahhh. It was my birthday. It was on my birthday, and it was the greatest birthday gift ever because we had just day by day, week by week, month by month just come to think that we’re just going to have to give up on this because it’s just not ever going to happen. There are too many people protecting him.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Before Kevin stood trial, Clark filed a federal wrongful death suit claiming that Kevin killed John, that Michele put him up to it and that troopers who heard Kevin threaten John’s life did nothing to prevent it. It also claimed that state police leadership, rising all the way to the commissioner, regularly covered up crimes committed by troopers. The lawsuit was subsequently dismissed by the court, but not before Michele was required to respond to it. She wrote in a court document she had nothing to do with John’s murder and did nothing to impede the investigation.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: On the front wall in the Indiana County courtroom where Kevin was tried in March 2009 is a quote from Theodore Roosevelt: “No man is above the law and no man is below it.”

The motto served as a reminder to the jury of seven men and five women during Kevin’s eight-day trial. They listened intently as Krastek laid out his case. Brick by brick, he used witnesses upon witness to stack the evidence against the state trooper.

There was Kevin’s relationship with Michele. The problems between Michele and John. Kevin’s frequent harangues that John should die. The fact he played with knives and wore Asics running shoes — until John’s murder. He drove the same color and make of an SUV caught on tape near the home around the time of John’s killing.

Means. Motive. Opportunity.

Oh, and one more thing: His DNA was under John’s fingernail.

Krastek put three DNA expert witnesses on the stand, including Mark Perlin, who is based in Pittsburgh. Perlin said his most compelling of three tests showed a probability of one in 19 trillion —19 trillion! — that the DNA under John’s fingernail belonged to someone other than Kevin. His computerized DNA testing had never before been certified in a trial, but now is used throughout the state.

The courtroom was packed, mostly by John’s family, friends and neighbors. Clark was there every day. McCartin flew in from Los Angeles for a few days. Mack was there. And Vaughn came from Virginia for most of it.

DENNIS VAUGHN: The trial really for me was my first opportunity to really just look at him and to realize those are the hands that killed my friend, that’s the person that came into John’s house in the middle of the night and stole his life. I remember thinking to myself, “He just looks like a guy.” When it’s all said and done, he’s just a guy. He’s not some horrible boogeyman monster, he’s just some guy. Somehow that made it even worse. He just looked like anybody else you would see on the street. I almost in a way wished he was something more, you know what I mean? I don’t know why.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Krastek was surprised and delighted when on the last day of the trial Kevin took the witness stand in his own defense.

“Are you innocent?” Kevin’s attorney asked him on direct examination.

“Yes, sir, I am innocent,” Kevin responded

As for the threats he made to John’s life? Why, those were just jokes, he testified. Krastek pounced on that during cross-examination.

“What is funny about saying … ’I want you to help me kill that cocksucker?’” Krastek asked. “Tell me the joke. I don’t get it. Tell me the joke.”

“There isn’t any joke,” Kevin said.

“What is funny about it?” Krastek snapped back.

“Maybe my personality, my behavior,” Kevin said.

Michele was conspicuous by her absence in the courtroom. She didn’t sit through one minute of the trial for the man she claimed she loved. And, even though the defense listed her as an alibi witness, she never was called to testify. Krastek wanted to make sure the jury noticed that. But he had to be clever about it.

ANTHONY KRASTEK: I would not be allowed to comment on the fact that he’s testifying he was at home with Michele. I can’t tell the jury, “Well, where’s Michele?” That would be commenting on a witness who wasn’t there. It would be a certain mistrial. But, you know, you ask enough questions of him, as opposed to an argument, that if you keep bringing her up, she’s there. The jury knows, you know, he’s saying this is a person who could corroborate this. And it’s his lover. Someone who shares the same motive that he had. And she’s not there.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Kevin had been on the stand for nearly four hours. He was the last witness. After closing arguments and the judge’s charge, the jury began its deliberations. Krastek didn’t know what to think.

ANTHONY KRASTEK: I would not say I was confident. I felt we presented a good case. But that’s the worst part, the waiting time, because there’s nothing you can do now. Before that, you have some control over things with limitation. But now there’s nothing you can do. And you have no idea what they’re thinking about.

MICHAEL FUOCO: What were the jurors thinking? And what would they decide?

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: Next time on “To Love and to Perish” —

I always feel like John’s blood’s on her hands one way or another, maybe not directly but indirectly.

We definitely looked at Michele because she was in some part the impetus to motive here. I’ve always said, if we could have arrested her, we would have.

