The Internet Movie Database is reporting that 19-year-old New York City construction worker Diego Pillco has been charged with killing 40-year-old actress Adrienne Shelly, star of the Hal Hartley films Trust and The Unbelievable Truth. Shelly was found hanged in her NYC apartment last week, and early media reports assumed it was a suicide, but police investigated after noting incongruous dusty footprints on the toilet seat of the bathroom where Shelly was found.
According to a lurid story in today's New York Post, Pillco has allegedly confessed that he and Shelly argued over construction noise in her apartment building, and that after he pushed her from the apartment he was working on, she slapped him. He then repeatedly struck her, strangled her with a sheet, and hung her up in her shower, hoping it would look like she had killed herself. The story also repeatedly emphasizes that Pillco is an illegal immigrant, and goes into some detail about how he got into the country. Because hey, nothing livens up a tragedy like a little opportunistic jingoism.