2013 Bucks Co. murder, rape case goes cold again after all charges dropped against alleged suspect

Warning: This story contains graphic details that readers may find disturbing.

A 2013 cold case in Bucks County is back on the unsolved list again after charges against one of the men accused of murdering a bar owner and raping his fiancée were dropped.

In January of 2024, Bucks County detectives said that Thomas Delgado, 50, of Philadelphia was one of the men who broke into a Hilltown Township home on Jan.18, 2013, murdered Joseph Canazaro and raped his fiancée.

But, just eight months later, on Monday, Sept. 9, all but two of the 34 charges against Delgado were dropped by a judge.

The murder of Joseph Canazaro

On Jan. 18, 2013, shortly after 10 a.m., Bucks County 911 officials received a call from a home on the 300 block of Swartley Road in Hilltown Township. The officials tried to respond but the caller was no longer on the line, according to the affidavit.

Then about a minute later, the dispatchers received another call from a nearby house. A woman was on the line and said she was calling from her neighbor's home. She told the dispatchers that two armed men broke into her home, took her family hostage and may have kidnapped her fiancé, later identified as Joseph Canazaro. She also reported that her fiancé's pickup truck was stolen as well as other things from the home.

Police responded to the home and found Canazaro's body in the garage with his hands bound by zip ties, officials said. An autopsy later confirmed that he died from multiple stab wounds and his death was ruled a homicide.

Detectives then spoke with Canazaro's fiancée. She told investigators two gunmen entered her home earlier that morning and approached her and Canazaro inside their bedroom.

The two men then proceeded to zip-tie the two victims by the legs and with their hands behind their backs, according to the affidavit.

Canazaro was then led around the house by one of the suspects while another suspect stayed with the woman and Canazaro's younger son, investigators said.

Thomas Delgado was accused of being the suspect who had stayed with the woman and her son. Delgado was accused of taking Canazaro's fiancée into a different room and raping her.

Resources for victims of sexual assault are available through the National Sexual Violence Resources Center and the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673.

The two men then took the woman and the boy down into the basement of the home sometime later and left them there with instructions to wait for two hours, officials said.

After she believed the two men left, the woman was able to get out of the zip ties and help the boy escape, according to the affidavit.

The woman said she then took the boy and their family dog to their neighbor's house to call 911.

Canazaro's eldest son was at school during the entire ordeal, investigators said.

 At the time of his murder, Canazaro was the owner Finn McCool's Tavern in Ambler, Pennsylvania.

If you have any information on the murder of Joseph Canazaro, please call Bucks County Detectives at 215-348-6354 or Hilltown Township Police at 215-453-6011.