3 hours agoAuthor: Ifat Qureshi
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The unheard story of Hollywood actress, director and writer Adrienne, whose murder shocked the entire Hollywood industry. Adrienne was just 40 years old when her body was found in her bathtub. Everyone believed that he had committed suicide, but when his death was revealed months later, everyone was shocked. Adrien did not commit suicide, he was murdered, that too at the hands of a simple carpenter working in the building.
Adrien's status in Hollywood was such that even today scholarships are given in his name to the world's best New York University, Columbia University and American Film Institute. Two films and a drama series have been made on his life.
Today read the story of Adrienne Shelly's murder, conspiracy and legal battle in 3 chapters-
Famous Hollywood actress, writer and director Adrien Shelley married Andy Ostroy, chairman and CEO of marketing firm Belardi, in 2002. Both of them met a year ago on matrimonial site Match.com. A year after marriage, Adrienne gave birth to daughter Sophie.
Adrienne Shelley lived with her husband Andy in the Abingdon Square Apartment in the West Village area of Manhattan. She also used her apartment as an office, but her family mostly lived in another house.
On November 1, 2006, at 9:30 a.m., Andy left for work, leaving Adrienne at the apartment. In the afternoon, Andy made several calls to Andreen, but he did not pick up the call even once. The message sent also did not get any reply. This had never happened before. No matter how busy Adrien was, she would definitely pick up the call. When 8 hours passed waiting for a response, Andy started to worry.
Photo of Adrienne's West Village apartment.
He immediately reached the apartment to inquire about Adrien's condition. He was afraid of something untoward, so while coming into the building, he asked the watchman to accompany him to the apartment. When we reached upstairs, we saw that the door of the apartment was open from outside. As soon as both of them opened the door and entered, the scene was heart-wrenching.
A bedsheet was tied around Adrien's neck and his body was hanging from the shower rod of the bathtub. When I went closer I saw that his breathing had stopped. The watchman immediately called the New York Police Department and informed them and the police started investigation as soon as they arrived.
Seeing the initial crime scene, the police assumed that Adrien had committed suicide, however, Andy said in his statement that Adrien was very happy and she could not take her own life, leaving behind her two and a half year old daughter. He also told that there was no money in Adrien's wallet. Her body was immediately taken to the hospital, where her postpartum was done. The report came that Adrien died due to suffocation due to neck compression.
The news of the death of 40-year-old famous actress Adrienne created an uproar throughout Hollywood. Everyone was stunned to think that Adrien had committed suicide, because till then his death was considered a suicide.
Murder mystery solved by shoe prints found in bathroom
While investigating the crime scene, the New York Police found some suspicious shoe prints, which proved to be important evidence in this murder mystery. Forensic investigation found that there was Gipson dust in the shoe prints found right next to the spot where Adrien's body was found. These marks proved helpful in the investigation, because construction work had taken place in that building on the day of the murder.
During the interrogation of the workers working at the construction site, the name of 19-year-old Diego Pilco came to light, who later confessed that it was he who had murdered Adrien and tried to make it look like suicide.
murderer's confession
Everyone was surprised to hear what Diego Pilco told during police interrogation. According to his statement, there was a lot of noise during the ongoing construction work in the building, due to which Adrien was in trouble. She kept coming back and shouting, but it was not possible to stop the work. Due to Adrien's continuous shouting, Diego lost his temper and threw the hammer in his hand and killed him.
Photo of Diego taken during his arrest.
After attacking with the hammer, Diego was worried that Adrien might complain about him. While Adriene ran towards her apartment to save her life, Diego also followed her to the apartment.
As soon as Diego caught them, Adrien slapped him. Due to this, Diego lost his temper and punched her in the face, knocking her to the ground and banging her head on the ground. Adrienne became unconscious due to the fight, so Diego thought she was dead. He hanged Adrien on the shower rod with the help of a bedsheet and ran away.
The police were suspicious of Diego's recorded statement because the post-mortem report did not reveal any head injury to Adrien.
The killer changed his statement after a year
When the hearing of the case started in 2008, the murderer Diego changed his statement in the court. He said that one day he had seen Adrien while doing construction work and since then he had planned to rob them. On the day of the murder, Adrien had not locked the door, due to which he took the opportunity to enter the house. While he was taking out money from the wallet, Adrienne saw him and threatened to call the police. Frightened, Diego snatched her phone and covered her mouth with his hands to suppress her screams. He took her to the bathroom, where he hanged her body. Within a few seconds, Adrien's breathing stopped and he ran away with the money.
He was sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole for first-degree murder. After being sentenced in the court, Adrienne's husband Andy told Diego, 'I will never forgive you, you are a cold-blooded killer, I would like you to rot in jail for the rest of your life.'
After Adrienne's death, her husband Andrey Ostroy started the Adrienne Shelley Foundation in her name, which is a non-profit organization. This organization provides scholarships to students of New York University, Columbia University and America Film Institute.
Adrian's murder story shown in crime drama series
The murder story of Adrienne Shelley was featured in the 17th episode of the NBC crime drama series Law & Order, telecast on February 16, 2007. Adrienne has given a guest appearance on this show years ago.
The second episode of the fourth season of the TV series The Perfect Murder is based on the murder of Adrienne Shelley. Apart from this, her husband Andy has also made a documentary on her titled Adrian. For a part of this documentary, he also went to jail and talked to Adrian's murderer Diego. This documentary premiered on HBO on December 1, 2021.
Adrienne Shelley was born on June 24, 1966 in Queens, New York. He was raised in Long Island with two brothers. He was interested in acting and dancing since childhood. She was just 10 years old when she gave her first stage performance at the Art Training Centre.
While studying at Jericho High School in Jericho City, New York, Adrienne continued to be a part of stage plays. However, her professional play was a summer stock production of the musical play Annie.
After completing her schooling, Adrien enrolled at Boston University to study film production, although she left her studies midway and moved to Manhattan to pursue a career in films.
As soon as he came to Manhattan, due to his talent, he was cast in two films of independent filmmaker Hal Hartley, The Unbelievable Truth and Trust. The Film Trust was awarded the Grand Jury Prize. He further got work in the TV series Law & Order, OZ and Homicide: Life on the Street. Along with films and TV series, Adrienne was also a part of many Broadway plays. After gaining a good foothold in Hollywood films, Adrien started the second innings of his career as a writer and director with the 1996 film Sudden Manhattan.
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