The Murder of Rachele ‘Shelly’ Tyburski
I watched an episode of Twisted Sisters for this case. It’s season 2 episode 1, titled ‘Go to Daddy.’ This case is also featured on Snapped on Oxygen. As much as I watch true crime, I will never get used to someone being killed by their own family. I know it happens in more than half of these cases, but I will never understand it. A 26 year old mother was murdered, and today there is only speculation as to why she was killed.
Shelly Tyburski
Background
The Tyburski family lived in Lakewood, Ohio. The family consisted of Darrell, Janet, Shelly, Hannah and Paige. For the most part, they were not a very close family. Shelly was seen as the “problem” child in her mother’s eyes, but she was close with her dad, Darrell.
Janet and Darrell also had a tumultuous relationship and were constantly fighting. It was so bad that it would affect Darrell’s work as a lawyer, because Janet would come to his office to fight.
One night in 1999, tragedy would strike the Tyburksi family. Darrell was driving home, and died in a car accident. Shelly took it the hardest, and it was said in the episode that she never got over his death. Shelly and Janet were always at each other’s throats as well.
Shelly was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder, as well.
Tyburski Family Timeline
In 2011, Shelly met a man named Tommy Fialko. Shelly got pregnant very soon after that and gave birth to a baby boy named Cole. Tommy was struggling with his addiction to alcohol and was out of Cole and Shelly’s lives until 2014. His ex-wife had passed away, and part of his treatment for AA was to right his wrongs.
By 2014, Hannah was in college and attended Oberlin college and Paige went to Nebraska. Shelly was living at Janet’s house with Tommy and Cole. Janet was reportedly very happy and spent most of her time with Cole.
Shelly told her mom that she and Tommy were looking at apartments together and would probably be moving out soon, with Cole. Janet apparently was not happy.
Murder
On March 15, 2015, a man called 911 and said he found a woman’s body in a field behind a snow bank in Ridgeville, Ohio. The police immediately went to the scene and noticed that the woman was partially clothed, and very discolored. They also noticed that she had blood on her face, and her wrists were bound with garbage bags. There was also very little blood, so the police determined that the body was most likely dumped. The woman had no ID on her, and when they ran her fingerprints they didn’t get any hits.
On March 16, the police sent photographs of the woman to the media. A woman called the police soon after and said the victim was her daughter. The woman who called was Janet Tyburski, and she said the victim was her daughter Rachele.
Investigation
The police went over to the Tyburski home. Janet and Hannah were interviewed. The conversation was recorded, and the whole interviewed was played on this episode.
Janet was asked when the last time she saw Shelly was. Janet said Shelly left the house around 2-2:30am, and that her boyfriend picked her up. Janet seemed to lead the detectives towards Tommy being the one who killed Shelly. She also mentioned that Tommy had a gun, a glock to be more exact.
The police then went to Tommy’s. Tommy seemed surprised to see them. He was asked if he had any weapons like a glock, and Tommy said no. He only had nunchucks and a Samurai sword. Tommy was then told that Janet had said that she was told he had a gun, and also that he picked up Shelly around 2:30am. Tommy said he would never had picked her up then, and that he was blacked out that night. He also said Janet lied a lot, and that he thought Janet was the real killer.
Surveillance footage
The police knew by that point that Janet was probably hiding something. The police knew that Shelly was dumped in that field that night, so they went to local businesses to see if they could find any surveillance footage. They took surveillance from a local bar, and a community college. It paid off. They saw a silver minivan driving to and from the murder scene around 5:09am. The car also had a missing break light on the driver’s side of the car. It matched Janet Tyburksi’s vehicle.
The Confession
On May 5, 2015 around 12:15pm, the police returned to Janet’s home, and said that they knew she had lied to them. They originally went to Janet’s to give Janet the search warrant for her vehicle. They had found a spot of blood and a scuff mark that had blood that matched Shelly’s DNA. When she was confronted with the evidence, Janet said she was ready to confess.
Janet said on March 13, she had gotten mad at Shelly after Shelly said she was taking Cole away from her. Janet knew that Shelly took medication to go to sleep, and while she was sleeping she suffocated her with a pillow. Shelly apparently struggled, and Janet had said ‘go to daddy,’ as she was strangling her. The police said that was the most eerie thing they had ever heard.
Janet then said she left Shelly’s body in the house for a day, and called Hannah to help her dispose of Shelly’s body. She said she picked her up on Saturday, March 14. Hannah and Janet put Shelly’s body into the van, and they apparently had driven around for hours deciding what to do.
Hannah actually called Janet in the middle of her police interviewed, and Janet told her that she confessed. She also was heard apologizing to Hannah for involving her.
Trials and Convictions
In April of 2017, Janet Tyburski pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison.
Janet Tyburski
Hannah Tyburski
Hannah Tyburski’s charges of obstructing evidence and abuse of a corpse were dismissed. She was given a 90 day jail sentence and was ordered to pay a $750 fine. That’s bullshit in my opinion.
Theories
The police don’t believe that Janet killed Shelly over her son. They believe it could have been part of it but the day before Shelly was killed, Janet took out a $150,000 life insurance policy on Shelly. Was she really that greedy or did she do it in a crime of passion as she claimed?
Other
In December of 2018, Tommy passed away.
A clip of Tommy talking about the Tyburksi family
FINAL THOUGHTS
Janet is a terrible person. I personally think she killed her daughter for money and had no emotion attached to killing Shelly. Hannah was her favorite, as it was described in the episode. I personally think she didn’t care about any of her kids, how can she if she killed one and used the other to help dispose of her? How could a sister do that to another? It blows my mind every time how a family member can do that.
Hannah should have gotten some jail time, in my opinion. I agree her mother should have never put her in that position, but she also agreed to helping her. The only one I truly feel sorry for in all of this is Cole. He lost his mom, dad and grandmother.
Also, RIP Tommy. He seemed like he had a hard life as well. I hope he’s in a better place and got rid of his demons.
Sources
https://people.com/crime/tyburski-sisters-ohio-mom-killed-adult-daughter/
https://fox8.com/news/exclusive-boyfriend-says-woman-tried-to-pin-her-daughters-murder-on-him/
