Prosecutors in Pennsylvania said they have charged a man in connection with a 2013 home invasion in which three victims were held hostage, a woman was sexually assaulted and a man was stabbed to death.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said that police arrested Thomas Delgado, 50, of Philadelphia, on Jan. 10 on murder, rape, robbery and kidnapping charges in connection to the slaying of 48-year-old bar owner Joseph Canazaro that occurred nearly 11 years ago to the day.
On the morning of Jan. 18, 2013, two armed men broke into a home in the Hilltown Township and held Canazaro, his fiance and Canazaro’s 12-year-old son captive.
The arrest affidavit said the two men bound each of the victims’ hands and feet together with zip ties and then one of the men led Canazaro around his home in search of money.
Court documents said Mr. Delgado is the other robber who stood guard over Canazaro’s fiance, who wasn’t identified, and his son. Mr. Delgado is accused of taking the woman into a nearby room and raping her while Canazaro was being taken around his house.
The woman and the boy were put in a basement room shortly afterward, and the woman was able to free herself and the boy before calling police, according to court filings.
Officers arrived to find Canazaro lying face down in his garage, dead from multiple stab wounds.
Police said the burglars took a Rolex watch, a designer purse, casino chips, multiple guns and $500 cash from the home.
The assailants also stole Canazaro’s pickup truck, which was spotted on a parking lot surveillance camera in Quakertown later that day. The video feed showed the robbers load multiple items from the truck into another car and then abandon the truck.
Leads on the robbers went cold until 2019, when detectives found a face mask tucked between the seats of Canazaro’s abandoned truck. DNA from the mask matched the sample taken from the rape kit conducted on Canazaro’s fiance, and police were able to link Mr. Delgado to the scene.
Detectives said they later learned that Canazaro and Mr. Delgado had been acquainted in 2011.
Phone records for one of Canazaro’s cellphones showed a number associated with Mr. Delgado had called the victim five times between August and December 2011.
Another phone owned by Canazaro showed it had received more than 40 calls between June and November 2011 from a phone tied to a woman who lived with Mr. Delgado.
Soon after Canazaro’s death, investigators said the victim owed millions of dollars to creditors and multiple casinos.
Mr. Delgado is being held without bond in Bucks County.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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