True Crime Database

Sheila Bellush

Sheila Bellush had made headlines for three years. Not for any of her accomplishments or being entertaining – the most she was known for was giving birth to quadruplets, being dubbed the "quad mom" in her community in San Antonio, Texas. What she made the headlines for was her untimely and gruesome death – she was found with her throat slit and two of the then 2 year old quadruplets were playing in her blood. Her body was discovered by her eldest daughter from a previous marriage, Stevie, as she came home from school. The question was, why?

Before moving to San Antonio, Sheila originally lived in Kansas until she met a young, charming man by the name of Allen Blackthorne. The both of them believed that they had found what they were looking for in each other, and Allen had actually convinced Sheila to marry him by their third date. The couple were married in 1982.

Originally, the marriage and the relationship were perfect. They had two daughters, Stevie and Daryl. Allen was a self made business man, selling medical equipment, and he encouraged his in-laws to invest in the business. Smitten with such a hard-working and dedicated son in law, Sheila's parents invested everything they had into the company. However, business was failing; Allen was spending more on himself than he was putting into the company and Sheila's parents lost everything, which was devastating to them. Tensions rose and Allen forced Sheila to choose between him and her parents. She ended up choosing Allen and cut off contact with them.

During this period, the marriage became strained and Allen started to show his true colours. He would become abusive, physically and emotionally, towards Sheila, putting her down, slapping her, to which he has never denied but made out it was only a one time thing. He was also a masochist, someone who felt pleasure from feeling pain, and would hire prostitutes to carry these sexual acts out while making Sheila watch. Sheila also alleged that Allen was also abusing their daughters, even originally filing a sexual assault claim against him on Stevie, but the charges were eventually dropped. By 1987, Sheila was filing for divorce. But Allen didn't like this – he was a control freak and hated when things didn't go his way.

Allen had his mind set on gaining sole custody of the girls. The court had originally ruled that both would receive part time custody, but Allen tried multiple times for 100%. Eventually, it was decided Sheila would gain sole custody, which angered Allen further. However, every request he made towards the court was denied. In the mean-time, Sheila had met another man, Jamie Bellush. He was the picture-perfect husband, an ex marine and a respectable person. They were married in 1993, and Sheila gave birth to quadruplets in 1995.

The newlywed couple, however, could not have a quiet life. Allen was stalking Sheila, harassing her, even trying to ruin her wedding day by handing her papers with his request to gain sole custody of her children, claiming she was abusive. With this in mind, the couple moved to Sarasota, Florida so Allen could no longer reach them. How wrong they were indeed.

The first thing that Allen did was that he hired a private investigator to track Sheila's new location. Once he was given her address, he created a plan, in which he wanted her beaten up and seriously injured, injured enough for her to be rendered unable to care for the children, in which custody would be granted towards him. For this, however, he would need to hire someone else. Allen ended up turning to Daniel Rocha, a petty criminal who attended the same golf club, who spoke to a friend of his called Samuel Gonzalez, who sought out the help of his cousin, Jose Del Toro. Allen alleged to these men that Sheila was abusing the children, leaving the men compelled to be apart of this elaborate scheme. Jose Del Toro eventually agreed to carry the assault out for $14,000.

On November 7th 1997, Del Toro travelled to the location given by the private investigator in a car registered in his grandmother's name. He stopped at a store to purchase a camouflage suit and at a gas station in order to gain directions to his destination. His car was spotted by a neighbour who was able to memorise and record the license plate of the car. Joey walked into the house and saw Sheila with the quadruplets as he broke in – immediately he felt guilty, seeing how much she loved her children, and was about to not go through with the crime. However, he had already broken in and had already made a promise. In a hurry, he shot Sheila in the face with a .45 caliber gun and slit her throat before leaving her lifeless body in the house, in full view of her toddlers.

Her 13 year old daughter Stevie was the one who found Sheila dead in their family home. Stevie had had a good day at school that day; she had asked a boy she liked to the Sadie Hawkins dance at her school, to which he had said yes – that good mood was about to be shattered. Distressed, she called 911, and an investigation immediately went underway.

Police were able to trace the crime back to Joey Del Toro when the neighbour came forward with the license plate of the car he was driving – using records, they discovered Joey's relationship to the owner of the vehicle and that he had fled to Mexico after the murder. He was discovered and brought back to the United States, where he was made to testify against everyone else involved in the brutal murder. They were all arrested and tried in the following years.

Jose Del Toro pleaded guilty to first degree murder and armed burglary charges, and was sentenced to two life sentences, the maximum penalty. Samuel Gonzalez was sentenced to 19 years in prison after a plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder. Daniel Rocha was convicted of first degree murder in 1999 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Allen Blackthorne was convicted of federal interstate charges of conspiracy to commit murder and domestic violence, in which he was sentenced to two life sentences without possibility of parole.

In 2001, Allen Blackthorne was attacked and nearly killed by a prison gang. After this incident, he was separated from other prisoners until he was relocated to another facility in Florida. On November 18th 2014, Allen Blackthorne died of causes unknown to the general public – he was 59 years old.

While for the most part justice was served in this case and Allen Blackthorne never experienced an ounce of freedom after his atrocities, the scars that he left on the family Sheila had left behind will always remain. 6 children had to grow up without a mother, their parents unable to speak to their daughter again, a husband never able to hug and kiss his wife again. While he claimed that everything he did was for the best interests of his daughters, all his actions did was hurt them further, which is what makes this case stand out a huge deal from many other domestic disputes.