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Wilkes-Barre still challenging paramedics’ union representation

<p>PLAINS TWP. &#8212; Human remains recovered from a burned shed in the East Mountain Ridge Mobile Home Park on Saturday were those of a male, not a female as previously reported, according to a search warrant affidavit that reveals investigators have focused on the whereabouts of a disabled man in his 20s.</p><p>Shain D&#8217;Onofrio, who was born in October 1993 and had cerebral palsy, is understood to have lived with his mother in the trailer park, investigators wrote, but had not been seen by neighbors in the recent past.</p><p>Shain&#8217;s mother allegedly told police she was actually his sister, that he was living with a relative in New Jersey under the witness protection program, and that she could not comment further, police said.</p><p>The affidavit, obtained Wednesday by the Times Leader, was the second filed in the case. It details conversations investigators said they had with neighbors as well as with Shain&#8217;s parents.</p><p>An initial search warrant was secured Saturday, after township firefighters discovered bones and a skull in a burnt blanket while battling the shed fire just after 5 a.m.</p><p>Firefighters detected the odor of an accelerant inside the shed while battling the fire. A state fire marshal determined the cause of the fire was arson, the second affidavit states.</p><p>No charges have been filed in the case.</p><p>State police in a news release on Monday initially stated the remains were those of a female, estimated to be between her late teens and 30 years of age.</p><p>Examination by a forensic anthropologist on Tuesday revealed the bones actually were those of a small-framed male, which were found with a toddler-size diaper decorated with blue puppies, gauze bandages on the elbows, sweatpants and a stained shirt.</p><p>Trailer park maintenance worker Louis Sanchez told investigators that he had cleared the shed of all items three days before the fire, at the instruction of park owner Thomas Ruddy, and moved the contents to another mobile home nearby.</p><p><strong>Police question parents</strong></p><p>According to the second affidavit:</p><p>Investigators said a New Jersey birth certificate on file for Shain lists Linasheri Mikulak as his mother and Charles Paul D&#8217;Onofrio as his father.</p><p>Investigators canvassing the trailer park after the remains were found in the burned shed on Lot 232 were told that a disabled male lived with a woman in the trailer at Lot 213. The rear of Lot 213 connects to the rear of Lot 232.</p><p>D&#8217;Onofrio told investigators by phone from New Jersey that Shain was born at a hospital in that state, and that his biological mother is Layla Mikulak, whose maiden name is Kathleen Mikulak. She also is known as Layla Marie Genovese, 50, and resides in a trailer at Lot 213, investigators learned.</p><p>D&#8217;Onofrio also told investigators that he is not Shain&#8217;s biological father, but signed the birth certificate at the urging of Mikulak&#8217;s mother. D&#8217;Onofrio said he had not seen Shain for about nine years.</p><p>When investigators knocked on the door at the trailer of Lot 213 on Monday, a woman answered and identified herself as Layla Genovese.</p><p>Police told Genovese that neighbors said she lived with her disabled son.</p><p>Genovese allegedly told investigators the disabled male, whom she identified as David Genovese, was her brother, but she often called him her son. She claimed David was living with their mother in New Jersey but refused to say where, telling investigators they are in the witness protection program.</p><p>Genovese added that she couldn&#8217;t get involved with the police because she is an informant for the FBI, CIA and local police, the affidavit says.</p><p>Investigators said Genovese allowed them to walk through the residence. Inside, they noticed a handicapped chair in the bathtub of Genovese&#8217;s trailer. She told them the chair was there so she could perform sex acts, the affidavit states.</p><p>No other furniture was observed in the trailer, investigators said, adding that they also saw a motorized wheelchair outside.</p><p><strong>No one home</strong></p><p>Investigators learned that Shain had cerebral palsy, making him unable to walk. Witnesses interviewed by investigators said the disabled male who lived with Genovese was unable to walk and had to crawl.</p><p>Police also learned from employees of District Joseph Spagnuolo Jr. that during an eviction hearing last September, Lina Mikulak, as she was known to them, appeared at the judge&#8217;s Plains Township offices with a male in a wheelchair whom she described as her son.</p><p>Efforts to locate Mikulak/Genovese for this story were unsuccessful.</p><p>The Times Leader visited Lot 213 twice on Wednesday, and no one appeared to be at home either time. A handwritten note on the door said &#8220;do not enter without the new owners,&#8221; instructing people to &#8220;call my cell phone.&#8221; It did not include a number or a name, concluding that &#8220;old owner may come and move things out.&#8221;</p><p>Among the debris observed outside the trailer late Wednesday afternoon were two non-motorized wheelchairs.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">State troopers are seen at work Wednesday in a Plains trailer park where bones were found in a burning shed on Saturday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_TTL030118trailerpark1-3.jpg</photo0><caption0>State troopers are seen at work Wednesday in a Plains trailer park where bones were found in a burning shed on Saturday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_TTL030118shed-3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wheelchairs are seen among the pile of debris outisde a Plains Township mobile home on Wednesday afternoon. A police affidavit says investigators questioned a woman who lived here about her disabled son following the discovery of bones in a burning shed on an adjacent lot. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_TTL030118shed-3.jpg</photo1><caption1>Wheelchairs are seen among the pile of debris outisde a Plains Township mobile home on Wednesday afternoon. A police affidavit says investigators questioned a woman who lived here about her disabled son following the discovery of bones in a burning shed on an adjacent lot. </caption1><photoCredit1>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_TTL030118trailerpark2-3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Police investigating the discovery of burned remains in a Plains Township trailer park have focused on a woman who lived in this trailer, believed to be the mother of a disabled man in his 20s, according to an affidavit. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_TTL030118trailerpark2-3.jpg</photo2><caption2>Police investigating the discovery of burned remains in a Plains Township trailer park have focused on a woman who lived in this trailer, believed to be the mother of a disabled man in his 20s, according to an affidavit. </caption2><photoCredit2>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Ed Lewis</p><p>elewis@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div>

Plains shed body was male; disabled man, mom, focus of questions