Neighbors smelled ‘foul odor,’ body found after inmate’s confession

PIttsburgh Post-Gazette

State police believe the Cambria County inmate who confessed to killing a woman in East Pittsburgh attacked her after a sexual encounter, according to a search warrant obtained Tuesday by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The inmate — whom the PostGazette has confirmed to be Delrico McClinton, 28 — confessed Monday to the killing after telling a counselor at the prison that he needed to speak with law enforcement, according to the search warrant.

The information he provided led state police to search a home at 18 Maple St. in East Pittsburgh about 2 p.m. Monday.

Three troopers discovered a woman’s decomposing body in the basement of the home, according to the warrant. The woman, who has not been identified, appeared to be in her 20s and was surrounded by a large pool of blood, according to the warrant.

Neighbors told state police they’d noticed a foul odor in the area, according to the search warrant. The landlord of the house said he hadn’t had any contact with the tenant for several weeks. He said he’d been hearing complaints of a foul odor at the home for the past two or three weeks, according to the search warrant, which said police were looking for evidence of a

crime, including DNA, fingerprints, weapons and blood.

Investigators are working to confirm the inmate’s confession and expect to file criminal charges, Trooper Melinda Bondarenka said Monday.

LaShawn McBride, 32, who lives in a row house next door to the home where the body was found, said she noticed the smell and at first thought she had thrown something rotten away.

When taking out the trash didn’t get rid of the stench, she bleached her basement, where the smell was strongest.

After that failed, she called her landlord a few days ago to ask him to investigate the cause of the smell, she said.

Ms. McBride said she hasn’t seen anyone in or out of the home next door in weeks.

“She was just in the basement and nobody knew,” she said. “If it wasn’t for him confessing, she’d have been there a long time.”

McClinton has a criminal history in Allegheny County that dates back to 2009 and includes charges of theft, robbery and driving under the influence. In 2016, McClinton was charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, illegally possessing a firearm and 20 other related charges.

In that case, McClinton was accused of bursting into a home where he used to live on George Street in Turtle Creek and threatening to kill two of his former housemates, according to court records.

He put a partially loaded revolver to one man’s head and told the man they were going to play a game of Russian roulette, according to a criminal complaint. He spun the cylinder and pulled the trigger twice, but the gun did not fire, according to the complaint.

One of the housemates then managed to escape and call police, according to the complaint. McClinton ran from the house but was arrested several hours later after a brief standoff with police at the Turtle Creek home. He threatened to kill one of the police officers, the complaint said.

McClinton later pleaded guilty to illegally possessing a firearm, terroristic threats and resisting arrest. The other charges — including attempted homicide — were withdrawn as part of the plea deal, according to court records.

He was sentenced to 2½ to five years in prison in November 2017. At some point, he was apparently released on probation, but it was not clear in records when that occurred.

He was being held in the Cambria County Prison to complete a program for people who violate probation, an official there said Tuesday.