Adrienne Shelly (born 1966) is a promising director, actress and screenwriter in New York City, New York, USA. She is best known for her leading roles in the films The Unbelievable Truth (1989) and Trust (1990).
The actress rented an apartment in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City as an office.
Actress's death at the office
On the afternoon of November 1, 2006, Adrienne's husband, Andy Ostroy, found her dead in the bathroom of her office, hanging by a bed sheet tied to a curtain rod.
Bruises appeared on the victim’s right eye and cheek - signs of external impact. Police determined that she had died 5-6 hours ago.
Adrienne Shelly died at the height of her film career. (Photo: Fox News)
Police initially believed Adrienne committed suicide because they saw no signs of forced entry into the apartment, no furniture was disturbed, and the door was locked before Andy arrived in the afternoon.
However, the police noticed something unusual: the knot of the bed sheet tied around the actress's neck was a rather complex, highly professional twisted and crisscrossed knot, and very few people could do such a knot.
Adrienne's relatives do not believe she committed suicide because she was strong, optimistic, had no history of depression and was happily married.
She also had a successful career as an actress, director, and screenwriter. Before her death, Adrienne wrote, directed, and starred in Waitress , a 2007 Sundance Film Festival nominee.
Police searched the apartment’s bathroom and found a faint shoe print from a pair of Reebok Allen Iverson sneakers, a men’s size 8. Adrienne and her husband did not own any such shoes.
Clues in the apartment downstairs
No suspects emerged from the victim’s connections. On November 5, 2006, when investigators returned to the crime scene to investigate again, they found a crew of workers renovating the apartment downstairs. In that apartment, they found a sneaker print on the dusty floorboards. It matched the shoe print on the toilet seat in Adrienne’s office.
That clue led the investigation team to conclude that Adrienne was the victim of a murder. It was very likely that someone in the repair crew was the perpetrator.
Adrienne Shelly's performance in a movie (Photo: Fox News)
Wilson Pillco was in charge of the apartment repair operation. When Wilson opened the door to his apartment to the investigation team, they found a backpack on the floor with a pair of sneakers sticking out.
The backpack belonged to Diego Pillco, Wilson's 19-year-old brother. Diego was an illegal immigrant from Ecuador and a construction worker. He was one of the repairmen in the apartment below Adrienne's office.
Diego claimed he had never met Adrienne and had never been in her office upstairs. But the prints on his sneakers matched those at the crime scene.
The investigation team therefore concluded that Diego had lied. After much effort from the police, Diego stated that while he was working alone in the apartment downstairs, Adrienne appeared and asked him to reduce the construction noise. The two argued and, Diego threw a hammer at the actress and closed the door.
When Adrienne threatened to call the police, Diego, worried that he would be deported, followed Adrienne back to her apartment and begged the actress not to report it. In response, Adrienne slapped Diego in the face and picked up the phone to call the police.
Diego lost control of his actions. His punch to Adrienne's face knocked her unconscious. The construction worker used a bed sheet to stage Adrienne's death to look like a suicide. He had been tying pigs in Ecuador so he could easily create the complex knot.
Diego Pillco is an Ecuadorian who illegally immigrated to the US to work in construction. (Photo: Splash News)
Diego's story, however, did not match the details gathered by the investigation team. There was also no dust on Adrienne's shoes - a sign that she had not gone downstairs. The victim's family insisted that she was not the type to argue with others.
The culprit pays for his crimes.
Police arrested Diego Pillco on a murder charge. Prosecutors persuaded the 19-year-old construction worker to plead guilty early so they could charge him with the lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter. Under a deal with prosecutors, Diego would plead fully in court, giving a detailed account of the events on November 1, 2006.
Adrienne's final film, "Waitress," became a hit after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. It was nominated for Best Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards, won the Jury Prize at the Sarasota Film Festival, and won several other awards.
In court, Diego Pillco admitted that he saw Adrienne in the elevator and had the intention of robbing her. He needed money to pay the people who brought him into the US illegally.
Following Adrienne to her office, he saw her purse on the table and attempted to steal it. Adrienne discovered what had happened and threatened to call the police. The construction worker snatched the actress’s phone, covered her mouth, and strangled her. He then staged the crime to look like a suicide.
In March 2008, Diego Pillco was sentenced to 25 years in prison and will be deported from the United States immediately after completing his prison term.
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