Who Is Shakima Rosado? New Details On The Unsolved Murder Of The Central Pennsylvania Mother Of Five
Shakima Rosado lost her life to gun violence. More than a year later, her murder remains unsolved.
Facebook On March 29, 2018, Shakima Rosado — a 35-year-old mother of five — was shot dead in her home in the central Pennsylvania town of Lebanon.
Considered an all-American “sleepy town,” Lebanon’s residents were shocked at the brutal murder of one of their own.
But what really happened to Shakima Rosado? Who was responsible for her death? And will police ever get a break in the case?
Let’s look at what we know about Shakima Rosado and her murder.
1. Friends, family, and neighbors alike came to her funeral.
Just one week after she was shot and killed, friends, family, and Lebanon neighbors came out in droves to pay their respects to the mother whose life was taken way too soon.
According to Local 21 News, which is the Lebanon-area CBS affiliate, Christman’s Funeral Home was packed out for Rosado’s viewing. The neighbors who attended the funeral said that Shakima was known in her neighborhood as being very “kind” and “loving,” and they were very dumbfounded about the news of her murder.
2. Investigators immediately classified her death as a homicide.
In a different report for Local 21 News, local area investigators were quick to call Shakima Rosado’s death a “homicide.”
Shortly after the investigators declared Rosado’s death a homicide, the outlet interviewed a neighbor of Rosado’s, who claimed that it was her young grandson who found the body.
“From what I was told, she was shot in the back of the head; point blank range. My grandson, 11 years old, he found the body at 7:30 in the morning,” said the neighbor, who asked not to be identified. “My family didn’t hear anything. Their kids didn’t even hear anything. It’s just weird how it happened, like it was silenced or something. They had the DEA here, they had everybody and their brother here. We’re still shocked about it. She was lovely with the kids.”
3. The family had to raise money for her burial.
According to Penn Live, Shakima Rosado’s death was, of course, a surprise. And as the investigation continued into her murder, the victim’s family — the Bush family — had to take to GoFundMe to raise money for her funeral costs.
Her family said that, while Shakima was the “life of the party,” she was also the first person to help someone in need whenever they reached out to her.
It didn’t take long for the family to make the money they needed for her funeral and burial costs, which is a testament to how much she was loved by the community.
4. The police believe Shakima Rosado was killed by someone she knows.
Murders — especially murders of women — are, more often than not, committed by people the victim knows, not randomly.
And, according to the Lebanon ABC affiliate, the investigators in the Shakima Rosado case are just as convinced that the murder of Shakima Rosado was also not a “random act.”
The outlet reports that investigators believe that Shakima Rosado was “targeted,” though they were unclear as to why that is so.
5. More than a year after her death, her murder remains unsolved.
Recently, the local NBC affiliate in Lebanon, PA, did an updated report on the Shakima Rosado case, and they said that more than a year after her murder, her case remains unsolved.
The outlet spoke to Police Chief Todd Breiner, and he delivered a very strong message to the person responsible for taking this loving mother away from her five children.
"I hope it weighs heavily on them, and I hope that they understand that they left children behind without a mother and take responsibility for what they did," he said. “The lack of information that's come forward is probably the hardest part of this."
Breiner went on to say that while there were family members in the house at the time of the murder, no one heard — or saw — anything that could lead them to help Shakima.
"As time passes, people seem to move on with their lives and memories fade somewhat. But I just want everyone to understand that we don't forget," he said. “I'm not done with this, our department isn't done with this and I don't believe that a year is too old to solve this.”
Breiner concluded by telling people to call the Lebanon Police Department if they had any information regarding the murder of Shakima Rosado.
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, and photographer whose work has appeared in People, Teen Vogue, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and more. She is also the author of The Uprising series. Find her online at www.bernadettegiacomazzo.com and www.longlivetheuprising.com.