In the late hours of a Tuesday in May 2014, the life of 31-year-old Dennis Fitzwater was violently cut short in what police would describe as a targeted and deliberate act. A male, Fitzwater was in a home on Chestnut Street in Monessen, Pennsylvania, a place where he was staying with friends, when two masked gunmen breached the residence. The tranquility of the night was shattered around 11:30 p.m.
when a 911 call was made by a woman in the house, where she lived with her boyfriend and two young children.
The assailants, described as two African American males, entered the home without any signs of forced entry, their faces obscured by bandanas. Inside, they located Fitzwater and bound him with duct tape. A struggle appears to have ensued, as he was later found with duct tape only on one wrist, suggesting he may have tried to break free. The gunmen shot Fitzwater once in the throat. After being shot in an upstairs bedroom, he managed to make his way downstairs before collapsing in the kitchen, where he succumbed to his injury. The other occupants of the house, including the two small children who were sleeping just a few feet from where the initial attack occurred, were not physically harmed.
The investigation into Dennis Fitzwater's death pointed towards a calculated killing rather than a random act of violence. Nothing was reported stolen from the home, leading the then-Monessen police chief, John Mandarino, to state that the attackers 'were there for a purpose.' That purpose, investigators believed, was likely connected to Fitzwater's involvement with drugs. He had a criminal history that included a guilty plea to felony drug charges in 2008. Just days before his murder, Fitzwater had been released from the Westmoreland County Prison on May 17, 2014, following an arrest on new drug charges.
In the immediate aftermath of the homicide, law enforcement officials processed the scene and began their search for the two men responsible for Dennis Fitzwater's death. An autopsy was scheduled to officially determine the cause of death. Despite the initial belief that the murder was drug-related and a targeted event, the investigation into who killed Dennis Fitzwater has not led to any publicly announced arrests. There is no information available from online sources to indicate that any suspects have been formally identified, charged, or brought to trial in connection with his death. The case of who was responsible for the death of Dennis Fitzwater appears to remain unresolved.
