[Note: Author Carolyn Cooke is the State Director for FIRE Coalition in Idaho]
Mother of a three year old, wife, talented actress, director and screenwriter murdered by an illegal alien from Ecuador who attempted to make her death appear a suicide.
In the early evening of November 1, 2006, Andrew Ostroy discovered the lifeless body of his wife, Adrienne Shelly, in the apartment she used as an office in Manhattan. He found her in the bathroom with a bed cover wrapped around her neck, hanging from a shower curtain rod. The police suspected suicide, a claim Ostroy adamantly denied. He stated, “My wife, Adrienne Shelly, did not kill herself…I’m doing everything humanly possible to find out exactly what happened.” Her mother, Elaine Langbaum, was devastated by the accusation. Adrienne’s family was correct. Five days later, the dusty foot prints police noted on the toilet and on the edge of the bath tub would lead them to murderer Diego Pillco, an illegal alien from Ecuador.
Everything was going very well for Adrienne Shelly at the time of her preventable death, both personally and professionally. She was happily married to Andrew. They were raising their three-year-old daughter, Sophie. Adrienne was a brilliant and successful actress, writer of screen plays, and director.
Adrienne’s mother spoke in court about her grandchild’s loss, “The baby she wanted for so long will never know her mother. She will never hold her mother’s hand, kiss her mother’s face or feel her mother’s being.” One day prior to her death, Adrienne had taken her only child trick or treating. Sophie was Cinderella.
The Adrienne Shelly Foundation was established by Andrew Ostroy in “loving memory” to give financial assistance to young women with the passion to become filmmakers. The Foundation honors her dedication, commitment and uncompromising integrity to the art of filmmaking. In a press release announcing the Foundation, Adrienne was described by those who knew her as “wonderfully funky, spirited, funny, silly and smart”. It continued, “She believed in spreading love wherever she went. She was a truly kind and beautiful soul…There was no one else like her.”
Adrienne starred in over 20 movies, and was devoted to the art of making films. Her latest creation, Waitress, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007. It was one of three films Adrienne wrote, acted in and directed. She died days before it was accepted by the festival. Speaking in a video clip, Adrienne called what would be her final film “a love letter to my baby.” Waitress opened for wide release on Mother’s Day weekend in 2007.
Pillco confessed to murdering Adrienne and staging it to look like a suicide because he feared deportation. Official sources said he most likely intended to sexually assault her. An autopsy revealed Adrienne was alive when he hung her from the shower rod.
In his confession to police, Pillco said Adrienne complained about the construction noise from an apartment he and others were renovating. She threatened to call the police. He stated he followed her into her apartment and slugged her after she enraged him during a confrontation he initiated because he was in a “bad mood.” He pleaded not guilty.
In the courtroom, Pillco told a different story to the judge. He followed her into her apartment and she caught him stealing money from her purse. She picked up the phone to call the police. He struck her. She fought him, scratching his face and screaming. A police source stated “She didn’t go easily.”
The Daily News reported:
During the struggle, Pillco muffled Shelly's screams by covering her nose and mouth until she passed out. He saw a bed sheet and decided to choke her. He used a bed cover to hang her from the curtain rod. He changed his plea to guilty.
“I made it look as if she committed suicide,” he said.
Adrienne’s family expressed their rage to Pillco at the sentencing hearing. “No sentence will be enough for you”, an angry and grief-stricken husband said, “You stalked and brutally attacked my wife, silenced her screams with your hand until you rendered her unconscious and then, in a brutal and gruesome act of cowardice, took a bed sheet and strangled her to death. You tied her up and hung her the way you strung up pigs back in Ecuador.”
Later in the hearing, Ostroy told his wife’s murderer, “You are nothing more than a cold-blooded killer, a murderous beast who in an attempt to rob, rape and then silence your innocent victim…took the life of a beautiful, loving woman who, unlike you, had so much to give to society.”
In a deal negotiated with the Manhattan district attorney, Pillco pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter, avoiding a jury trial. He was sentenced to a fixed 25 years in prison.
Pillco will be released when he is 45 years old. Adrienne Shelly was only 40 years old when Pillco took her life.
Andrew Ostroy is suing Bradford General Contractors, the owners and the management of the building where she was murdered by Pilco. The Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit contends if the company had not hired illegal aliens, Adrienne would still be alive, claiming they were “careless” and “negligent” in the “screening, hiring, training and supervision” of their employees. Damages are sought on behalf of Sophie, Adrienne’s daughter.
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.3450/pub_detail.asp
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