PITTSFORD, N.Y. — A routine report of illegal dumping on a remote Yates County road early Wednesday morning has unraveled into one of the most disturbing family murder cases this region has ever seen, leaving a 50-year-old IT specialist dead, his estranged wife and two sons charged in connection with his killing, and investigators piecing together a conspiracy that they say was driven by a desperate plan to flee the state.
The body discovered wrapped in a tarp along a wooded edge of a country road was so badly disfigured by corrosive chemicals that first responders could not immediately identify the victim. The substances had eaten through the man’s clothing, exposing bone in several places. Whoever committed this act, investigators said, wanted the victim to remain anonymous forever.
But they missed one critical detail. As law enforcement processed the scene, a phone began ringing from the victim’s pocket. The caller ID displayed the name “Robin” — the sister of Craig Rideout, a devoted father of seven who had been reported missing just hours earlier from his townhouse in Pittsford.
Deputies cut through the tarp and discovered the full horror of what had been done. The victim had suffered facial fractures, severe blunt force trauma to the head and neck, and signs of strangulation with some kind of device. There was evidence of a violent struggle.
Craig Rideout had fought for his life, and he had lost it in the most brutal fashion imaginable.
It was a death that would expose a web of betrayal, family dysfunction, and cold-blooded planning that prosecutors say stretched across multiple households and involved the people Craig trusted most in the world.
The nightmare began, according to Craig’s own account, with something so bizarre that he hesitated to even report it. At around midnight on July 19, 2016, Craig was jolted awake by a sharp pain in his arm. He jumped up to find a hooded figure — he was adamant in describing the intruder as a hooded black figure, not a Black man — running out of his bedroom.
Someone had plucked a single hair from Craig’s arm. And in the chaos of the moment, the intruder also grabbed Craig’s Blackberry before fleeing into the night.
“My name’s Craig Rideout. What happened? I wake up at midnight with a sharp pain in my arm.
I jump up. This will sound crazy,” Craig later recounted. He even speculated that the intruder might have been his son Colin playing a prank on him.
Craig quickly obtained a replacement phone and tried to move on with his life. He had no idea that the bizarre break-in was the opening act of a conspiracy that would end with his murder.
The following day, Craig’s sister Robin noticed something deeply wrong. Her brother was not answering his personal or work phones. When she called his office, she was told that Craig had emailed the night before, claiming his daughter was sick and that he would be unavailable while taking her to the doctor.
That did not sound right to Robin. She drove to Craig’s townhouse and found something even more unsettling. Laura Rideout, Craig’s estranged wife, was inside, cleaning the kitchen as though she belonged there.
Laura claimed she had come over because the kids texted her that Craig was not there when they woke up, and she stayed to clean because of a funny smell.
Robin looked around and saw that Craig’s shoes were still in the house. All three pairs. A man who only owned three pairs of shoes and never went anywhere without telling someone, especially his children, would not just vanish.
“I could be making a mountain out of a molehill,” Robin told the 911 dispatcher. It was not a molehill.
Robin made Laura leave and called police. Officers explained they could not enter the home without a search warrant. While they worked on obtaining one, Robin laid out the details.
Craig’s car was gone, but nothing else suggested he had left on his own. Neighbors had seen and heard nothing. Local hospitals and nearby law enforcement had no record of anyone matching Craig’s description.
Laura returned to the townhouse with the two youngest children, Meline and Patrick. She repeated her story about Craig not being there when the kids woke up. Police spoke with the children, who said their father had been playing video games the night before, went to the bathroom, then downstairs.
He disappeared sometime in the night.
“Was he there when you woke up? No. He woke up and dad was there.
The last time you saw your dad was when, honey? Uh, yesterday. He was playing video games on the computer.
He went to the bathroom and then he went downstairs and then that night he was downstairs and then he disappeared in the morning,” the children told investigators.
The search for Craig Rideout was officially underway. But the discovery of the body in Yates County, some 50 miles from Monroe County, would change everything.
Investigators from both counties worked together to confirm that the disfigured body was indeed Craig Rideout. The medical examiner’s findings painted a picture of a vicious, desperate struggle. Craig had been beaten, strangled, and his body subjected to chemical destruction in a failed attempt to hide his identity.
The investigation quickly centered on the fractured Rideout family. Craig and Laura had married in 1993. They seemed like a perfect match — Craig with his IT background, Laura with her double major in physics.
