John Jefferson
Brian Giles seen in the inset outside court. In the main image, authorities are searching the home he used to share with his slain wife, Nancy Giles, and slain girlfriend, Jilly Todaro. Authorities on June 7, 2024 found Todaro’s remains in the basement. (Images: WJAC)
Authorities have identified the human remains recently discovered in a newly convicted murderer’s old home in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The remains belonged to the man’s missing girlfriend, Jilly Todaro, who disappeared at age 43 in December 2020, The Tribune-Democrat reported.
Brian Bradley Giles, 48, was found guilty on June 6 for murdering his wife, Nancy Giles, 40, who went missing in October 2018 and was found dead in a shallow grave the following May. It was during her disappearance that Giles had a relationship with Todaro.
Jump to June 7, the day after defendant Giles’ murder conviction. Acting on information which they have not released, authorities went to the home on the 500 block of Franklin Street in the Kernville neighborhood. It was where Giles lived in an apartment. He had lived there with Nancy Giles, and after her disappearance, Todaro.
A forensic odontologist and anthropologist performed body imaging to determine Todaro’s identity, Cambria County Coroner Jeff Lees reportedly told journalists on Thursday. The search warrant is sealed, Cambria County District Attorney Neugebauer reportedly said. There were no immediate charges in Todaro’s death, but he said the DA expected charges in the future.
He was asked about the number of suspects.
“One,” he said. “That should tell you something.”
Defendant Giles on June 6, handcuffed and escorted to an elevator, remarked with jocular bitterness after his conviction for murdering his wife.
“Nope, I’m innocent, but if this is what they want to do, let them do it, man,” he said according to footage from Johnstown Fox affiliate WWCP. “I’ve been railroaded before. It’s all good. There ain’t nothing I can hope for, right? Everybody got what they wanted.”
The next day, they found Todaro in his old home.
She was reportedly in contact with authorities before her disappearance. Records showed that law enforcement offered her help, and that she had allegedly been assaulted multiple times by Brian Giles, according to the Tribune-Democrat. Neugebauer said she had cellphone numbers of officers, and she had spoken with prosecutors at the DA’s office conference table.
He and Assistant District Attorney Jessica Aurandt mourned her on Thursday.
“Jilly was really a nice person. She really was,” Neugebauer said. “I don’t think she always liked things I had to say to her, or Jess had to say to her, but we were coming from a good place, trying to help her. She was a good person.”
“It was like a weight that had been sitting there for three and a half years had been lifted, but then to see the remains of a person who struggled in her life to be treated with dignity, and who I know did not feel the worth that she truly had during her lifetime — to see those remains, I don’t know I can articulate how that feels,” Aurandt said, according to the Tribune Democrat.
“I just wish that Jilly could have seen, in her lifetime, the amount of people who rallied together, who made a lot of sacrifices to ensure that she was found and treated with the dignity she deserved. I wish she could have seen how many people care. I see a lot of public response to this case. I wish she knew how many people cared, and how many people care now.”
More Law&Crime coverage: Woman already serving life sentence for wife’s 2018 murder found guilty of still-missing ex-girlfriend’s 2011 murder
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