A Pennsylvania teacher’s aide out on bail for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old student has died by suicide.
Police were called by the family of 38-year-old Jennilynne Derolf’s victim for a welfare check after she reportedly reached out and made plans to meet with him. When officers located the two on Sunday evening, Derolf shot herself with a gun.
The boy was not injured. The shooting incident is still under investigation.
Derolf worked at the Valley Day School in Falls Township, where she met her victim. She began exchanging messages with the boy through a messaging app. The victim told investigators that the relationship turned romantic in June of 2021, and they had sex several times in July.
After the teen’s grandmother discovered the relationship, Derolf was arrested and charged with several felony counts of deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, unlawful contact with a minor, aggravated indecent assault, and institutional sexual assault. She was additionally charged with misdemeanor counts of indecent assault and corruption of minors.
She was arrested on July 13 and held on $900,000 bail. Derolf was able to bail out on July 23, when a judge lowered the amount needed for her to bail out.
“The defendant’s conduct is not only reprehensible but criminal,” said District Attorney Matt Weintraub at the time. “She not only violated the trust required in any student-teacher relationship, but also that trust that children should be able to have in all adults of authority.”
Derolf had been scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing in October.
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