![]() "The reality is the major cause of death is blunt force trauma. "Jumping from a bridge is a very traumatic death," Berman said. The Port Authority takes several measures to prevent suicides, including phones to a suicide hotline, police patrols and a security force.īut people who jump off bridges or choose similarly painful methods to commit suicide are generally more psychologically disturbed than others who intentionally kill themselves, said Lanny Berman, executive director of the American Association of Suicidology in Washington. Last year, 15 people committed suicide while another 29 were stopped in the effort, said Joseph Pentangelo, spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The deaths of Crockett and Nickie Circelli were the sixth and seventh confirmed suicides this year done by leaping from the bridge. He said he and many in the community were shocked by the couple's suicide and Valenti's death. Crockett had a number of drug arrests and Nickie Circelli had been arrested on theft and forgery charges in Orange County.ĭon Hayek, a retired police sergeant and organist for the Lafayette Theatre in Suffern, said he often saw Crockett and Nickie Circelli there, watching a movie and cuddling. Osborne said both Crockett and Nickie Circelli had criminal records. On Tuesday, Suffern detectives identified the couple at the New York City morgue. Kaufer told Officer Lou Venturini, who contacted village detectives. ![]() Osborn said authorities linked the suicide leap and Valenti's murder on Monday night when Suffern Police Dispatcher Jeremy Kaufer heard media reports about the bridge jump and noted that the couple's general description matched that of Crockett and Nickie Circelli. Nickie Circelli's brother, Joe Hunt, who works for the village Department of Public Works, was at Wednesday's news conference but declined to comment. My brother was trying to help her, but she would lie." Sal Circelli, of Suffern, said his brother had tried repeatedly to get his wife help with some success at times. "She wasn't supposed to communicate with (the girls), but maybe some letters may have been passed back and forth. Nickie Circelli's former brother-in-law said drugs ultimately proved to be a factor in the children's custody. I just don't want to hurt people anymore." I do know that I am taking the cowardly way out. ![]() She later continued, "You would not understand how much it would hurt for me to wake up every single day without you. I beg you to remember that Nickie that I used to be. In another note, she writes: " I'm sorry. He said one was addressed to "the 4 most amazing kids this world has ever seen or ever will," and ends "I love you. Police said notes found in the house included one written by the couple that implicated them in Valenti's death and another, written by Nickie Circelli, saying they planned to kill themselves.Īnother, on a door, said Valenti had been taken to the hospital. It is not yet clear whether he was strangled, choked or smothered. The Rockland Medical Examiner's Office has ruled the death a homicide by asphyxiation. His body was found in his house by a nephew, who called police about 1:15 p.m. Valenti, widely known as "Uncle Billy," ran Thunderbird Catering in the village for decades. Police said the key to Valenti's car was found in Crockett's pocket the car has not been recovered. They were pulled from the Hudson River by emergency responders and died at St. Monday and were seen in the water by workers on the lower level of the span who had seen something falling. The couple jumped from the bridge about 11 a.m. The girls are aware of how their mother died, he said, and were likely to seek counseling. Sal Circelli, Nickie Circelli's former brother-in-law, said she and his brother Michael Circelli were married for about a decade before her drug problem drove the couple to divorce about three years ago.Ĭircelli said his brother had been awarded custody of the four children, girls ages 11-14. There appeared to be no way out for them." "There's the issue of owing money to Valenti, there's the issue of the illegal weapon - the AR-15 - of which Crockett was a suspect, and there's a possibility of illegal substance abuse. ![]() "When you look at the totality of the circumstances from their prospective, it appears that the walls were closing in on them," Detective Craig Long said of Crockett and Circelli during a Village Hall press conference Wednesday.
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