A savage double murder in an upscale Maryland neighborhood. A killer who lived next door. And then he went on a vacation.
This is the chilling story of Scott Tomaszewski, the young man who butchered his longtime neighbors, Dick and Jody Velardo, on Mother’s Day weekend, then boarded a cruise ship to Alaska with his family as if nothing had happened.
The call came in just before noon on a sunny Sunday. A frantic daughter, Katie Velardo, had rushed to her parents’ home in Rockville, Maryland, after they failed to show up for a prearranged Mother’s Day brunch. She found her mother and father lying in pools of blood.
“Oh my god,” she screamed into the 911 line. “There’s blood everywhere. I think they’re both dead.”
Police arrived within minutes to a scene of unimaginable horror. Inside the elegant home, blood was splattered on doors, walls, floors, and ceilings. The trail led to the backyard, where Jody Velardo lay on the floor with catastrophic injuries to her neck.
She was nearly decapitated. Just outside the sliding glass door, her husband Dick had collapsed, stabbed more than 40 times. He had tried to crawl to his wife’s aid.
The Velardos had been a pillar of the community. Dick, a successful businessman, and Jody, a devoted philanthropist, had been married for 40 years. They had two adult children, Andy and Katie.
The family was close, loving, and respected. The night before the murders, the couple had spent a pleasant evening with friends at a nearby casino, returning home after 11 p. m.
Sometime between then and the next morning, a killer entered their home through a cut screen and jimmied window in the den.
Detectives immediately noted the overkill. The attacker had used a large knife, stabbing Dick multiple times as he lay in bed, then chasing Jody through the house. She tried to call 911, but the phone was ripped from her hand.
The killer then focused on her with a ferocity that suggested vengeance. Yet there was no obvious motive. The Velardos had no enemies.
They were beloved.
The investigation initially went cold. Police considered leads from the casino, possible federal testimony, and transient landscapers. But nothing stuck.
Then a retired police officer called with a tip: look at the boy next door. Brian Tomaszewski, the older son of the family living directly beside the Velardos, had burglarized their home as a juvenile. But Brian was not the killer.
He had gone on a family cruise to Alaska. His younger brother, Scott, had stayed behind.
Scott Tomaszewski, then 20 years old, had a history of petty crime. He had pawned a class ring stolen from another neighbor, Eve Demsher, just a month before the murders. When detectives traced the pawn shop footage, they saw Scott’s face.
They now had probable cause for a burglary arrest. But they needed evidence linking him to the double homicide.
The timing was critical. The Tomaszewski family had left for their Alaskan cruise at 3 a. m.
on the Sunday of the murders. The Velardos were killed sometime after 1:30 a. m.
Scott had a narrow window. He could have committed the murders, then boarded the ship with his parents, carrying evidence. Detectives knew they had to act before he could destroy it.
They coordinated a massive operation. The Coast Guard held the cruise ship at sea as it approached Juneau, Alaska. FBI agents, local police, and Montgomery County detectives stormed the vessel.
They found Scott in his cabin, nonchalant. In his wallet, blood-soaked cash. Under his clothes, a knife.
Back at the Tomaszewski home in Maryland, a simultaneous search uncovered a washing machine with dark, stained clothes, a ski mask, and gloves.
Scott agreed to speak with investigators without an attorney. In a recorded interview, he confessed. He said he had entered the Velardo home to burglarize it, but Dick woke up.
“I wanted to leave and I stabbed him,” Scott said. He then attacked Jody, who had fled to the kitchen. After the murders, he took a ginger ale from the refrigerator, drank it, and walked home.
He then packed for his cruise.
The murder weapon, a machete, was later found in a backpack that Scott’s mother, Janette Tomaszewski, had disposed of. She initially faced charges of accessory after the fact but was granted immunity in exchange for testimony. Scott pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, armed robbery, and burglary.
He received two consecutive life sentences.
At the sentencing, the Velardo children spoke of their parents’ love. “The thought that someone could actively take the lives of two people and not recognize the love that existed there is just a really sad situation,” Katie said. Prosecutors noted that Dick Velardo’s last act on Earth was to crawl toward his wife, trying to save her.
Scott Tomaszewski showed no emotion. He killed his neighbors, then took a vacation. Now he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
The community of Rockville, once so peaceful, will never forget the horror of that Mother’s Day. The boy next door turned out to be a monster. And the only comfort for the Velardo family is that justice, however slow, finally arrived.