How did ‘Waitress’ director Adrienne Shelly pass away? The New York homicide, explained

Hollywood is no stranger to the true crime scene, with a variety of grisly murders against some of film and TV’s brightest stars over the years. But one particularly tragic one is the murder of Adrienne Shelly, right as she was about to make her big break in the directing game.

Best known for her 2005 film Waitress, the actress-turned-director was set to make her Sundance debut as the film’s writer, director, and co-star. However, Shelly never found out her film made it into Sundance, let alone make it to the stage to present her project. Instead, on Nov. 1, 2006, Adrienne Shelly’s body was discovered in the apartment she used as an office in Manhattan’s West Village in NYC.

Discovered by her husband Andy Ostroy that fateful evening, initial reports by police claimed Shelly had taken her own life. The circumstances of where her body was found, as well as the cause of death having been neck compression, led investigators to assume death by suicide. However, convinced his wife would never abandon their 2-year-old daughter Sophie, and that she was happy with both her personal and professional life, Osprey urged investigators to look further at the scene to find his wife’s killer.

Fortunately, a second look by investigators revealed a patch of gypsum dust, and a mysterious footprint with it. Since the footprint did not match Shelly’s, it suggested there was another person in Shelly’s apartment on the day of her death. The new working theory held by police was that Shelly did not, in fact, die by suicide, but instead was murdered by someone else, who then later placed her body into a position that implied she took her own life in an attempt to cover their tracks.

After investigating further, it was revealed that construction workers were in the apartment building where Adrienne Shelly had her office on the day of her death. After investigating the crews who were working that day, on Nov. 6, 2006, Diego Pillco was arrested in connection to Shelly’s death. He confessed shortly thereafter not only to attacking Shelly, but staging her body. However, Pillco’s original version of events still didn’t give a clear picture.

In his initial confession to police, Pillco claimed that Shelly had complained about the construction noise and asked them to keep it down, and in a fit of rage, he threw a hammer at her. Pillco, an undocumented immigrant from Ecuador, said he was concerned that Shelly could cause him to be deported if she complained about the noise to a higher up. He followed her to her apartment and tried to grab her, but she slapped him across the face to fight him off. He then punched her in the face and as she fell, she hit her head on the floor and went unconscious.

Thinking he had already caused her death, Pillco tied a sheet around her neck and hung her in the bathroom to make it look like Shelly had taken her own life. However, between Shelly’s confirmed cause of death, as well as the lack of any kind of head trauma, investigators felt there was a different set of events than Pillco wanted to share. Once on trial in 2008 for his role in Shelly’s death, Pillco finally revealed a different — and more truthful — sequence of events.

In an attempt to rob Shelly, Pillco followed her to her apartment, and snuck in as she left the door open. Shelly caught Pillco rummaging through her purse, and threatened to call police. Pillco then covered her mouth to stop her screaming, and grabbed her phone out of her hand. Holding her mouth and nose shut, he caused her to pass out. He then grabbed a nearby bedsheet, choked Shelly to death with it, and hung her body in the bathroom to make it look like a suicide. However, the medical examiner on the case claimed that Shelly was still alive when Pillco hung her body in the bathroom.

Pillco did end up pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter and on March 13, 2008, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole. Once his time is completed in prison, Pillco will be deported back to Ecuador. Even with the court case completed, Shelly’s family refused to let her her legacy die. Her story has been documented by her husband Ostroy in the 2021 documentary Adrienne.

Not long after her death, Ostroy started The Adrienne Shelly Foundation, a non-profit that partners with various academic and filmmaking institutions to offer funding, scholarships, and grants to up-and-coming filmmakers. Past recipients include Chloe Zhao, Anika Poitier, Anne Sundberg, and Cynthia Wade, whose short film funded by the foundation won the Oscar for Best Documentary: Short Form in 2007.

Of course, most notable of Shelly’s legacy is Waitress. The 2007 film was a critical success, and later received a hit Broadway musical adaptation in 2016. Starring Tony nominee Jessie Mueller as Jenna Hutchinson, with music from Sara Bareilles, the show ran on Broadway until 2020, and was revived for a limited engagement in 2021. However, those who never had the chance to see the musical can check out the pro-shot of the 2021 revival once it’s available on VOD and streaming next year.