Actress’s Death Is Ruled Murder, and Worker in Building Is Charged (Published 2006) (2024)

When Adrienne Shelly, an actress, was found dead in her Greenwich Village office last week, the police suspected suicide. Her body, with a sheet tied around her neck, was hanging from the shower curtain rod in the office bathroom.

But family members and friends were skeptical. Her show business career was thriving, they said, and she was a devoted mother to her 3-year-old daughter. They insisted that she would not have taken her own life.

And some investigators were skeptical, too. Yesterday, the police charged a 19-year-old construction worker with murder, saying her death was the horrific result of a chain of events set off by a complaint common to New York City residents: construction noise.

The police said that after Ms. Shelly argued with the worker about the noise on Wednesday, he struck her in the face.

Then, suspecting that the blow was fatal, he hanged her from the shower curtain rod in an attempt to make her death look like a suicide, investigators said.

“We have felt adamantly that what happened was not the result of suicide,” said Rachel Sheedy, Ms. Shelly’s agent, when informed of the arrest yesterday. “It is a great relief knowing that the police have taken us seriously.”

It was unclear whether Ms. Shelly died from the blow or from being hanged. Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner, said an autopsy had been conducted but the manner and cause of death had not been determined.

The construction worker, Diego Pillco of Prospect Avenue in Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn, was charged yesterday with second-degree murder, the police said. A native of Ecuador who arrived in the city in July, Mr. Pillco had been working in a third-floor apartment directly beneath the one Ms. Shelly used as her office at 15 Abingdon Square, in Greenwich Village, the authorities said.

Ms. Shelly, 40, lived not far away on Varick Street with her husband, Andy Ostroy, and her daughter, Sophie. She used the Abingdon Square apartment as the base of a career that included leading or featured roles in two dozen Off Broadway plays as well as movies and television shows.

She first gained recognition for her film roles in Hal Hartley’s dark comedies “The Unbelievable Truth” and “Trust.” She was featured last year in the movie “Factotum,” starring Matt Dillon, and she had recently finished directing “Waitress,” which is under consideration for inclusion in the Sundance Film Festival.

Ms. Shelly, born Adrienne Levine, was a Queens native who started performing as a child in arts camps on Long Island and upstate. She dropped out of Boston University after her junior year and moved to Manhattan.

Several investigators said Mr. Pillco admitted to Ms. Shelly’s murder yesterday.

“He admits to hitting her, believes he had killed her and wanted to fake her suicide,” said one investigator, who asked not to be identified because the investigation was continuing.

Ms. Shelly’s body was found Wednesday by her husband. At the time, the police said, they found few signs of trauma or struggle.

“It appeared to be a suicide — he staged it as a suicide,” the investigator said. But he said investigators “never just accepted it for what it was staged to be.”

Detectives from the Sixth Precinct in Greenwich Village were particularly troubled by an unexplained footprint found in the bathroom. They examined the shoes of everyone who had entered the apartment, including police officers and emergency workers, but found no match for the print.

They canvassed the building, and found that renovation work was under way in some apartments. The detectives matched the footprint from Ms. Shelly’s bathroom to one they found at one of the work sites, and then used the match to track down Mr. Pillco, the authorities said.

Mr. Pillco was picked up Sunday night and taken to the Sixth Precinct station house, where he made his admissions early yesterday, investigators said. He was escorted from the station to a waiting police car last night wearing a Yankees cap low over his forehead, partly obscuring his face from photographers and television crews.

Neighbors at Mr. Pillco’s apartment building said he was hard-working and respectful. He lived in a basem*nt apartment with his cousin and held a variety of odd jobs, they said.

“He sent money home to his mother and father,” said Frank Lingo, a neighbor. “He minded his business. He never bothered me or anyone else near here. He seemed like a good kid. I’ve never seen him hang out.”

Chris Pannhorse, another neighbor, said: “He was always respectful to me and my wife. He’s a good kid. Because that is what he is to me, just a kid.”

The arrest came after a memorial service for Ms. Shelly on Sunday that drew hundreds of mourners.

According to The New York Post, Mr. Ostroy spoke at the service, repeating his insistence that his wife would not have committed suicide.

“There’s no way on this planet that she would have left that child,” he said. “Nobody is ever going to tell me that woman walked away from Sophie.”