John’s life was cut short. He died by the sword, he did not live by the sword, and that was unfair to him.

It’s funny how fate works. You know these are three people, John Yelenic, Michele Yelenic and Kevin Foley, who came from three very different places in life and are now going to be tied together forever because of these events.

This is a Lifetime Movie of the Week, in some way, shape or form.

There are still a lot of questions that are unanswered for many of us that lived through this.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: “To Love and to Perish” was written by me, Michael A. Fuoco. Ashley Murray is the producer. Virginia Linn is our editor.

Steve Mellon is the photographer/videographer. Artist Daniel Marsula designed the logo. Michael Pound gets these podcasts to you. Laura Malt Schneiderman is the web page designer. And artist Alexa Miller designed our social media campaign.

Editorial assistance was provided by Post-Gazette interns Jenna Wise, Adam Duke, Katishi Maake, Marie Fazio, Annie Rosenthal, Trevor Lenzmeier, Caroline Engelmayer, Elena Rose, Emma Honcharski and Marella Gayla.

This podcast was recorded in the studios of the Center for Media Innovation at Point Park University in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Listen to us on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. For photos, videos and more of “To Love and to Perish” visit our website: post-gazette.com/loveperish

Want to support more journalism like this? You can help the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continue its 232 years of service by becoming a print and/or digital subscriber. It’s easy — just go to post-gazette.com/subscribe. Thank you for your support.

Until next time, I’m Michael A. Fuoco.

END

TO LOVE AND TO PERISH
A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette True Crime Podcast
Copyright 2018, PG Publishing Co.

Chapter 5 -- "Two Lives Lost"

MICHAEL FUOCO: Previously on “To Love and to Perish” —

I could have prevented it, the family could have prevented it, his friends could have prevented it but we were all so naive about police.

I mean, I knew there was bad blood for want of a better term but I never thought it would come to this.

So, this wasn’t a burglary. The person that came there didn’t come there to steal a VCR. The nature of slicing wounds, clearly demonstrated this was an act of considerable anger.

As soon as the word homicide was mentioned my thought went immediately to Foley — Foley/Michele — because they were the only people I ever, ever could imagine would have any desire to hurt John.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: The waiting was the hardest part.

It was March 18, 2009. Nearly three years had passed since John Yelenic was brutally sliced to death in his Blairsville home. Friends and family of the beloved dentist had been frustrated by the initial homicide investigation. It seemed to ignore the obvious suspect, Kevin Foley, a Pennsylvania state trooper.

Kevin had been living with Michele, John’s estranged wife. There was bad blood. There was an ugly divorce that was one day from being finalized when John was killed. Foley had openly and often stated his wish that John should die.

After a year had passed and nothing was happening, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office took over the investigation from the Indiana County district attorney. Within six months, Kevin was charged with homicide.

And now, on the eighth day of Kevin’s trial in Indiana County, a jury of seven men and five women were deliberating his fate. Would they decide DNA and other physical and circumstantial evidence proved Kevin’s guilt? Or would they find reasonable doubt?

An hour passed. Then two. And then three. Four. Five. John’s good friend Dennis Vaughn recalled the tension

DENNIS VAUGHN: There’s nothing that can describe what if feels like to wait for that verdict. Every day for two years you’ve waiting for this and now you know it’s in the hands of 12 people and you have no inkling of how they perceive the evidence.

It’s helpless. You feel absolutely helpless. You have 12 strangers basically determining how you are going to feel for the rest of your life after this.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Finally, at 10 p.m., after deliberating nearly 6½ hours, the jury reached a verdict. Those in the courtroom held their breath.

“On the charge of murder in the first degree, we find the defendant...guilty.”

Everyone exhaled. And mutedly cheered.

But then, as now, there was a feeling that justice may have been only partially served by Kevin’s conviction. What was Michele’s role in all of this, if any? Should she have faced some consequence for the literal death of her husband and the figurative death of her lover?

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, this is “To Love and to Perish,” Season 2 of our True Crime Podcast. I’m host Michael A. Fuoco alongside producer Ashley Murray. We’re the team that brought you the award-winning Season 1: “Three Rivers, Two Mysteries.” That podcast examined the strange disappearances and drownings of two young men in Pittsburgh’s iconic rivers. This season, we’re bringing you a true tale of how love, infidelity, greed and hatred in a small town 40 miles from Pittsburgh ultimately resulted in a gruesome murder.

This is the story of how the fates of three people became tragically intertwined. And it is a recounting of choices made and those not made...and the trauma that lingers because of them.

