The familiar stretch of road in rural Maryland was a drive that Ascenzio Bilello had made countless times before.
The 53-year-old crane operator, known as “Slanz” to his friends and family, was on his way home from work on the night of August 21, 2023, but would never make it to the dream house he had built with his wife in Deep Creek.
Bilello was driving on Cranesville Road in the Oakland area, minutes from his neighborhood, when his white Ford Explorer crossed the center line, hit an embankment, and crashed into a tree at the bottom of a ravine.
At first, it appeared to be a tragic one-car accident. But Bilello hadn’t lost control of his vehicle and run off the road. He had been shot in the head.
Nearly three years later, no one has been charged in his killing – and the mystery of who fired the fatal shot, and why, continues to haunt his family and a small town unaccustomed to violence.
“There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t think about it,” his sister Elena Bilello told The Independent. “I’m always like OK now what else can I do to get answers.”
A shocking discovery
On the night he was killed, Bilello was driving home from work in West Virginia to relax and watch TV with his wife, Julia. When he didn’t show, Julia grew concerned and called his phone. A paramedic answered.
The details were hazy but Julia was told that Bilello had been in a car accident. He was suffering from head trauma and was being airlifted to Ruby Memorial Hospital, just across the Maryland state line in Morgantown, West Virginia.
When Elena received a call from her frantic sister-in-law, she tried to stay hopeful.
“I’m typically a very positive person,” Elena said. “Head trauma didn’t sound great but I told her that I was sure everything would be OK.”
But nothing could have prepared her for what was to come. Bilello’s wife and their two children rushed to the hospital, an hour from their home. When they arrived, doctors delivered stunning news: Bilello had a bullet in his head.
“[Julia] calls me and says the doctors told her there’s bullet in my brother’s head,” Elena said. “I was like, what are you talking about? I was shocked. And like even then, I was thinking, but he was driving, driving home from work, on a rural road. How did this even happen?”
Who shot Slanz?
Deputies with the Garrett County Sheriff’s Office had responded to the 3000-4000 block of Cranesville Road for a reported vehicle accident that night after it was called in by a local resident who heard the crash from their home.
Investigators determined that Bilello’s SUV crossed the center line, struck an embankment, traveled back across the roadway, then crashed through a field and into a tree. But something didn’t add up.
Deputies found a bullet hole in the passenger-side window. The bullet had struck Bilello as he was driving through Oakland, causing him to lose control of the car and crash, investigators confirmed to the family. Police declared Bilello’s death a homicide.
“So basically he was driving, and a stray bullet came through his passenger side window, struck him in the back of his head,” Elena said. “Just literally as he was driving down the road… it’s insane.”
With a population of roughly 1,800 people, the small town of Oakland sits close to the West Virginia state line in Garrett County, Maryland.
The rural town is nestled up against Deep Creek Lake and the Wisp Ski Resort, both popular attractions, especially in the winter. Known for skiing, tourism, and a small Amish community, it is not the kind of place residents associate with gun violence.
“This isn’t inner city Baltimore,” Elena said. “It’s a small, rural town where everybody knows everybody.”
But despite the small town camaraderie, Elena said there didn’t seem to be any interest from the community in helping find out who shot her brother.
Only one house is located near where Bilello crashed, Elena said. The woman who lives there heard the collision and called 911. She has been interviewed by investigators multiple times, according to Elena, who said that she has not heard any updates on the outcome of those interviews.
Nearly three years later, there has been little progress in the case, Elena claims. She fears the sheriff’s office is not doing enough to solve it.
“I can’t believe that in today’s day and age, something could be this poorly investigated for a homicide,” she said. “So you’ve got a murder in a tourist town, right? But nobody cares.”
Elena claims that investigators declined to reconstruct the crash and offered little explanation as to why.
The Independent has made multiple attempts to contact Garrett County Sheriff’s Office, and its investigators assigned to the case, for comment but received no response.
Signs and fliers seeking information were posted along Cranesville Road by Bilello’s family – and repeatedly torn down. They don’t know who is responsible, but Elena says it seems that somebody doesn’t want them to know the truth.
About a month after Bilello’s death, the sheriff’s office called on the public for information that could help solve the case. Sheriff Bryson Meyers told local news outlets that all resources were being utilized to conduct the investigation.
“Somebody in that town does know something,” Elena said. “They need to speak up.”
While there are many theories about what could have happened, Elena doesn’t believe her brother was targeted. “Honestly, I think it could have been accidental,” she said.
Still, she believes that someone needs to be held accountable for the homicide. One glimmer of hope, Elena says, is that Maryland State Police were called in to review the case late last year. The outcome of that review has not been released but Elena hopes that state police will take over the investigation.
“We need departments that have the resources to take on cases like this one,” she said. “They [MSP] have the resources we need to solve my brother’s case,” Elena said. “Our biggest hope right now is that they can step in and take over.”
The Independent has asked Maryland State Police for an update on its review.
‘Dream come true’
Bilello and his sister Elena grew up in Eastern Maryland but spent family vacations in Deep Creek.
“Our dad owned property there and it’s where we used to vacation when we were little,” Elena said. “We would go up there to go skiing as a family in the wintertime.”
Bilello loved the outdoors, his sister said. A former Boy Scout, he built fires, shelters, and traps. As a kid, he created a reptile room in the family home, caring for lizards, snakes and nursing injured animals back to health.
After graduating from Andover High School in 1988, Bilello, married his high school sweetheart, Julia, and the couple raised their children in Ferndale, Maryland. He loved the bands AC/DC and Queen. And he never stopped helping people.
“He was like the handyman,” Elena said. “He did all the things.”
In 2013, Bilello fulfilled a lifelong dream, building a home on the same land in Deep Creek where they used to vacation.
“The family was just so happy,” Elena said. “It was my father’s dream come true.”
Living with loss
Bilello’s heartbroken wife has since sold the dream home he built, letting go of a place that reminded the family of what they had lost. Their adult children continue to reach milestones he’ll never witness including their son’s recent marriage.
Elena recalled her nephew’s wedding in October, a time for celebration that was overcome with a sad realization.
“I was just weeping because he wasn’t there,” Elena said. “He won’t get to walk his daughter down the aisle.”
Since then, the family continues to search for answers. His daughter Isabella Bilello-Sherwood posts regularly about the case on social media, and their own website, www.whoshotslanz.com.
In one blog post last January, Bilello’s widow Julia wrote: “So many people loved this man. Always smiling, positive and uplifting and jovial. The world needs more of Slanz and a lot less guns in the hands of careless morons who still remain anonymous.”
This also remains a mission for Elena, a working mom, who has found purpose in keeping her brother’s story alive – and in challenging the belief that gun violence is only an urban problem.
“You can literally be driving down the road and your entire life can change,” she said. “This isn’t just a city problem. This can happen anywhere.”
But more than two years later, the question of who shot Ascenzio Bilello remains unanswered.
But for the person responsible, Elena has a question of her own: “Even if you didn’t mean to do it, can you really live with this?”
Anyone with information on the investigation can call the Garrett County Sheriff’s Office at 301-334-1911. Tips can also be left on the sheriff’s website.Tips that lead to arrest and identification of a suspect, as well as other evidence, may be eligible for a cash reward up to $50,000.
