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Be Afraid Of Never Living · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

• 0:13
  Discretion advice. This is ten minute murder. Adrian Levigne was born on June
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  seventh, nineteen sixty six, in Queens, New York. By ten years
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  old, she was already acting at the Stage Door Manner Performing Arts Training Center.
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  She made her professional debut while still in high school in a production of
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  Annie. After graduating, she enrolled in Boston University in majored in film production,
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  but she dropped out and moved to Manhattan to pursue an acting career.
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  It wasn't long before she caught the attention of Hal Hartley, as he cast
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  her for some of his independent films. Her talent was recognized by both agents
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  and audiences. She decided to go by the name Adrian Shelley as a tribute
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  to her father. She continued to get film roles and guest starred in several
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  TV shows, including Law and Order OZ and Homicide Life on the Streets.
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  As much as she enjoyed being in front of the camera, she still loved
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  performing for live audiences. Shelley starred in major roles in over two dozen off
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  Broadway plays, often at Manhattan's Workhouse Theater. Although Shelley was a gifted actress,
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  she became tired of the rampant sexism that she faced in the industry.
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  She wanted to transition from a performer to a playwright, and she did.
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  It turns out that she was also brilliant behind the camera. In nineteen ninety
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  nine, she wrote, directed, and acted in the movie I'll Take You
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  There and won multiple film awards. She was quickly achieving every goal that she
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  had set except for one. She wanted a family. A new chapter in
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  her life started in two thousand and one when she met Andy Ostroy on match
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  dot com. Andy was a chairman and CEO at a marketing firm. The
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  two instantly knew they were meant to be together. In two thousand and two,
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  they got married, and in two thousand and three they welcomed their beautiful
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  daughter, Sophie. Being pregnant inspired Shelley and she wrote another screenplay, Waitress.
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  She not only wrote it, she directed it, acted in it,
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  and helped with the set and costumes. The movie starred Carrie Russell. Finally
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  she had the family she dreamed of and the career she had worked so hard
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  to achieve, but she didn't get to enjoy it for very long. On
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  November one, two thousand and six, Shelley was found dead. Andy had
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  dropped her off at her office at nine point thirty that morning. She used
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  an apartment in the Abingdon Square of Manhattan's West Village as her office. They
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  usually talked during the day, and he became concerned when he had not heard
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  from her. He drove back over and asked the doorman to accompany him upstairs
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  to the apartment in order to check on her. At five forty five pm,
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  they found her hanging from the shower curtain rod with a bed sheet tied
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  around her neck. The police were called, and after a very quick investigation,
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  the NYPD thought it appeared to be a suicide. There was no noticeable
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  evidence of foul play or was there. Andy noticed that the front door was
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  unlocked. That wasn't normal. Shelley would have locked the door behind her.
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  He also noticed that money was missing from her wallet. It all seemed suspicious
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  to him. He insisted that she was an extremely happy person and happy with
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  her life personally and professionally, and she would not have taken her own life.
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  He also knew that she would have never left her daughter motherless. Andy's
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  protesting prompted further investigation. An autopsy found that she died from neck compression,
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  but was she the one that tied the sheet. Upon a more in depth
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  exam of the crime scene, a sneaker print was found with dust on the
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  toilet beside where the body was found hanging. The print matched other shoe prints
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  in the building where construction work was being done. On November sixth, the
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  police arrested Diego Pilco, a nineteen year old from Ecuador. He confessed on
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  tape to attacking her and then faking her suicide. Originally, he said that
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  she demanded that they keep the noise of the construction down. Out of anger,
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  he threw a hammer at her, afraid that she might complain about his
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  behavior, which would no doubt get him deported. He followed her to her
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  apartment, he said. Once she noticed that he was following her, she
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  turned around and slapped him, and he punched her in the face. She
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  fell down unconscious, Thinking that the punch had killed her, he decided to
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  stage her death to make it look like a suicide, but the evidence that
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  they had to this point did not support this story. According to his story,
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  Shelley would have had trauma to her face and the back of her head,
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  and the autopsy found neither. Pilko then changed his account during the trial
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  phase in two thousand and eight. Now he was claiming that he was returning
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  from his lunch break and saw her entering an elevator. He knew that she
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  had money, and he decided to rob her. He thought once she opened
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  the door and went inside, he could sneak in the door behind her and
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  grab her purse. It almost worked. He was in her door when Shelley
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  saw him. She grabbed her phone and told him that she was calling the
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  police. He managed to get the phone away from her and then covered her
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  mouth to keep her from screaming. He must have prevented her from breathing also,
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  because she did become unconscious. He wrapped a sheet around her neck and
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  dragged her into the bathroom, where he hung her from the shower. That
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  story seemed more plausible. It meant that he must have cleaned the crime scene
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  after their scuffle, because there would have been an evidence of struggle. The
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  medical examiner did state that Adrian was still alive when she was hung. There
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  was some truth in Pilco's first statement. He wanted to make sure Shelley would
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  not report him Diego. Pilco pleaded guilty to first degree manslaughter and was sentenced
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  to twenty five years without parole since he was an immigrant in the country illegally.
