Murder suspect behind bars
A former Butler County man accused in the slaying of his 20-year-old ex-girlfriend is behind bars in South Carolina.
Myrtle Beach police early Wednesday morning arrested Matthew I. Darby, 21, of Greensburg, Westmoreland County, after a passer-by reported Darby was tampering with a window at a private residence.
Darby is suspected of killing Alina Sheykhet, 20, a University of Pittsburgh student.
“Obviously they’re very very serious allegations,” said David Shrager, Darby’s attorney.
Darby appeared at a bail hearing Wednesday morning in Myrtle Beach, where he was denied bail on the fugitive from justice warrant. He was transferred to a county jail in Conway, S.C.
Shrager said they have chosen to waive extradition and did not know when his client would be brought back to Pittsburgh.
The defendant formerly lived in Cranberry Township and played basketball at Seneca Valley High School. He graduated from Seneca Valley in 2014.
Myrtle Beach police said a concerned citizen reported seeing Darby tampering with a window at a home around 12:50 a.m. Wednesday.
Capt. Joey Crosby of Myrtle Beach Police Department said Darby was arrested and police discovered he was wanted by authorities in Pittsburgh.
Crosby said he did not want to release any more information about Darby’s arrest in Myrtle Beach because it might jeopardize the ongoing investigation in Pittsburgh.
Authorities said Sheykhet was found dead Sunday in her off-campus apartment in Pittsburgh’s Oakland section.
Pittsburgh police said they found a claw hammer and two knives in a sewer drain near her apartment that may have been used to kill her. An autopsy listed the cause of death as blunt force trauma.
A physical therapy student at Pitt, Sheykhet last month had filed a protection from abuse order against Darby after a Sept. 20 incident where Darby allegedly broke into her apartment.
The two met and dated when they were both students at the University of Pittsburgh’s Greensburg campus.
In addition to homicide, Darby is charged with burglary, flight to avoid apprehension, theft and possessing instruments of crime.
He was in court Friday in an unrelated case where he is facing felony rape and sexual assault charges filed in February in Indiana, Pa.
Myrtle Beach police also charged him with misdemeanor counts of loitering and resisting arrest when he was arrested. The resisting arrest charge is because he would not give his name to police, South Carolina authorities said.
Eagle staff writers Rachel Wagoner and Jim Smith contributed to this report.