This is the final episode of our story.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Chapter 5 — “Two Lives Lost”

Nearly three months after the conviction, a sentencing hearing was held. John’s family and friends read victim impact statements. Those who couldn’t be there mailed theirs. They directed their grief, anger and pain at Kevin for what they called a monstrous act. But Michele didn’t go unnamed.

Among those in the courtroom was Bobbi Mack. She had dated John for nearly two years. But she broken it off shortly before his death because Michele had threatened her. She said, “It is John who has paid the consequences of one bad decision of getting involved with Michele.”

She reminded Kevin of encountering him and Michele at a hockey rink shortly after John’s murder. “I said to both of you, you both are going to burn in hell and that is what is about to happen.”

John’s close friend Maggie McCartin said to Kevin: “You fell prey to a woman who manipulated you to thinking my friend was evil and deserved to die. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

John’s first cousin Mary Ann Clark had led the push for justice in John’s death. She said in court that after Michele didn’t claim John’s body, “I vowed to myself, John, our family and friends that Kevin and Michele would be brought to justice.”

But on this day, justice awaited only one of them.

In sentencing Kevin, Judge William Martin noted the brutality of John’s murder. He told Kevin, “While this crime, if committed by an average citizen is outrageous and unacceptable, the fact that you were a member of the Pennsylvania State Police is incomprehensible.”

Judge Martin told Kevin he had betrayed his oath as an officer of the law. He continued.

“This case is a tragedy for so many. Children have lost fathers and family and friends have lost a loved one. It is also disturbing that this tragedy was motivated by greed. That is what makes this situation so sad, that it was so absolutely unnecessary and clearly avoidable.”

And with that, Judge Martin sentenced Kevin to life in prison without parole.

Again, Michele wasn’t in the courtroom. She hadn’t attended any of the trial. She wasn’t called as an alibi witness, even though she had been listed as one. On the very day the man she said she loved was sentenced, she packed a truck and moved to Savannah, Georgia. Jay Jay, the son she and John adopted in Russia, and the child Kevin adopted in Guatemala, were with her.

Anthony Krastek, the senior deputy attorney general who prosecuted Kevin, said he can’t help but be reminded of the 1981 movie “Body Heat.” In it, a married woman named Matty Walker persuades her lover to murder her rich husband. The lover murders the husband, but is arrested and convicted. Matty Walker fakes her death and gets away. Only while serving his prison sentence does it dawn on the lover that he had been duped.

Krastek said he always hoped Kevin would one day have such a jailhouse epiphany.

ANTHONY KRASTEK: I kind of saw him in my mind, maybe hopefully or wistfully thinking, that he’s laying on his bunk and it finally gets to him, why this happened. Not just that he did it but that maybe he was coaxed into this in some way and he ought to let that be known.

MICHAEL FUOCO: To this point, neither Kevin nor Michele have shed any light on what happened and why. Krastek doesn’t see that changing, even with Kevin’s appeals now exhausted.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: For many, Kevin being convicted and Michele facing no consequences was justice only half served. Maggie McCartin said it bothers her to this day.

MAGGIE MCCARTIN: I always feel like John’s blood’s on her hands one way or another, maybe not directly but indirectly. From the very beginning I think Michele and Foley. I always thought Michele was the catalyst, I always thought Michele was the conductor and Foley just played the violin.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Krastek said he understands how John’s friends feel.

ANTHONY KRASTEK: We definitely looked at Michele because she was in some part the impetus to motive here. But we never had any information, any evidence, that she specifically solicited the homicide, certainly nothing that she was at the homicide or an actual participant, It was not unimportant that she had ill-will towards Yelenic and that may have played into certain susceptibilities that Foley had. I’ve always said, if we could have arrested her, we would have.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Krastic said it was not insignificant that Michele had fostered ill will between Kevin and John. She told Kevin that John had sexually abused Jay Jay, an unfounded allegation. And, Krastek said, Michele appeared to have told Kevin that Yelenic abused her emotionally and financially. He said Kevin was susceptible to all of that.

ANTHONY KRASTEK: Clearly, Michele fed that, she fed those susceptibilities. And she probably did it in numerous ways. Part of it was a constant whine. There was a promise for Foley — I don’t know what part it played in his thinking or his actions — but with John Yelenic gone, there’s money there, there’s an end to that animosity, and you know, it’s kind of a happy ending. Clearly, it was wrong.

