A Pennsylvania couple is suing a Poland woman for the reward promised in the investigation of the 2014 shooting death of Timothy “Asti” Davison.
Jamie and Courtney Breeses are seeking the $52,000 reward Therese Allocca offered for information to solicit tips in the case, according to PennLive.com. The suit seeks the reward offered, plus costs, expenses of the suit and attorney’s fees.
The Breeses came forward with the information that led to charges against John Wayne Strawser Jr. more than a year after Davison was killed on Interstate 81 in Pennsylvania. Strawser was already in jail on charges related to the slaying of a woman after Davison’s death.
Theresa Allocca said she would not give the Breeses the reward money because they waited too long to come forward, according the PennLive.com story.
Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers gave the Breeses a $10,000 reward for their information.
At the time of Strawser’s arrest, Allocca also said it bothered her that her son’s killer also killed another person afterward and that may have been prevented had the tipsters contacted police immediately following her son’s death.
She said the most troubling part of what she learned from the documents released by authorities Monday was that it appeared her son was not the specific target of Strawser and it wasn’t a result of road rage or gang-related violence.
“I think the fact that it was just such a senseless murder,” Allocca said. “It was just being in the wrong place at the wrong time and it bothers me that people waited a year and a half to come forward and someone else had to die in the meantime.”
The Breeses told PennLive.com they did not withhold any information. It didn’t occur to them that Strawser could be the killer until he was arrested in another murder investigation.
According to the September 2015 release from the office of District Attorney Matthew Fogal, a tip from a couple who believed Strawser may have intended to attack them and instead mistakenly attacked Davison led them to Strawser.
Police were notified that Strawser may have mistaken Davison’s silver-colored Mitsubishi Montero for their silver Honda. The couple told police they had a volatile relationship with Strawser, and they too were driving northbound on the same highway and believed Strawser was coming after them the night Davison was shot.
The investigation also determined that Strawser had painted his dark-blue 1997 Ford Ranger black and green and that the vehicle had been outfitted with new parts.
A friend of Strawser’s also led police to a field where a .44-caliber Rossi Ranch Hand pistol was found hidden in a box. A shell casing found at the crime scene where Davison was killed was matched to the pistol by the state’s crime lab, according to the release.
Strawser had also posted photos of the firearm and of his truck with different paint jobs on his Facebook page, according to Fogal’s release.
GPS data from Davison’s truck helped investigators determine his average speed increased from just under 80 mph to over 100 mph in the minutes before he was shot to death by Strawser, police said.
The release said other evidence, including DNA and gunpowder residue collected from the crime scene, also linked Strawser to Davison’s murder.
In May, Strawser was charged with murder in the April shooting death of Amy Lou Buckingham, 37, of Tunnelton, W.Va.
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