ST. CLAIRSVILLE — More information has come to light surrounding an extortion case arising from the investigation of a double murder.

On Friday Miana Smith, 25, of Guernsey Street, Bellaire pleaded guilty to extortion, a third-degree felony. According to Assistant Prosecutor Chris Gagin, Smith and her co-defendant, Anthony Michael Dibacco, 31, of the same address, blackmailed Thomas Strussion, deceased owner of the former Salsa Joe’s restaurants in Belmont and Wheeling.

Smith and Dibacco reportedly threatened to reveal that Strussion had an affair with Smith. Gagin said Strussion paid them a total of $25,000 to conceal that information.

“An expensive tryst,” Gagin said.

Dibacco pleaded guilty and was sentenced in December to three years in prison. Smith’s sentencing date is Feb. 7. She also faces three years behind bars.

Strussion and his wife, Angela, were found dead inside their home along Trail’s End Drive near Belmont on Sept. 21, when first responders were called to a structure fire there. Their deaths were ruled a double homicide.

The murder investigation uncovered evidence that Strussion was being extorted.

“We found information from text messages, from a handwritten ledger that Dibacco kept, and also from the interrogation statements that both Smith and Dibacco made to the Belmont County Sheriff’s Department,” Gagin said. “They used various means to extort money from him.”

Gagin said the affair apparently occurred from October 2020 through November or December of that year, and the extortion occurred from December 2020 through May 2021, several months prior to the murders.

Smith “was a dancer at Godfather’s (Gentleman’s Club in Wheeling) and they met on certain websites,” Gagin said.

Gagin referred to a video recording of Smith’s interrogation in which she described the crimes, stating that Dibacco would pretend to be her and text Strussion to demand money.

“I played this in open court during the motion hearing on Friday, and it was after she watched herself that she decided to enter the plea,” Gagin said.

Gagin added that he believes Smith and Dibacco have conducted similar schemes in the past, but he said Smith had not been previously convicted of extortion.

He commended the Wheeling Police Department, who collected evidence and shared it with Belmont County law enforcement. Gagin noted Smith and Dibacco were living in Wheeling for a time before moving to Ohio and continuing the extortion.

Gagin said the extortion is being treated as an entirely separate crime that is unrelated to the murders.

“The couple were initially looked at in connection with the murders because of the extortion plot that was uncovered,” Gagin said. “They have, at this point and time, been eliminated as suspects in the murder. The murder investigation is still open and ongoing.

“At the moment, there are one or more persons of interest that the sheriff’s department is still running down.”

Gagin said law enforcement is reviewing other evidence, such as cellphone records.

“Whether or not those persons of interest will become actual suspects, we’re not certain at this point, but the investigation is very much open and ongoing,” he said.

Belmont County Sheriff David Lucas declined to comment on the matter, citing the ongoing investigation of the double murder.