Be Afraid Of Never Living

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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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time to listen to my podcast.
If you are new to Ten Minute Murder,

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make sure you hit subscribe wherever you
like to listen to podcasts, and

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you're going to get connected with all
of the back episodes. When you do

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that, you can binge all of
the previous episodes of Ten Minute Murder.

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Connect with me on social media,
see pictures that we talk about here on

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the podcast, and if you like
this episode, you can leave a rating

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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

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email. Yeah, when I was
a kid, unsolved mysteries, I loved

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unsolved mysteries. Not all of that's
true crime. Some of it's like alien

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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.

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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.