The man who is now officially charged with the brutal murder of a University of Pittsburgh student last weekend was in Indiana County Court last Friday for a hearing on a rape charge. He is still at large and could have fled the state. He has family in Virginia.
21-year-old Matthew Darby is charged with the beating and stabbing death of his former girlfriend, Alin Sheykhet, early Sunday at her apartment in Oakland. Police have found the murder weapons, a claw hammer and two knives, and they have surveillance video of Darby on the street leading to the storm sewer and a dumpster where they say he dropped them. They also have a witness, a car service driver who drove him on the night of the murder.
Yesterday, Darby’s attorney David Shrager appeared on Pittsburgh TV pleading with his client to turn himself in and reading a letter written by Darby’s parents offering prayers for the victim’s family and urging Darby to surrender. Shrager said he was with Darby at his court appearance in Indiana on Friday and there was no indication that Darby was going to do anything to his ex-girlfriend.
Darby is charged with rape, sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, and indecent assault for the alleged rape of a woman in Indiana last February. She was an IUP student who was also an ex-girlfriend of Darby. She said she told him she was seeing another man and he then raped her. He was free on $10,000 bond, but that is now revoked. He was due for a pretrial proceeding yesterday but obviously failed to appear.
Sheykhet had obtained a protection from abuse order against Darby after she broke up with him and he broke into her apartment. Police say he phoned her five times before the murder last weekend.
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