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Thomas Delgado, right inset, was arrested in the death of Joseph Canazaro, left inset. (Victim and suspect photos from the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office; crime scene screenshot from Philadelphia FOX affiliate/YouTube)
A Philadelphia man has been arrested in a home invasion in which a family of three was tied up, the father was stabbed to death, his fiancee was sexually assaulted and the home ransacked before the fiancee and man’s son escaped and called 911.
Thomas Delgado, 50, was arrested this week in the 2013 death of Joseph Canazaro, 48. He was charged with criminal homicide, rape, robbery, burglary, kidnapping, criminal conspiracy, and related charges, prosecutors said. He was being held at the Bucks County Correctional Facility without bail, officials said in a news release.
Delgado was identified as one of the two men who broke into Canazaro’s home in the 300 block of Swartley Road in Hilltown Township just before 10 a.m. on Jan. 18, 2013, authorities said. The assailants took guns, money, and jewelry and fled in Canazaro’s truck. The woman and the boy managed to escape. At Canazaro’s home, police found him dead from multiple stab wounds in the garage.
Surveillance video showed the suspects transferring the stolen items from the truck into a Nissan sedan at the shopping center and fleeing the area, prosecutors said.
The suspect was allegedly connected to the crime through DNA in a facemask found in Canazaro’s truck and rape kit from the sexual assault of his girlfriend, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Details about the second man were not available.
“It would be wrong to call this a cold case. These detectives have spent more than a decade seeking justice for these victims,” Bucks County District Attorney Jen Schorn said. “Like they always do, detectives never relented in the pursuit for justice, and now, we are able to announce an arrest.”
It was unclear whether Delgado has an attorney.
Canazaro co-owned a bar and owned several contracting companies, the Inquirer reported.
A lawyer for Canazaro’s girlfriend told the newspaper the arrest left her with mixed emotions.
“The individual that I represent has been praying for over a decade that justice be done in this case,” Busico said Thursday. “She’s done her best to move on in life, but the events of that day will forever haunt her.”
The Inquirer reported the suspect and victim had been in contact with each other years earlier, but details about their connection and a motive for the killing were not clear. The newspaper, citing investigators, said the victim had been $10 million in debt in 2008 and had filed for bankruptcy.
