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Monessen killings called 'ghoulish': Husband shoots wife, boyfriend, then self
Aug 10, 2010 (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
MaeDee Von Fisher's marriage was ostensibly over.
Relatives said she had been living with her husband, Vladimir, and his girlfriend for years. And lately, their fighting had intensified.
But Mrs. Von Fisher seemed happy. She had started dressing up. There was new light in her eyes.
She had met someone.
His name was Nicholas Mascetta Jr. He lived at the Westgate Manor high-rise in Monessen, where Mrs. Von Fisher often visited.
Their friendship seemed to blossom almost as quickly as it was cut short.
Police said Mr. Von Fisher, enraged by their new bond, fatally shot his wife and Mr. Mascetta after spotting them together under a picnic pavilion outside the high-rise Sunday night. He then turned the handgun on himself.
Mr. Von Fisher, 42, had been walking with his girlfriend, Francine Guy, on Schoonmaker Avenue just before 9 p.m. when he saw them, Monessen police Chief Mark Gibson said.
Schoonmaker runs on a hill overlooking the high-rise apartment building on Donner Avenue. Police said Mr. Von Fisher walked down the hillside, pulled out a pistol and started shooting. Mrs. Von Fisher screamed, witnesses told police, but her husband said nothing.
Ms. Guy ran when he opened fire, telling police later that she had no idea of his intentions.
Both Mrs. Von Fisher, 39, and Mr. Mascetta, 44, died of multiple gunshot wounds, the Westmoreland County coroner's office said. Mr. Von Fisher died of a single gunshot to his head. Detectives recovered at least 11 shell casings from the pavilion, which was shrouded in blue tarps and crime scene tape on Monday.
"It was a ghoulish thing," said Leroy Bright, the complex's maintenance supervisor, who rushed to the scene and found the three bodies under the pavilion. Mr. Von Fisher, he said, fell between the two bodies, as though he fired back and forth between his wife and Mr. Mascetta before shooting himself.
Several other people who were outside got up and ran at the sound of the gunfire, and others could hear it through the walls of a community room where they were watching TV.
The complex is an independent living facility for elderly and disabled people, run by the Westmoreland County Housing Authority. Mr. Mascetta was paralyzed and used a wheelchair. Housing manager Ellie Miller said he'd been there less than a year. A priest was headed to the building on Monday to console troubled residents, she said.
"This is not an unsafe place," Chief Gibson said. "This is something that's very, very, very unusual."
Mrs. Von Fisher had told her family she was considering filing for divorce to end her marriage of more than 20 years, her older sister Denise Partezana said. She said they had four teenage children.
The couple once lived in a small duplex on Reed Avenue in Monessen, which they shared with Ms. Guy and her child, who Ms. Partezana said moved in about nine years ago. It wasn't clear when she started dating Mr. Von Fisher, she said, but his wife looked after them anyway, helping them with paperwork.
"She loved taking care of people," said Ms. Partezana, who let her sister move in with her a few months ago in the other half of the duplex. "There really wasn't much of a marriage."
She described Mr. Von Fisher as her sister's "first love" but believed she had found a second in Mr. Mascetta. He would buy her nice things, including a pair of earrings she was wearing at the time of her death, Ms. Partezana said. Mr. Mascetta's family declined to comment.
"He was a nice person," she said. "He always said, 'We're good friends,' but I thought it was more than that. ... She told me she was falling in love with Nick. There was something about Nick she liked, and she wanted to get to know that part of him."
She began spending more time at Westgate Manor. Sometimes, her sister said, she didn't want to come home.
Mr. Mascetta had encouraged Mrs. Von Fisher to move out of her husband's home, going so far as to buy her an air mattress and sheets for use at her sister's next door.
"He was worried about her," Ms. Partezana said.
Sunday was her last conversation with her sister. They talked about 8 p.m., and Ms. Partezana could hear Mr. Mascetta in the background. Their talk was cut short when Mrs. Von Fisher received a text message from her husband. In the next phone call she received, Ms. Partezana would learn her sister was killed.
"Our whole family will miss her dearly," she said through sobs. "And we love her."
Sadie Gurman: sgurman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1878.
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to http://www.post-gazette.com. Copyright (c) 2010, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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