They were devout Catholics who raised seven children together, homeschooling at times and using mainstream schools at others.
But the marriage had soured. Financial pressures mounted. The family had discussed bankruptcy.
By 2014, Laura filed for divorce. And she had a boyfriend — not just any boyfriend, but Paul “PJ” Tucci, Craig’s best friend since college. PJ was the godfather of Craig and Laura’s oldest child.
Their kids grew up together.
PJ’s wife, Jennifer Shanahan, had been seriously ill. PJ claimed he leaned on Laura for support as his wife’s condition worsened. When Jennifer died in 2014, PJ said he fell in love with Laura.
He later claimed Craig gave the relationship his blessing, though Craig was not around to verify that assertion.
By the time Craig disappeared, the family was split between two homes. Craig lived at his townhouse with primary custody of the two youngest children. Laura lived with PJ and his kids, along with her and Craig’s other five children.
The tension was constant. And in the months before the murder, one issue dominated everything: Laura and PJ were planning to move to North Carolina, and they wanted all the children to go with them. Craig had custody of the two youngest and refused to let them leave New York.
It was evening before deputies received approval for the search warrant. When they entered Craig’s townhouse, they moved methodically through the home. The basement drew their attention immediately.
They found what looked like a recently cleaned area, then spotted several areas splattered with blood. Luminol revealed additional blood that had been cleaned up but not fully erased.
The pattern and quantity of blood indicated just how violent the attack had been. Investigators also found a garbage bag containing a makeshift garrote — handles on either end of a cord, fashioned as a ligature.
Someone had been able to carry an adult male’s body up the basement stairs and had time to clean and organize a coverup spanning multiple locations. Police suspected more than one person was involved.
That theory gained traction quickly when a call came in about suspicious activity at Menden Ponds Park, at a spot locals knew as Devil’s Bathtub. Deputies arrived to find Craig’s sons — 22-year-old Colin and 19-year-old Alex — throwing trash bags into the water.
“What’s going on? You and your brother were out for a walk,” an officer asked. The brothers appeared calm, claiming they had never encountered police before.
Colin said he had been worried about his father, that he had emailed him, that “stuff’s just been freaking me out.”
As investigators recovered one of the garbage bags from the pond, the demeanor of the brothers began to crack.
“Colin, that bag’s coming out of the pond. What’s going to be in that bag?” the investigator asked.
First, Colin said he didn’t know. Then, as the bag surfaced, the investigator pressed: “You know, it’s better for you if you tell me what’s in that bag before I see it than if I open that bag and find what I think I’m going to find in that bag.”
Colin admitted the bag probably contained cleaning products and acid bottles. That’s exactly what was inside. Investigators also found paper towels covered in blood, bloody clothing and shoes, and four bottles of very strong drain cleaner matching what was found with Craig’s body.
Colin told the officer that his mother had told him to dump the bags. Investigators also found more bags of bloodstained clothing in the trunk of the car the brothers were driving, along with Craig’s wallet and keys.
DNA testing connected multiple pieces of the bloody clothing to Laura and the sons. One item stood out: a pair of blood-soaked jeans with Colin’s DNA on them, covered in Craig’s blood. That amount of blood was not from a small cleanup.
It looked like Colin had been close to or involved in the violence itself.
Colin and Alex were arrested and charged with tampering with evidence while the investigation continued. From jail, Colin called his fianceé, Chelsea. “I was arrested.
My lawyer says I’m just not supposed to talk about anything.”
The investigation revealed a deeply troubled family dynamic. Colin blamed his father for the friction in the family. Days before the murder, he sent Craig an angry email listing resentments and accusations — that Craig was dragging out the divorce to control Laura, that he was abusive, that he had mental health issues.
Months earlier, messages from Colin’s phone outlined a plan to provoke Craig into losing his temper so an older daughter could call police and claim she was afraid of him. One text said, “Tell them you’re afraid your dad is going to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 your younger siblings when he gets home.” The messages also advised covering tracks: “Wipe your phone of all texts to mom and to scream 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮 to police.”
Investigators believed Laura was the driving force. After she and PJ signed a lease to move to North Carolina, she texted Colin asking for help getting custody of the two youngest children. But the plan did not work — Craig responded calmly, telling Colin he wanted a relationship without the 𝒹𝓇𝒶𝓂𝒶.