I believe that Foley was to some extent brainwashed and that’s in no way suggesting there’s mitigation to this. If Foley was not Michele's lover, paramour, then Kevin Foley would not have killed John Yelenic.

MICHAEL FUOCO: The unproven suspicion that Michele may have had some effect on Kevin has produced in John’s friends something extraordinary — a sliver of sympathy for John’s murderer.

Vaughn admits the feelings he and John’s other friends experience are conflicted.

DENNIS VAUGHN: Foley killed my best friend. There's no way to get around that. And therefore, there’s never going to be forgiveness in my heart for him. But to be perfectly honest — there is a tiny, tiny shred of sympathy for the guy and certainly sympathy for his family even more so for what they’ve lost in all of this.

I think Foley was manipulated. I think he was led to believe certain things that weren’t true. So there is a tiny spark of sympathy that I feel for him because had he not gotten caught up in this, had he not been manipulated in the way I believe he was, then I think he would still have a life, too, and his family would still have him in their lives.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: Now retired, Krastek has prosecuted hundreds of homicide cases in his long career. This case is among a handful that stand out for him. That’s because a killer was brought to justice after a long delay. And because of the nature of the case itself.

ANTHONY KRASTEK: There were elements in this case that make for a good made-for-TV movie. This had more emotions than most.

MICHAEL FUOCO: He referenced a novel, “The Murder Room,” by mystery writer P.D. James, in which a character lists the four L’s of murder -- love, lust, lucre and loathing.

ANTHONY KRASTEK: And this had all of them.

MICHAEL FUOCO: He said it was unique how much John, in his well-lived life and in his horrific murder, had touched the lives of friends, family and the Blairsville community.

ANTHONY KRASTEK: One thing that was different about John Yelenic in context was that someone who kind of died so much alone and frankly sad, there was this extended network that's still there of people who loved him or liked him. And one not being more important than the other, you know, they’re just people who generally liked him and were sorry that things went the way they did with John in his life. But there’s this fraternity, there’s a community that has followed this. And you’ll see it with families sometimes that they'll mark anniversaries that kind of thing. But I've never seen anything like this where it’s been so extended. And the passions are still there. That's telling. I know he's gone but there is this tribute that's going on. That's at a minimum, unique.

MICHAEL FUOCO: For their part, those who keep John’s memory alive say it only reflects how they were impacted by John’s kindness, generosity, humor and zest for life. How else could they react to the loss of such a wonderful man?

John’s divorce attorney Effie Alexander is a member of the group. Alexander said she’s had to live with the fact John told her weeks before his murder that Kevin would kill him. She regrets dismissing John’s fear as far-fetched.

EFFIE ALEXANDER: You know I have a lot of occasions to drive in that direction, and I have never driven by the Blairsville exit without honking to John. I honk my horn every single time. I feel I will never think of Blairsville the same way. Like it is very fresh. John’s life was cut short. He died by the sword, he did not live by the sword and that was unfair to him.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Maggie McCartin mourns not just the loss of her close friend but the fact that John never got to meet the man she married and their child or to see her success in the business world.

MAGGIE MCCARTIN: Some days it feels like 12 years and some days it still feels like 12 minutes. I think for me, the most important thing for me is that even 12 years later people think you that get over this or it dulls or it lessens with time, but it’s all the stuff that he’s missed that it just magnifies the complete loss. You can dull the pain but it never really goes away and it just magnifies the fact.

MICHAEL FUOCO: And Vaughn feels the same:

DENNIS VAUGHN: The feelings are just as strong now as they were before. I miss John as much today as I do the day I heard he died. And it continues to reverberate over time. Any time there is any major event in my life, the thought is there I wish John were there to share that.

MICHAEL FUOCO: And, Vaughn added, it’s impossible not to think about the intersection of three people’s lives that led to John’s murder.

DENNIS VAUGHN: It’s funny how fate works. You know these are three people, John Yelenic, Michele Yelenic and Kevin Foley who came from three very different places in life and are now going to be tied together forever because of these events. You can’t really think about one without thinking about the others right nw, they’re that tied together. Two of the three have lost their lives, I think it’s fair to say.

So you have these two men whose lives are over and this woman who, for all intents and purposes, seems like she’s kind of been thrown clear of the wreckage and has been able to move on with her life. I often think of the Siren that draw men, the sailors to their deaths. It’s almost like that’s what happened. Here are two men who got involved with Michele — well, one’s dead and one for all intents and purposes is dead — and she seems to be doing OK.

MICHAEL FUOCO: Maggie McCartin agreed:

MAGGIE MCCARTIN: This is a Lifetime Movie of the Week.

