True Crime Database

Adrienne Shelly

Naturally, the death of any celebrity is bound to gain huge traction in the media and throughout the general public. You begin to feel close to these people on a personal level through their work, interviews, speeches etc, and they continue to inspire people everyday. So when a celebrity dies under any circumstances, millions of hearts will break worldwide, in the form of personal eulogies from fans or conspiracy theories suspecting that there's more to the death than what people suggest. Adrienne Shelly was no exception, but also fuelled the idea that maybe, when it comes to celebrity deaths, there is more than meets my eye.

Adrienne Shelly was born as Adrienne Levine in Queens, New York to parents Sheldon and Elaine on June 24th 1966. With her two brothers, Jeff Mark, they lived in Long Island. Ever since she was young, Adrienne knew that she had a passion for the performing arts and that it was what she wanted to pursue in life. From the age of 10, Adrienne started performing with a performing arts training centre and played a huge part in a lot of productions, including a summer stock version of Annie. Her plan after high school was to attend Boston University to study film production, however she dropped out just after her junior year and decided to move to Manhattan to get noticed by other film makers. Sometime between her teenage years and moving to Manhattan, her father passed away and she took his name, Sheldon, as her stage name.

Adrienne's career started out by acting in a bunch of independent films, which broke her into the market and made her become noticed by many other notable figures. For her first two feature films, she worked with Hal Hartley on 'The Unbelievable Truth' in 1989 and 'Trust' in 1990. Trust would be featured at the Sundance Film Festival, as the script had been tied for the Waldo Scott Screenwriting Award. She also appeared in the 2005 film Factotum, alongside Matt Dillon. As well as guest starring in well known TV series such as Law & Order, Oz and Homicide: Life on the Street, she also appeared in a numerous amount of independent theatre shows.

Adrienne's niche in the film industry wasn't for her acting talent but rather for her skills behind the camera, writing and directing. In 1999, a film that she had done just this called "I'll Take You There" won her two awards: a U.S. Comedy Arts Festival Film Discovery Jury Award for best direction and Troia International Film Festival, held in Portugal, for best director. She also worked behind the camera for countless other films and was well known within the leagues of independent film makers. Her last film, Waitress, made in 2007, was one in which she was arguably the most involved with, as she was involved with writing, directing, co-set, costume designing and even acting as a supporting character – the film appeared at the premier of the Sundance Film Festival. In 1994, she married CEO of Belardi/Ostroy Andy Ostroy and they had a daughter, Sophie, in 2003. The marriage, according to Andy, remained a happy one and, as far as Andy knew, his wife remained happy also.

All this would change on November 1st 2006. At 9:30am that day, Andy had dropped Adrienne off at her office, an apartment in Manhattan's West Village. Although it could have been considered by some to have been hard at work, Andy became concerned when he did not hear from her throughout the day and decided to go to the apartment to see if everything was okay. He asked the doorman to come with them and the two of them found Adrienne's body hanging from the shower rod in the bathtub, a bed sheet wrapped around her head also. The autopsy found that she died as a result of neck compression – this, combined with the fact that Adrienne's body was found hanging, led police to rule her death as a suicide.

Andy was unsatisfied with this conclusion. He heavily asserted that Adrienne was happy, with her personal and professional life and that she was not the sort of person who would ever leave behind a young daughter. The door was also left unlocked and money was missing from her wallet – it is highly unlikely that someone who was committing suicide would leave the door unlock and buy something just before their death. He constantly hounded police to investigate more into his wife's death. The police eventually complied. That was when a footprint covered in gypsum dust (used most commonly in building construction) was discovered in the bathroom where she was found dead. The marks of the footprint matched with other footprints where construction works had been taking place that day. Police soon realised that this wasn't a suicide, but a murder staged to look like a suicide.

On November 6th, it was reported that a man called Diego Pillco had been arrested in relation to her death. He was 19 years old and an Ecuadorian illegal immigrant, who had paid $12,000 to be smuggled to the US and living in the basement of a building owned by his employer. Police alleged that Diego had been caught on tape confessing to killing Adrienne and staging it as a suicide. However, he gave two very contradicting statements regarding the events leading up to her death.

Diego's original statement alleged that Adrienne had approached them and asked them to keep the noise down, in which he responded by throwing a hammer at her. Diego had apparently followed her back to the apartment, scared that the incident would be reported back to his employer, creating the risk that he would lose his job and accommodation, and end up back at square one all over again. Adrienne grew scared when she saw him in the apartment and slapped him, where an altercation ensued between the two. During the commotion, Adrienne was killed during a fall and Diego staged the suicide afterwards. If this statement were to be true, this meant he would be guilty of manslaughter.

The second statement, however, has a much more sinister approach. This time, while on a break, Diego noticed Adrienne going back to her apartment and, for an unspecified reason, decided to follow her. Also for unknown reasons, Diego attacked the defenceless woman and rendered her unconscious – he then killed her by hanging her and making it look like a suicide. It is believed that this second story is most likely true, due to the story fitting in line with what the autopsy found as the cause of death, the lack of dust on Adrienne's shoes and the fact that she was still alive when she was being hanged. Despite this confession, prosecutors were wary of trying to charge on grounds of first degree murder in case he tried to revert to his original story, so they stuck to charges of first-manslaughter. This is what Diego was convicted of, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Adrienne's death, while casting a dark cloud over Andy's head, inspired him to continue his wife's legacy. He created the Adrienne Shelly Foundation, a non-profit organisation that aims to provide assistance to aspiring film makers – such methods of help include awarding scholarships, production grants and finishing funds alongside many powerful institutes within the film making industry. He also produced a film that Shelly had written but never released in 2009. He even went about establishing a memorial to her, and on August 3rd, 2009, the Adrienne Shelly Garden was opened in Abingdon Square Park, that also faces the apartment she died in.

In terms of the last film she worked on, Waitresses, this became her most successful film to date, grossing $19 million at the box office. The film has received very positive reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes critics rating it 90% fresh. It ended up winning a total of 5 awards and in 2015, the American Repertory Theatre opened a musical based on the film, with music and lyrics written by Sara Bareilles. The show was eventually moved to Broadway theatres.

Despite her tragic story, Adrienne Shelly was someone who was able to inspire a number of different people, through her determination and hard work, her passion and her overall optimism. She has remained a large presence even in death due to the love expressed by family and friends, and her work being recreated through different forms. For that, her life should remain celebrated and remembered.