Authorities investigating the killing of a Mercer County doctor along the Ohio Turnpike are focusing on the relationship between the victim's wife and a Beaver County man with a history of gun and drug arrests.

	Top left: Donna Moonda. Top right: Damian R. Bradford. (KDKA photos) Bottom: Dr. Gulam Moonda.

Confidential informants told police that Donna Moonda had an ongoing relationship with Damian R. Bradford, 23, whom she met at a drug rehabilitation program, and said she was planning to divorce her husband and collect a $3 million to $4 million settlement, according to an affidavit.

Dr. Gulam Moonda was fatally shot in the head May 13 on the turnpike about 16 miles south of Cleveland, after turning money over to a robber. Donna Moonda and her mother were traveling with the doctor and witnessed the slaying, but were unhurt.

Police have not identified a suspect or suspects in the case. On Friday, they executed two search warrants at Bradford's apartment in Monaca and arrested him after finding a controlled substance and suspected drug paraphernalia.

According to the affidavit, police initially searched the apartment looking for evidence in the slaying of Moonda, 65, of Sharpsville.

"All I can say is, we are working leads from people we have interviewed," Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Rick Zwayer said yesterday. "The investigation is ongoing."

The killer may have been in a dark-colored van that followed Moonda's gold Jaguar along the turnpike. Donna Moonda, who was driving the Jaguar, stopped along the roadway. She said she had intended to relinquish the driving duties there. The nearest exit, in Strongsville, was about three miles away.

Also present during the slaying was Donna Moonda's mother, Dorothy Smouse, 74.

One confidential informant told a Pittsburgh police detective that Donna Moonda, 46, had had a relationship with a man named Damian who attended the same drug rehab program as her, and that she had rented an apartment on Milne Drive in Monaca for Bradford.

Another informant told police that Donna Moonda acknowledged buying clothing, shoes and other expensive gifts for Bradford, and said she was meeting him in the Aliquippa area rather than attending rehab sessions.

Bradford, charged with a probation violation and possession of drug paraphernalia, was in the Beaver County Jail yesterday in lieu of $50,000 bond.

In 2003, Donna Moonda was arrested and admitted to stealing the painkiller fentanyl from the Greenville, Mercer County, hospital where she worked.

After the medical staff monitored her unusually large requisitions of fentanyl, Donna Moonda admitted she was smuggling the drug home for personal use.

"I have a problem and I need help," police quoted her as saying in an affidavit outlining the case against her.

She entered a rehabilitation clinic in March 2004, and was released to outpatient status two months later. She pleaded no contest in August to obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation.

Bradford, who was on probation for a 2003 drug possession charge and a 2001 charge of carrying an unlicensed firearm, was wanted for violating the terms of probation. Both arrests were in Aliquippa, where he used to live.

According to the affidavit, police on Friday found injectable testosterone and syringes in his apartment. After his arrest, Bradford admitted to dealing cocaine.

After he and another man led Aliquippa police on a chase on Nov. 28, 2001, Bradford pleaded no contest to a firearms violation along with fleeing police, resisting arrest and tampering with evidence. Police said Bradford threw a silver handgun out of the car.

He was arrested again on July 5, 2003, when police saw him driving and pulled him over, knowing his license was suspended. They found 0.98 grams of cocaine in his pocket.

Bradford failed to show up for a Dec. 21 administrative hearing on his probation violation.

The Moondas were married in December 1990 after meeting through their jobs. Donna Moonda is a nurse anesthetist. It was his second marriage and her first. Court records show that Moonda divorced his first wife in 1972 in Montgomery County.