Jan 7, 2016 5 min read

A 92-year-old widow who lived so frugally in her California Borough home that it was not connected to a municipal water system had $939,473 in assets when she was stabbed to death by her neighbor in 2011, according to records in the Washington County Register of Wills office.

Prosecutors believe her neighbors, the McClelland family, knew she hoarded cash in her home in California’s Granville neighborhood and stole at least $300,000 based on receipts for purchases police found in two homes of McClelland family members, which would potentially bring Stepko’s net worth to more than $1.2 million.

David A. McClelland, who pleaded guilty to stabbing Stepko to death, and his convicted co-conspirators, wife Diane, 53, and son David J. McClelland, 30, spent the widow’s money lavishly on real estate, home improvements, firearms, vehicles and tools and even used it to gamble at The Meadows Casino in North Strabane Township. Bank records also showed cash deposits – often in stacks of musty, old-style bills – into a McClelland account.

State Department of Corrections records show Diane M. McClelland, 53, is serving her 24 1/2- to 49-year sentence at SCI-Cambridge Springs, Crawford County, a minimum-security facility, while David J. McClelland, 30, her stepson, is a “lifer” inmate at SCI-Greene, a maximum-security prison. His father, David A. McClelland, died in the same prison of natural causes in 2014. Confronted with DNA evidence, he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 2012, admitting he stabbed Stepko to death after he repeatedly entered her house to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from her.

Police theorize on the day she died, either July 17 or 18, David A. McClelland thought Stepko was not at home, but she surprised him in the act of burglarizing the residence.

David A. McClelland, who suffered from heart and seizure problems when he entered his guilty plea, had only Social Security disability payments as legitimate income. Diane McClelland worked as a grocery store clerk. David J. McClelland worked as a part-time police officer for the City of Monongahela and Washington Township, Fayette County, and was a member of the Washington County District Attorney’s Drug Task Force.

D.J. McClelland and Diane McClelland, who worked as a clerk in the Rostraver Township Shop ‘n Save store, were found guilty as co-conspirators in 2013 in separate jury trials in Washington County Court.

Mary Jo Poknis, Washington County register of wills, noted in a legal advertisement Thursday that Charleroi attorney Richard C. Mudrick was among a dozen fiduciaries who filed their respective accounts that will come before President Judge Katherine B. Emery later this month.

Auditor Daniel Svidro “is going through it to make sure everything was done legally and that all accounting is right,” Poknis said, in the handling of Stepko’s assets – a matter separate from the McClellands’ criminal trials and court appearances.

“If Dan recommends, the judge can sign a final distribution decree and that estate is considered closed,” Poknis continued. “They make sure the inheritance tax has been paid.”

The assets would then be distributed to Stepko’s heirs, for which an international search was conducted.

Despite a pattern of thefts and burglaries from her home, an inventory of Stepko’s estate states police found $4,431 there. Her administratrix, Donna J. Lee, found a total of $15,455 in cash. A sheriff’s sale brought in $52,293. Two vehicles were sold; a Lincoln Navigator brought $17,000 and a 2002 Cadillac brought $810.

According to testimony at Diane McClelland’s trial, she purchased a Lincoln Navigator. In 2014, then President-Judge Debbie O’Dell Seneca ordered three vehicles, a 2009 Lincoln Navigator, a 2007 Pontiac G6 and a 2002 Cadillac STS be transferred from state police evidence to the estate.

Richard C. Mudrick, attorney for Lee, of Charleroi, the administratrix appointed by the court when Stepko’s cousin, Ida Daquet, declined the role, did not immediately return a call about the estate.

According to court records, the estate paid to the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue $128,881 in inheritance tax.

A will Stepko executed in 1986 left all of her assets to her husband, Michael, who died in 1994.

Evelyn Stepko, who never bore children, did not update her 1986 will.

Stepko and her husband, “throughout their lifetimes, (were) exceedingly frugal and thrifty concerning their finances and lifestyle,” according to a document filed in the register of wills office. “Both had been raised during the Great Depression. (Evelyn Stepko) was a very private person who chose to live by limiting her interactions with other people. She was physically active, was quite able to provide for own care and was in full command of her mental faculties at the time of her death … A number of (Stepko’s) in-law relatives have made inquiries and demands upon law enforcement regarding sums of money which may have been located at (her) residence at the time of her death. Under the present laws of intestate succession in Pennsylvania, none of (Stepko’s) in-law relatives are ‘heirs’ or persons qualified to open an estate on behalf” of the deceased.

Mudrick received permission from the court to contract with International Genealogical Search Inc. to look for any heirs Stepko might have had in Italy through her father, John Franchino, who died May 9, 1981, after working for Jones and Laughlin Steel Corp.’s Vesta No. 4 Mine. Along with Daquet, a Florida resident, Stepko’s heirs potentially include Aldo Cappello of Rivoli, Italy, and Alessandra Modesta Bertolotto, whose address is not included in court records but who is represented by a law firm in Pittsburgh.

Although Stepko is thought to have shunned the security offered by banks, court records show that she had $73,084 in cash in a safe-deposit box; $2,473 in a PNC checking account; $112,732 in a PNC savings account; $17,727 in a Charleroi Federal Savings Bank account; a total of $308,587 in five First Niagara savings accounts; and a total of $26,024 in First Niagara certificates of deposit; and $221,109 in a First Niagara checking account.

The sale of Stepko’s home at 1076 Pike Run Drive, which has a Coal Center mailing address, brought a mere $7,500.