Two days before Craig was murdered, investigators found a Google search on Colin’s phone for “involuntary manslaughter.”
Laura’s behavior drew suspicion from the start. She was nervous and fidgety, and she volunteered information no one had asked for — explaining why her DNA might be in certain places, why her cell phone would show her at certain locations, why she had been in Craig’s van a week prior.
A search of Laura’s home uncovered Craig’s car key fob and blue tape identical to the tape used to make the garrote. And then there was PJ Tucci. His DNA was found on cleanup items.
Cell tower data and other evidence placed him at the location where Craig’s body was dumped. There was blood on his shoes and sweatpants, signaling he had handled the body.
Robin told police she saw Laura take a garbage bag from Craig’s home and put it into the back of PJ’s car.
Investigators tracked Craig’s Honda Odyssey minivan using license plate readers and traffic cameras. They found it abandoned at Bushnell’s Basin, a park and ride lot off Route 96. Inside, they recovered more evidence: traces of Craig’s blood, cleaning supplies, gloves, and items used to transport and dispose of the body.
Surveillance videos from businesses along the route showed two vehicles traveling the same path at roughly the same time — Craig’s minivan and a car linked to Laura and PJ. Both headed toward the dump area and then back.
Craig’s phone became a tracking device. Cell tower pings showed it stayed at his townhouse all day on July 19, then began moving southeast at about 3:15 a. m.
the following morning, toward Yates County, stopping around 4:51 a. m. — the location where his body was found.
The replacement phone his sister had gotten him proved to be a critical detail. Investigators believe Laura and the sons did not realize Craig had it.
Then came the purchases. Walmart surveillance and transaction records revealed a trail of spending directly tied to the murder. At a Walmart in Macedon, video showed Colin with Laura and one of his sisters as Colin checked out with two bottles of drain cleaner.
At a Hudson Avenue Walmart, Laura and PJ were captured less than eight hours before Craig’s body was found, buying a 24-foot brown tarp, bungee cords, and three more bottles of drain cleaner. The tarp wrapped around Craig’s body matched the one purchased at that store.
Hours later, Colin appeared at another Walmart, purchasing a shovel and exactly four pairs of work gloves. Investigators later found a shovel near where Craig’s body was dumped, consistent with the one Colin bought. The work gloves were recovered during the Devil’s Bathtub evidence dump, some testing positive for Craig’s blood.
Laura was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and evidence tampering. When police arrived, they told her she must have known this was coming. She said if she had known, she would have put on makeup first.
She grabbed heels to wear to the station but changed them when PJ recommended something more practical.
PJ was arrested weeks later, charged with murder and related conspiracy counts. A search connected to his home led to a bonus arrest: his 19-year-old son, Theodore Tucci, was found in possession of child 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮 material.
All four suspects posted bail as they awaited trial. The case became one of the most disturbing family murders the area had ever seen.
“I think her wishes were to move to North Carolina with the Tucci family and her children,” one investigator said. “She needed a way to make that happen.”
Investigators believe the killers intended to make it look like a bloodless murder.
“It’s violent and it’s botched up, but I think that’s because they don’t account for something,” one investigator said. “I think they intend to choke Craig Rideout and 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 him. I think they think that’s going to be a bloodless murder.
I think they think they’re going to be able to dispose of the body with no cleanup and no issues.”
They didn’t account for Craig fighting for his life.
“And I think that became a struggle that they didn’t anticipate. When that happened, Paul Tucci got nervous and grabbed an iron and smashed Craig Rideout in the head in order to control him while Colin Rideout strangled him to death. I think that the blood caused from that interaction is what ruined their plan.”
The court made the rare ruling to combine the cases in one joint trial. All four defendants would be tried together, each with their own defense team.
During the five-week trial, prosecutors called more than 50 witnesses and introduced nearly 700 pieces of evidence. They laid out how Craig was killed in his own basement, his body dumped miles away, and the cleanup staged to hide the crime.
Blood evidence became a dividing line. Colin’s jeans were soaked with Craig’s blood — the amount indicating he was a main attacker. Laura’s jeans were also heavily bloodstained.
Alex’s sweatpants had much less blood, raising doubt about whether he was present during the killing itself.
Some incriminating information never reached the jury. Colin and Alex’s statements to sheriff’s deputies were ruled inadmissible because the brothers had not been read their Miranda rights. The text messages and the “involuntary manslaughter” search were also excluded because prosecutors could not prove who was actually sending the messages or running the search.
