The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford student arrested
Thursday on campus allegedly tried to rally gang members to kill a
witness in a 2001 murder case.

Sgt. Anthony Wojcik with the Cold Case Squad of the Chicago
Police Department told The Era Friday that Raquel Jaques, 24, was
in custody in Chicago as of Friday morning.

Jaques had appeared before McKean County Judge John Yoder during
regular court hours Thursday. She was arrested locally as a
fugitive from justice. During court, Jaques waived extradition and
agreed to return to Chicago immediately to face charges, including
solicitation for murder, conspiracy to commit murder and harassment
of a witness – all felonies in Illinois.

Wojcik explained that in May of 2001, Henry Wrobel, a 78
year-old World War II veteran, was found dead in his home in
Chicago as a result of a single gunshot wound to the head. Two
family members – Wrobel’s grandnephew, Richard Kupferschmidt, then
17, and his mother, Wrobel’s niece, Janet Yurus, reported
discovering Wrobel dead in his home.

Between 2001 and 2004, investigators did not have much progress
investigating the case, Wojcik said. In 2004, two other
investigators – Thomas Cepeda and Saul Del Rivero – and he took
over the case after it had become a “cold case.”

That same year, the trio’s investigation yielded a suspect, he
added. The suspected shooter in the incident was found to be a gang
member, Wojcik said, so investigators started interviewing
“associate gang members.” The gang, Satan Disciples, is comprised
mostly of residents of the South Side of Chicago.

It was then that one interviewee implicated himself as being
involved in the shooting and informed police the family members who
claimed to have found Wrobel – Kupferschmidt and Yurus – were also
involved.

The motive for the murder, Wojcik said, was “murder for hire,”
ultimately toward financial gain on the parts of Kupferschmidt and
Yurus, who would then pay the gang member or members for their
involvement. The pair inherited a total of $100,000 in cash and
other assets, he said.

Ricardo Pabon, identified by Wojcik as a gang member involved in
the shooting, Kupferschmidt and Yurus have all been charged in the
2001 shooting of Wrobel, Wojcik said.

“We honed our investigation down to the person suspected as
being the actual shooter,” Wojcik said, “and it was during that
investigation – building a case for the shooter – that she (Jaques)
committed her offense.” He added Jaques – who now claims not to be
a gang member, but who “most definitely was” at one point – tried
to “thwart” the investigation by arranging for the murder of
someone “she thought was a witness” in the Wrobel murder.

The person Wojcik’s unit suspects as being the actual shooter in
Wrobel’s death has not been charged, he said.

“It was in her (Jaques’) effort to protect the suspected
offender,” Wojcik said, where she committed a crime. He said that
some time after Jaques had moved to Bradford to attend college, she
returned to Chicago and “conspired with others in an effort to
kill” the alleged witnesses.

Wojcik said the suspected shooter was Jaques’ boyfriend.

He said the Cold Case Unit was able to track Jaques after she
registered for college. Specifically, he cited Chief Dan Songer,
Lt. Mark Chiodo with the federal Bureau of Prisons, McKean County
Assistant District Attorney Scott Klein, U.S. Marshal Robert
Alexander and Pennsylvania State Police officer Mike Boltz for
assisting in the investigation.

Jaques, who was a nursing major while at Pitt-Bradford, will now
face one of two courses of action, Wojcik explained. She will be
brought in front of a judge for a bond hearing and either a
preliminary hearing will be set or grand jury will hear the
evidence.