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  He was also scheduled to be deported to Ecuador after his release. On
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  March twelfth, two thousand and eight, at Pilco's sentencing, Andy and other
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  family members had the opportunity to speak. Andy said Adrian Shelley was the kindest,
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  warmest, most loving, and generous person he had ever met. That
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  she was incredibly smart, funny, and talented, a bright light with an
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  infectious laugh, and a huge smile that radiated her inner and outer beauty.
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  He said that Pilko was nothing more than a cold blooded killer and that he
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  would never forgive him, although that would not be the last time Andy and
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  Pilko faced each other. At his arrest, Pilko still owed twelve thousand dollars
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  for being smuggled into the United States. He was living in the basement of
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  a building that his employer owned. Andy sued Pilko's employer, alleging that Shelley
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  would still be alive had he not employed him, and that he did so
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  knowing that he was here illegally. Andy even went after the owners of Adrian's
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  apartment building for hiring the contracting company, but on July seventh, twenty eleven,
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  a judge dismissed the claims, saying that while he sympathized with Andy's loss,
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  there was insufficient evidence to show that they were vicariously liable for the death.
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  They had no reason to believe that Pilko was a danger to himself or
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  others upon hiring him, and legal ground could not be determined to hold them
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  accountable. Adrian Shelley's memory has been kept alive in many different ways. In
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  two thousand and seven, law and ordered an episode that was based around her
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  death. She had guest starred on an episode in the year two thousand.
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  Investigation Discovery also aired an episode about her. Andy wanted her to be more
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  than just another statistic, more than a murder victim. He established the Adrian
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  Shelley Foundation, which gives scholarships, production grants, finishing funds, and living
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  stipends to female artists. He created a memorial in Abington Square Park that faces
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  the building where Shelley was killed. The Women's Film Critics Circle gives an annual
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  Adrian Shelley Award in her honor to a film that it believes passionately opposes violence
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  against women, and Waitress was more scce uccessful than anyone could have predicted.
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  In two thousand and seven, it was accepted into the sun Dance Film Festival
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  after viewing it there. Fox Searchlight Pictures purchased the film for somewhere between four
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  to five million dollars. It made over nineteen million dollars in box office sales.
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  The movie still holds over a ninety percent approval rating on film sites like
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  Rotten Tomatoes. Critics loved the film, saying it boldly defied convention. They
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  said Shelley had a magical sensibility and enduring sense of humor. One critic even
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  said Waitress was the upside down cake version of the Cinderella story. Shelley once
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  said she tried to find what was funny in what was painful. The cast
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  won awards, the screenplay won awards, and the film won multiple awards for
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  Shelley's skillful directing. Waitress saw fame far beyond the screen when it later became
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  a Broadway show. The musical had over fifteen hundred performances from two twenty sixteen
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  to twenty twenty. It was also the first musical with an all female principal
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  creative team. Even with the unfathomable grief that they faced, Shelley's family continued
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  what she started. Andy even produced Serious Moonlight, another film written by Shelley
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  before her death. It starred Meg Ryan and Kristen Bell. It premiered at
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  the Tribeca Film Festival in two thousand and nine. Shelley was loved and admired,
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  and her family and friends have made sure she will not be forgotten.
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  On December one, twenty twenty one, a documentary directed by Andy Astroy premiered
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  on HBO. The documentary is called Adrian. It explores her life, her
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  murder, and her legacy. Andy even sits down in prison with her murderer,
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  Diego Pilco, to discuss the day that changed both of their lives forever.
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  Shelley's daughter Sophie, read her notes Adrian had written in a journal.
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  It said, don't be afraid of dying, be afraid of never living.
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  That's ten minute murder for today, brief and binge able true crime. My
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  name is Joe, I'm the host, and I really appreciate you taking the
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• 11:22
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• 11:26
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• 11:30
  that, you can binge all of the previous episodes of Ten Minute Murder.
• 11:33
  Connect with me on social media, see pictures that we talk about here on
• 11:37
  the podcast, and if you like this episode, you can leave a rating
• 11:39
  and review any place that's possible. Quick email question for today, Hi Joe
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  Malia in San Francisco. Here, can you tell me what got you interested
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  in true crime? Thanks for the show, Hi Maliah, thanks for the
• 11:54
  email. Yeah, when I was a kid, unsolved mysteries, I loved
• 11:58
  unsolved mysteries. Not all of that's true crime. Some of it's like alien
• 12:01
  stuff, which I also am interested in, not to the degree of true
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  crime. I used to be like way more into aliens than true crime.
• 12:09
  But then I don't know, I just kind of transitioned. When the oj
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  Simpson trial happened. I was a kid in school and it was crazy,
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  Like you know, it was crazy, like we all were enamored. We
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  were stuck around the TV watching this OJ Simpson trial because it was something that
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  we had really never seen before. It had never been televised in this way.
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  So that got me really interested in the process and you know, the
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  trial, how that all plays out. That got me really deep into it.
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  And then past that, I stuck with Court TV. I continued watching
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  Court TV past the OJ Simpson case, and that kind of morphed into what
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  I'm doing now. All right, that's it. That's going to do it.
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  Thank you for listening to another ten minute Murder Podcast episode. I will
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  see you on the next one. Bye.