Inset: Brian Rebold (Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office). Background: The house Rebold allegedly stabbed his mother to death in front of (Google Maps).
A Pennsylvania man repeatedly and fatally stabbed his mother in broad daylight as a group of terrified onlookers watched the horror unfold in the middle of a street last weekend, according to authorities.
Brian Rebold, 38, stands accused of criminal homicide and murder in the first degree for the Sunday slaying of Diana Rebold, 73.
The defendant himself is said to have made the 911 call. Several witnesses would allegedly corroborate details of the argument that ended in an attack and a shockingly brutal case of alleged matricide.
The incident occurred in the small town of Arnold, located along the Allegheny River in the far northeast of the Pittsburgh metro area.
Officers with the Arnold Police Department fielded a call about a man stabbing a woman at around 5:38 p.m. on Aug. 4, according to the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office.
The victim was found “lying unresponsive in the street and bleeding profusely from her head,” and identified as “the suspect’s mother,” according to a press release. She had suffered multiple stab wounds to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene of the crime.
More Law&Crime coverage: Woman seeking ‘closure’ allegedly showed up at ex’s home, stabbed new girlfriend in chest in his living room, claimed self-defense
By the end of the day, squad cars from the nearby New Kensington Police Department, as well as local fire trucks, had crowded the 100 block of Liberty Avenue where the septuagenarian mother lay dead.
“I saw the lights, and then I saw her body lying on the ground covered, and I just started screaming hysterically to my husband,” Charisse Campise, who lives in a house on the street where the killing occurred, told Pittsburgh-based ABC affiliate WTAE. “The other day I had seen him out there yelling, but apparently him and his mother got into an argument and this is what ended up happening.”
The victim’s son was covered in blood by the time police arrived, authorities say. He was quickly taken into custody without incident.
More Law&Crime coverage: Son allegedly admits to murdering octogenarian father ‘really, really badly,’ leaving organs outside his body
While a precise motive for the woman’s murder remains elusive and has not been floated by law enforcement, Brian Rebold readily admitted to stabbing his mother to death — inflicting damage multiple times on her back and throat, according to prosecutors.
The defendant also allegedly told police where the murder weapon was stashed — simply thrown into another neighbor’s front yard. The killing knife was subsequently recovered by investigators.
Another person who lives on the street said the argument between the victim and her alleged killer was out of the ordinary.
“I didn’t notice any problems between them. I never heard any arguing,” next-door neighbor Steve Mobley told Pittsburgh-based NBC affiliate WPXI. “I had spoken to him before and I thought there was something a little off about him. But I don’t know what it is and I just assumed that he needed care.”
The victim and her son lived together, police told WTAE.
“There was apparently arguing from witnesses around the area which then (went) into the street and that’s where they located them both,” Arnold Police Chief Josh Stanga told the TV station.
An autopsy is still forthcoming to determine the cause and manner of death, according to a public information report about Diana Rebold.
The defendant is being detained in the Westmoreland County Jail without bail. He was arraigned on Monday morning and a preliminary hearing in the case is currently slated for Aug. 15.
Law&Crime reached out to the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office for additional details on this story but no response was immediately forthcoming at the time of publication.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
