Murder of Six-Grade Teacher and Future Mother-In-Law of Jeffrey Scullin POLICE INTERROGATION


Bruce and Melinda Pleskovic raised their children in the quiet town of Strongsville, OH. They had two daughters Megan and Anna, and a son named Kyle with Down syndrome who was nonverbal.

Melinda was a pillar of the community, working as a teacher and also coaching the women’s varsity soccer team.

The Pleskovic’s daughter Anna began dating Jeffrey Scullin while in high school. After they graduated they got engaged and conceived a daughter. Being a young couple they needed a lot of help.

Anna worked as a waitress at Applebee’s and Jeff claimed to be doing some part-time work. To help out the Pleskovics offered to let Anna, Jeff, and their baby live in their basement rent-free so they could save up for their own place.

They all existed like one big happy family and were excitingly planning Anna and Jeff’s wedding. The Pleskovic’s got along well with the easy-going Jeff. Months after he moved in weird occurrences took over the Pleskovic’s home.

The Events
Anna and Jeff scheduled their wedding for October 2017. The agreement was for Jeff to pay the venue and send out his portion of the invitations. Bruce and Melinda were going to take care of everything else.

From the beginning, Jeff’s parents weren’t involved with the wedding planning. They didn’t even like the Pleskovics according to Jeff.

Cash started coming up missing after Jeff moved in. Small bills like ones and fives at first. Then larger amounts. The family was worried because they believed they were being targeted.

When Jeff was home alone one day, he said that someone tried breaking in. He saw someone reach their arm through the sliding glass door but was able to scare the intruder away.

They would also see people wandering around their yard but luckily Jeff was usually there to thwart any burglary attempt.

Car keys were taken and used to start their cars or set off their alarms in the middle of the night. On another occasion, Bruce found nails in one of his tires.

They always reported these incidents but there wasn’t much for the police to go on. Life continued on for the family as they were nearing the wedding date.

A week before the wedding Melinda received a call from the venue saying that they needed to pay the fee or they would cancel. She was told that Jeff’s card had been declined 14 times.

Melinda paid them and planned on confronting Jeff. He hadn’t sent out his invitations either.

Wedding Bells Turn Into A Funeral Procession
The Pleskovics again tried to contact Jeff’s family and hoped to finally meet them before the wedding. They always wanted to become friends with them but were told by Jeff that wouldn’t happen.

But on October 23, 2017, things changed. Jeff told Bruce and Melinda that his mother would like to go out to eat and reimburse them for the wedding venue.

Jeff kept changing the plans which Bruce found odd. He then received a text right before he was about to leave work from Melinda’s phone inferring that she was going to meet him at the restaurant. But the way it was worded was not how his wife texted.

Bruce showed up at the restaurant and nobody was there. He couldn’t get a hold of Melinda or anybody so he left to go to the gym.

He got a call from Anna saying to meet the family at Applebee’s followed by numerous calls from Jeff saying the same thing.

When Bruce got there Jeff was waiting with the baby. He became worried when Melinda wasn’t there. Her phone was off and neither he nor Jeff had talked to her.

Jeff stated that he wasn’t able to get into the house because the security code was not working. Bruce became more concerned but thought maybe something came up that needed Melinda’s attention.

He hurried through his meal and walked out with Jeff and the baby. Jeff’s truck needed gas so before dinner, he grabbed a couple of full containers from his dad’s house.

Jeff asked Bruce to mind the baby while he filled up his truck. Bruce noted that it was taking forever and it seemed like he was purposely being stalled.

Anna gave Jeff keys but when they got to the house he acted like they weren’t working. They were let into the house by Kyle and found Melinda lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Jeff called 911 and so did Bruce.

“You know we’ve asked people to watch our frickin’ area. We’ve had people attempt to break in just this week. I don’t know what is going on in this city but this is gettin’ done here. You people drop the…this whole city is getting fricking taken over…I can’t believe this.”-portion of Bruce Pleskovic’s 911 call.

Aftermath
Melinda’s funeral was on the same day that her daughter was supposed to marry Jeff. Her autopsy showed she was a victim of over 35 stab wounds and three gunshots. Jeff served as a pallbearer.

All of the robbery attempts and suspicious behavior ended. Police discovered that was because Jeff was the culprit behind all of it including Melinda’s murder.

Jeff failed a polygraph test. After denying that he had anything to do with the killing he eventually confessed.

He staged all the robberies and suspicious activity. Jeff claimed that Melinda got mad at him for having a gun and for accusing Anna of cheating.

That is when she flew into a rage and he shot her in self-defense. He claimed that he didn’t remember stabbing her over 35 times.

No true explanation has ever been given. The popular belief is that his failure to pay for the wedding venue had something to do with it.

Jeffrey Scullin pleaded no contest to a slew of charges. He was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 33 years.