On the night of April 26, 2016, a quiet evening in Pittsburgh's South Oakland neighborhood was shattered by a violent home invasion that claimed the life of 42-year-old Aaron Govostes. An African-American man, Govostes was at home with his mother and two children, aged 13 and 14, when three unidentified men forced their way into the residence on Gorman Way at approximately 10:15 p.m. The intruders immediately confronted Govostes' mother, Valery, holding her at gunpoint and demanding money.
In a terrifying moment, one of the assailants fired a shot at her when she couldn't tell them where any money was, threatening to 'blow your head off.'
While his mother bravely shielded her grandchildren by hiding them in the attic, the armed men proceeded upstairs. There, they encountered Aaron Govostes and shot him multiple times in the doorway of his room, leaving him for dead. When police arrived, they found Govostes deceased at the scene. The investigation that followed uncovered the presence of marijuana and cash within the home, leading authorities to believe the assailants may have targeted Govostes under the assumption that he had a significant amount of money saved.
Family members later revealed that Govostes had a distrust of banks and preferred to keep his savings, including tax refunds, at his home in a jar. He had been setting this money aside for his children's future college education. It is this saved money that investigators suspect was the primary motive for the deadly home invasion. Despite the harrowing ordeal his mother and children endured, and the clues left behind, no suspects have ever been publicly identified in the murder of Aaron Govostes. The case remains unsolved, and the investigation is ongoing as authorities continue to seek information from the public that could lead to an arrest. No descriptions of the three men responsible for his death have been released.