MICHAEL FUOCO: So, where does that leave those who loved John? They keep his memory alive — in their hearts, in person and in phone calls, emails, texts. They are grateful he once graced their lives. And they hope against hope that if Michele had been involved in any way in John’s murder, that someday she will face consequences. Maggie McCartin is among them.

MAGGIE MCCARTIN: There are still a lot of questions that are unanswered, I think, for many of us that lived through this. What has bothered me about it, Michelle moving on and everybody being happy and having their own lives is like, this is still this a big piece missing. I still believe maybe someday karma will play a role, I don’t know. That’s all I can hope because I don’t think he’ll ever say anything about her.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: Michele remains in Savannah. She is now 47. Her sparse Facebook account, created under a pseudonym, had been dormant for nearly two years. But 2½ weeks before this podcast debuted, she updated the profile photo with a picture of her wearing a wide smile and a colorful sundress. There has been no activity on it since then.

Kevin is Pennsylvania Department of Corrections prisoner No. HF-5740. He is serving his life sentence at the State Correctional Institution at Retreat, a medium security prison about 210 miles northeast of Blairsville.

He is one of about 1,100 inmates serving time at the 19-acre facility that officially opened as a prison 30 years ago. Before that, it was a state mental hospital and a facility for the indigent.

Kevin is now 53. The average age of inmates at Retreat is 30.

Since October, Kevin has been one of eight inmates chosen by prison staff to train dogs from the SPCA of Luzerne County to make them more adoptable. The dog handlers were chosen from applicants based on their behavior and performance behind bars.

The inmates work in teams of two with an individual dog 24 hours a day, including sleeping with it in their cells. The dual goals of the program are to acclimate the dogs in a social setting and to provide a therapeutic aid for inmates.

WBRE and WYOU Eyewitness News, TV stations in Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, did a report on the program in May. Kevin was featured in the broadcast. Here he is discussing the dogs.

KEVIN FOLEY: Everybody comes up to them and wants to pet them and everybody makes comments on how long since they’ve actually petted a dog. And a lot of guys make reference to the dogs they have at home.

MICHAEL FUOCO: As for Jay Jay, he is now 20 years old. When he turned 18, he inherited the remainder of John’s $1 million life insurance policy and all of John’s estate. He now lives in Avalon, a suburb west of Pittsburgh.

Michele, Kevin and Jay Jay all declined to participate in this podcast.

John would have turned 51 in February. He is buried in Blairsville Cemetery in a plot adjacent to his maternal grandparents.

One month after John’s murder in April 2006, the Blairsville Parks and Recreation Board renamed its annual Memorial Day weekend race as the Dr. John Yelenic Memorial Day 5K Run/Walk. So far, there have been 13 races run in John’s honor. Borough Manager Tim Evans said it is a heartfelt gesture to show the effect John’s life and death had on his hometown.

TIM EVANS: He was just a well-liked member of the community and I think to remember him and to soften maybe some of the trauma from the community it was nice to name the race after him and remember him in a positive way.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: On a beautiful, sun-drenched afternoon, Mary Ann Clark took photographer Steve Mellon and me to John’s gravesite in Blairsville Cemetery. Her grief was unspoken but evident. She stared in quiet reflection at John's black granite headstone.

John’s likeness is etched into the middle. He’s smiling broadly, warmly. His eyes appear to twinkle. It’s as if he’s staring into a bright future.

John’s image faces a breathtaking panorama. Below, far in the distance, is Blairsville, the tiny town he so loved, the community that so loved him.

Senseless and tragic, a void now separates them.

* * *

MICHAEL FUOCO: "To Love and to Perish" was written by me, Michael A. Fuoco. Ashley Murray is the producer. Virginia Linn is our editor.

Steve Mellon is the photographer/videographer. Artist Daniel Marsula designed the logo. Michael Pound gets these podcasts to you. Laura Malt Schneiderman is the web page designer. And artist Alexa Miller designed our social media campaign.

Editorial assistance was provided by Post-Gazette interns Jenna Wise, Adam Duke, Katishi Maake, Marie Fazio, Annie Rosenthal, Trevor Lenzmeier, Caroline Engelmayer, Elena Rose, Emma Honcharski and Marella Gayla.

This podcast was recorded in the studios of the Center for Media Innovation at Point Park University in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Listen to us on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

For photos, videos and more of "To Love and to Perish" visit our website: post-gazette.com/loveperish

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Thank you for your support.

Until next time, I'm Michael A. Fuoco.

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