The defense strategy was clear: blame the other guy. Laura insisted she was not the killer, claiming she only helped clean up at her sons’ request. The sons’ defense teams argued Laura was the killer and forced them into the coverup.
PJ’s defense focused on the prosecution’s inability to place him in the basement during the murder itself. He claimed the tarp, bungee cords, and other purchases were for their move to North Carolina, and the drain cleaner was for the girl’s hair that clogged the drains.
The defense also attempted to paint Craig as a horrible father and terrible husband — the complete opposite of the person his family, co-workers, and friends knew him to be.
The jury deliberated for five days. Laura Rideout was found guilty of second-degree murder, evidence tampering, and burglary, agreeing she had no lawful right to be in Craig’s townhouse. Colin Rideout was also found guilty of second-degree murder and evidence tampering.
Alex Rideout was convicted of evidence tampering but spared a murder conviction. PJ Tucci walked free, acquitted of all charges.
Craig’s family spoke at the sentencing hearings.
“I have been worried about not only my husband and all of our children and their response to this atrocity, but the effect that it has had on my mother. She has not only lost her son, but two of her grandchildren to jail and prison time,” one family member said.
“The act of killing my brother was not an accident. It was not something that happens. It took planning.
It took coaching. Her actions show total disregard for what happened to her own children as well, virtually leaving them parentless.”
The judge called the murder “a tragedy of almost unimaginable proportions.”
“This case was premeditated. It was evil. It was diabolical.
This community has, is, and should be horrified of what happened to Craig Rideout,” the judge said.
Alex received the lightest sentence: one and one-third to four years on each of his two counts of tampering with evidence, to run consecutively. He was granted youthful offender status and was released in 2021 after serving three and a half years.
Colin was sentenced to 25 years to life for murder, plus consecutive sentences for evidence tampering. He will be eligible for parole when he is 50.
Laura was sentenced to 25 years to life for murder, plus 15 years for burglary, plus one to four years for evidence tampering, all to be served consecutively — totaling about 41 years to life. She is scheduled to be eligible for parole in 2055, at which time she will be about 83 years old. She maintains her innocence.
The judge cited premeditation, her leadership in the cleanup, and the callous attempts to conceal Craig’s identity as aggravating factors.
PJ’s acquittal drew sharp disagreement from investigators.
“I think that the jury had to consider what we put on the evidence, and I think that they did that, but I do think it was incorrect, and particularly with regards to Paul Tucci,” one investigator said. “I believe Paul Tucci had a major part in this crime. I think that without any of the four of them, this crime has far less chance of being successful.”
The district attorney said she believed PJ got away with murder. PJ denied it but acknowledged some people would always believe that.
Following his acquittal, attention turned to the earlier death of PJ’s first wife, Jennifer Shanahan, in 2014. A news investigation revealed that a medical expert was re-examining how she died — an autopsy had determined she died from complications from alcohol, but the sheriff was suspicious that she died right around the time PJ began seeing Laura. It was possible, investigators said, to poison someone and make it look like cirrhosis of the liver, which is what she was determined to have died of.
The district attorney and sheriff wanted to exhume her body, but the medical examiner and Jennifer’s family were satisfied with the original findings. No charges were ever filed.
The case began with the bizarre plucking of a hair from an innocent man’s arm. No clear reason or explanation has ever surfaced for why it happened. No one has ever admitted to doing it.
The strange detail remains one of the case’s most unresolved mysteries.
Craig’s extended family and friends have struggled to process the tragedy. His sister Robin remained vocal about Craig’s character and the pain caused by his loss.
Colin, who gave a TED talk from prison in 2019, has described how losing control over almost everything forced him to focus on the few things he still could control. His engagement to Chelsea fell apart after he went to prison. He has not spoken to his mother in years.
PJ has maintained a low profile but reportedly visits Laura regularly in prison and says she will always be in his life.
“25 to life is one of the sentences out there. And I think that makes me 76 and her 71, something like that. So maybe we have a retirement home together,” PJ said.
The murder of Craig Rideout remains one of the most chilling cases of familial betrayal in recent memory — a man killed not by a stranger in the night, but by the people he loved most, in a conspiracy born of desperation, hatred, and a plan to start a new life in North Carolina that would cost a father his life.
