Still Missing PA - Cassandra Gross, 51, Latrobe, 7 Apr 2018 *arrest in 2022*

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A Unity man was sentenced Wednesday to seven years and three months in federal prison in a gun case, and the judge rejected claims that the defendant was unaware he was prohibited from having the weapons because of past felony convictions.
......
Stanko has long been suspected in the 2018 disappearance of Cassandra Gross of Unity though he is not charged in connection with it.
 
25 January (Upper) Court Date


Homicide Defendant:
Thomas George Stanko, 52

CBS News:
(Lower) Court Docket:



[Contribution # 8627
Thread # 370859]
 
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Well it’s about darn time!!! I hope these charges will bring some comfort to Cassandra’s family. I wonder if the prosecution will attempt to strike a deal with him to reveal where he hid her remains? MOO
 
 
Thomas Stanko maintains he did not kill Cassandra Gross, said his attorney, Marc Daffner, during a pretrial hearing Monday.

Gross, of Unity, was last seen in April 2018 and was declared legally dead a year later.

“They have jurisdiction problems. Thus far, no one has been able to say for certain that anything has occurred or where it occurred,” Daffner said.

Stanko, 53, was charged a year ago with criminal homicide, reckless burning, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence in connection with Gross’ death. Her body has never been recovered. She was last seen April 7, 2018. Her Mitsubishi Outlander was found burned days later in a wooded area near Twin Lakes Park, east of Greensburg.

Prosecutors claim Stanko killed her and covered up the crime. Through evidence presented at a preliminary hearing last year, they suggested he burned and discarded her remains.

“We will file pretrial motions but, ultimately, it will be a trial,” Daffner said. “He denies he had anything to do with any of this. There is no body and no forensic evidence. A lot of that you’d see in a homicide case. We don’t have it here.”

During the preliminary hearing, prosecutors presented evidence that Stanko and Gross communicated a day before she went missing. Days later, Stanko appeared to have burn injuries, police said.
 
Thomas Stanko maintains he did not kill Cassandra Gross, said his attorney, Marc Daffner, during a pretrial hearing Monday.

Gross, of Unity, was last seen in April 2018 and was declared legally dead a year later.

“They have jurisdiction problems. Thus far, no one has been able to say for certain that anything has occurred or where it occurred,” Daffner said.

Stanko, 53, was charged a year ago with criminal homicide, reckless burning, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence in connection with Gross’ death. Her body has never been recovered. She was last seen April 7, 2018. Her Mitsubishi Outlander was found burned days later in a wooded area near Twin Lakes Park, east of Greensburg.

Prosecutors claim Stanko killed her and covered up the crime. Through evidence presented at a preliminary hearing last year, they suggested he burned and discarded her remains.

“We will file pretrial motions but, ultimately, it will be a trial,” Daffner said. “He denies he had anything to do with any of this. There is no body and no forensic evidence. A lot of that you’d see in a homicide case. We don’t have it here.”

During the preliminary hearing, prosecutors presented evidence that Stanko and Gross communicated a day before she went missing. Days later, Stanko appeared to have burn injuries, police said.

He denies it. Shocking.

This is a pretty strong circumstantial case though. Hoping for justice for Cassandra!
 
“In order to prove homicide, you have to prove these acts happened in this case. In this case, there is no body, there is no time of death, there is no location of a crime. All these things they have to prove, not only for the commonwealth to have jurisdiction but also for this court to have the proper venue,” Daffner argued.

 
SEP 5, 2024
"We're going to have one more search and it's going to be the last one. I've done 128 searches," Kathe Gross said.

This time Kathe isn't searching for a body. She believes her daughter was burned to death after police recovered partially destroyed items that belonged to Cassandra from a burn barrel on the property of Thomas Stanko, who is charged in her death.

"I was told that people like him keep a trophy," Kathe Gross said. "And it could be buried in a metal box. So that's what we're looking for this time," she added.
 

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