On June 24, 1994, Rossi's wife, Sherrie Lynn, was found near death in a coma on the side of a Pennsylvania road. She had a crushed skull and was left covered in blood; her injuries were so severe that she needed to wear a helmet. Her rescuers thought she had been in a traffic accident, and called for an ambulance. Ninety minutes later, at 8:05 pm, Richard Rossi called police, and claimed that men killed his wife and shot at him twice. But when police came to interview him, his story changed, first claiming that a man that looked like him got into the passenger side of the car, then that the man who looked like him attacked from the driver's side. Rossi had a cellular phone available, but said he pursued the assailant instead of dialing for help because he was a "good runner." Rossi also changed his story on where the assailants approached from, first saying they were in a white car, then that they "came out of the woods out of nowhere." Police testified that Rossi told them a "satanic cult" was trying to frame him; Rossi denies this. Rossi was wearing only a pair of tan shorts when police interviewed him; Rossi claimed that he lost his shirt running through the woods, but did not explain why he was barefoot. Several witnesses reported seeing a man with long hair near the Rossi's cars, and State Police reports suggested the presence of two other cars, one blue and one white.