A tip in the search for a missing Pennsylvania musician led investigators to a crumbling, abandoned cemetery in Southwest Philadelphia, and to a crypt that held the remains of not one victim but two, in a case that exposed a pattern of lethal violence inside the Warlocks Motorcycle Club.
Keith Palumbo, a 36-year-old heavy metal guitarist and tattoo artist from Delaware County, Pennsylvania, vanished in February 2020. Weeks later, on April 3, 2020, investigators acting on cooperating-witness information located his body inside the family vault of a Civil War, era officer at Mount Moriah Cemetery. Beside him lay the remains of 33-year-old David Rossillo Jr., a prospective Warlocks member whose own killing had gone undetected for years.
The man Fox News Digital reported was responsible for Palumbo's death was no stranger. Michael DeLuca, a Warlocks member who went by the nickname "Kaos", had been Palumbo's longtime friend. Witnesses told investigators DeLuca shot Palumbo in the face after luring him to his Southwest Philadelphia apartment with a phone call. A separate witness told police DeLuca then said he had killed Palumbo and needed help disposing of the body.
Mount Moriah Cemetery had closed years before the crimes. Retired detective Chris McMullin, who hosts Oxygen's true-crime series "Philly Homicide," described the sprawling grounds in stark terms.
"It's something like out of a post-apocalyptic film when you go there. There are headstones that are knocked over and vines growing all over mausoleums. It's very sad because this was a cemetery where people were laid to rest. Typically, you expect it to be cared for perpetually."
McMullin told Fox News Digital the location made grim sense. Stolen cars had been dumped on the property before. "If you wanted to hide a body," he said, "that's probably a good place to do it."
Investigators got a break when they noticed one of the crypts appeared to have been recently disturbed. Inside the vault of Capt. A.H. Cain, who died in 1884, they found the two victims. DNA testing confirmed the identities of both Palumbo and Rossillo by August 2020.
The forensic work that ultimately connected suspects to the scene mirrors the painstaking evidence-gathering seen in other high-profile investigations where physical evidence proved decisive.
Rossillo's death was a separate killing carried out by another Warlocks member, Michael DiMauro. Prosecutors said DiMauro shot Rossillo at the cemetery, tied a rope around his neck, dragged his body to the pried-open crypt, and dumped the remains. The New York Post reported that the killing occurred in 2017, making Rossillo's case a cold one for three years before investigators stumbled onto both bodies while searching for Palumbo.
Both DeLuca and DiMauro were arrested in September 2020. By 2023, DiMauro had been found guilty of first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse in connection with Rossillo's death. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
DeLuca pleaded guilty that same year to third-degree murder in Palumbo's death. He received a sentence of 15 to 35 years. Three others also pleaded guilty to helping dispose of the victims' bodies.
The resolution of these cases after years of uncertainty recalls other prosecutions in which investigators built their cases methodically before bringing charges.
Authorities and witnesses suggested DeLuca may have suspected Palumbo of cooperating with law enforcement, though no evidence was presented to support that claim. McMullin said investigators never received a clear answer from DeLuca about his motive.
"It was speculated that he may have done it to set an example not to cross him. This victim was his lifelong best friend. Was he trying to make an example for the other members? It certainly seemed like they were afraid of him."
McMullin added that while he believed DeLuca had impulse-control issues, the killing itself appeared calculated. "They more than likely took [Palumbo] to the clubhouse with the intention of doing that to him," he said.
Retired ATF Special Agent in Charge Bernard Zapor, who also spoke to Fox News Digital, placed the Warlocks in the broader landscape of outlaw motorcycle organizations. He noted the club operates with less public visibility than larger gangs but shares their most dangerous trait.
"They all have a similarity in that betrayal of the organization is a death sentence. You have allegiance to the club first, and then your family comes after that. It's club before family, club before self. And the suspicion of being an informant is dangerous and unfortunate."
Zapor was blunt about the consequences of even unproven suspicion. "If you're suspected of being a police informant, the only outcome is death," he said. "It's a death sentence if they can get to you."
The willingness of gang members to act on suspicion alone, without evidence, is a recurring pattern in violent criminal organizations. Cases built on disputed narratives and thin evidence have drawn scrutiny in other legal contexts as well.
Despite the Warlocks' code of loyalty, cooperating witnesses proved essential to solving both cases. McMullin noted the tension between the club's demands and the self-interest of its members.
"But I also think that when push came to shove, they didn't want to lie and possibly risk taking a prosecution to protect him. I just think there's no honor among thieves. Loyalty is something made very clear that's expected. But I also think that people are also out for themselves, especially people who are committing a lot of crimes, heinous crimes at that."
Cellphone data and physical evidence rounded out the case that cooperating witnesses had opened. The investigation drew on multiple lines of proof, interviews, forensics, and digital records, to build a prosecution strong enough to secure guilty pleas and a conviction.
Assistant District Attorney Robert Wainwright credited the detective work in a statement from the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.
"I want to thank now-retired Philadelphia Police Detective Joe Bamberski for his diligent and tireless work on this case. I'm very pleased that we are able to bring some measure of justice and peace to the loved ones of these two victims."
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner framed the outcome in broader terms. "We are committed to bringing justice in cold cases like this," Krasner said, as the New York Post reported.
McMullin, who spent years working Philadelphia homicides, said the Palumbo case lingered with him. "When I learned that he had gone missing, it just gave me an ominous feeling," he recalled.
He called it a case of profound betrayal. "There's the relationship between the killer and the victim," McMullin said. "Although sadly, more people are killed by people they know than people they don't know. And outlaw biker gangs are notoriously violent. Michael DeLuca, in my opinion, did an evil act."
Palumbo's loved ones, including Lierin Buckley, Matthew Sondermann, and friend Michael Davvocato, sat down for the Oxygen episode to speak about the toll of his death. The case is the subject of "Metal and Mayhem," airing May 2, 2026, at 8 p.m. on Oxygen's "Philly Homicide."
Stories like Palumbo's remind us that the consequences of violent crime ripple far beyond headlines, reaching into families and communities long after the courtroom proceedings end.
Several questions linger. No evidence was ever presented that Palumbo was actually cooperating with law enforcement. The identities of the three individuals who pleaded guilty to helping dispose of the bodies have not been widely detailed. And the condition of Mount Moriah Cemetery, a place where the dead were supposed to rest in peace, not be hidden, raises its own uncomfortable questions about what happens when institutions fall apart and no one is watching.
Keith Palumbo was a musician and a tattoo artist. He trusted his friend. That trust cost him his life, and it took a team of dogged investigators, a crumbling crypt, and witnesses who finally chose self-preservation over gang loyalty to bring even a measure of accountability.
Justice showed up late. But it showed up. That distinction still matters.
