The ex-boyfriend suspected of using a claw hammer and two knives to kill a University of Pittsburgh student in her off-campus apartment has been arrested in South Carolina.
Pittsburgh and Myrtle Beach police early on Wednesday confirmed the arrest of 21-year-old Matthew Darby of Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
Darby was on Tuesday evening charged with criminal homicide, burglary and other crimes against Alina Sheykhet, 20, who was found slain at about 9am on Sunday.
Pittsburgh police used a video scope to search a sewer drain near Sheykhet’s apartment and they had found the hammer and knives they suspect Darby used to kill her.
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner has said Sheykhet died of “blunt force and sharp trauma” to the head, without elaborating.
A criminal complaint filed on Tuesday spells out why police searched the sewer drain and charged Darby.
Darby was at Duquesne University, also in Pittsburgh, at about 3.20am on Sunday, trying to meet a friend before he hired an Uber to drive him to Sheykhet’s street near the Pittsburgh campus several kilometers away.
The driver told police he picked up Darby at about 4:20am and saw him walk toward Sheykhet’s residence after asking the driver to wait for him for 10 minutes.
Darby returned and asked the driver to wait 10 more minutes, then called back in a hushed voice asking the driver to wait longer, but the driver refused and drove off, the complaint said.
Police said that surveillance video showed someone matching Darby’s description dropping a shiny object into a sewer drain and something else into a trash container, the complaint said.
Police arrested Darby when a concerned citizen saw someone “tampering with a window at a residence” at about 12:45am on Wednesday, police spokesman Captain Joey Crosby said.
When police confirmed Darby’s identity, they learned of the Pittsburgh charges and jailed him without bond.
Defense attorney David Shrager on Tuesday had read a statement from Darby’s parents on Pittsburgh TV news stations, urging the suspect to surrender.
“Obviously, it would have been my preference had he contacted me and done this in a more professional fashion,” Shrager told reporters on Wednesday. “That being said, I am happy this ended peacefully and we can move forward as appropriate in court.”
Shrager said he could not address the charges specifically.
“At this time I have just that, allegations. I need to do an extensive and thorough review of all the evidence in order to create a long-term and short-term litigation strategy,” Shrager said, adding that he was working to bring Darby back to Pennsylvania.
Shrager also represents Darby in the alleged rape of another ex-girlfriend in February.
The woman told authorities in Indiana County — about 72km northeast of Pittsburgh — that Darby called her 33 times one night after they broke up, and she relented and let him come over to apologize.
The woman said Darby pulled her hair and raped her when she told him she was seeing someone else.
Darby has claimed the sex was consensual.
Pittsburgh police said cellphone records show that Darby called Sheykhet twice, minutes before he called for the Uber, and three more times at about 4:55am, and that she did not answer the calls.
Sheykhet’s cellphone was missing from her room when her family found her body on Sunday, police said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in