As Allegheny County homicide detective Steve Hitchings reached into the brown evidence bag Tuesday afternoon, a cloud of dust puffed out.
Slowly, the veteran investigator pulled out a dark moving blanket caked in dried mud. As he unfolded the cloth to display it for the jury, he left a large pile of dirt next to the witness stand.
That blanket, Hitchings testified, was used to cover the seat in the pickup truck where Murrysville businessman George Dayieb was killed. And the next day, he continued, it was buried in Clarion County by one of the men charged in the slaying.
William Fortuna, 61, of Conway, Beaver County is on trial this week in Pittsburgh on charges of criminal homicide and conspiracy.
Also charged in the case are Braden Elliot and his uncle, Jeremy Fisher.
Elliott, police said, pulled the trigger, and Fisher planned it.
Investigators said Fortuna, who worked for Fisher, provided the gun used to kill Dayieb, and when it malfunctioned, fixed the problem so it would fire as needed.
The alleged crime
According to police, Dayieb, 57, previously had loaned Fisher $400,000 to buy a piece of construction equipment.
On Dec. 27, 2023, Dayieb expected to be paid back via a wire transfer, and he met Fisher at a Sunoco gas station on Broadhead Road in Coraopolis around 10:15 a.m.
With Fisher driving, Dayieb in the front passenger seat, and Elliott in the back, the three men began driving toward Butler County.
It was inside the truck during the drive, prosecutors said, that Elliott shot Dayieb where he sat.
Fortuna had been in his own truck, following them.
Afterward, Fisher got into Fortuna’s truck and told Elliott to drive the body to a property in Clarion County, police said.
Prosecutors said Elliott then dragged Dayieb’s body into a trailer and covered it with pillows, where police found it two days later.
‘What happened to George?’
Prosecutors spent Tuesday afternoon playing Fortuna’s videotaped interrogation with Hitchings from Dec. 28, 2023.
Hitchings told Fortuna that Dayieb had been reported missing the day before, and they were trying to find him.
Fortuna was cooperative and personable when Hitchings arrived to speak with him, but as the hours wore on, he repeatedly changed his story — only adding additional facts when confronted with evidence against him.
Fortuna told Hitchings that the day before, he followed Fisher and Dayieb to Butler County because Fisher was going to drop his truck off for repairs. Then, Fortuna said, all three of the men drove back together.
Quickly, Hitchings confronted Fortuna with video captured on security cameras in the area.
“Guess who comes back and gets out of your truck?” Hitchings asked in the interrogation. “Jeremy got out of your truck. You got out of your truck. George didn’t get out of your truck.”
“What happened to George?” Hitchings asked.
Fortuna didn’t answer, but the detective kept pushing.
“You need to tell us what happened. George has two little girls and a wife,” Hitchings said. “Reach inside your heart, and tell us what happened.”
His plea didn’t sway Fortuna, though eventually he admitted Dayieb didn’t drive back with him and Fisher.
Fortuna also told the detective as he and Fisher drove across the Sewickley Bridge that afternoon, Fisher threw Dayieb’s cellphone into the river below.
“Did he tell you what he did to George?” Hitchings asked.
“He did not explain anything,” Fortuna said. “He was pretty silent.”
Burying the blanket
It wasn’t until much later in the interview — and after detectives had driven back and forth to Butler County where Fortuna had said he picked up Fisher — that Fortuna told Hitchings about Elliott driving Fisher’s truck to Clarion County.
It was there, Fortuna said, that Elliott got his uncle’s truck stuck in the mud, and Fortuna had to go get him out.
When Fortuna couldn’t get the truck out the evening of the 27th, he told Hitchings he returned the next morning with heavy equipment to lift it out.
That’s when, Elliott later told detectives, Fortuna used the equipment to bury the blanket on which Dayieb was killed.
“Is that where George is?” Hitchings asked in the interview with Fortuna.
“I can’t tell you,” Fortuna answered. “If I had to guess? Yes.”
Hitchings repeatedly asked if the man knew what happened to Dayieb.
“I had an idea,” Fortuna answered. “I think they offed him.”
Later, he added, “I didn’t want to know.”
Dayieb’s body was found the next day.