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SI Double Murder Suspect: "I Was Set Up"
By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 22, 2010
Modified Oct 22, 2010
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By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 22, 2010
Modified Oct 22, 2010
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Eric Bellucci, the 30-year-old Staten Island resident accused of killing his parents before fleeing to Israel and attempting to travel on to China, gave a jailhouse interview to the Post and proclaimed his innocence, "I was set up... All I know is I went home and found my family dead." However the Post points out, "But Bellucci didn't say why -- if that was true -- he never called police and told them his parents were dead, or why he responded to that discovery by fleeing the country."
The police were called to the Annadale home of Arthur and Marian Bellucci last week when Bellucci's sister Vanessa discovered blood on the front porch and near the front door. Friends and relatives said that Bellucci, a Stuyvesant High School and Williams College graduate, was a violent schizophrenic who refused to take his medication, resulting in his parents' fearing for their safety (they dropped off his guns at a police precinct, had a friend keep tabs on him). Bellucci apparently fled Staten Island and flew to Tel Aviv—he was "obsessed" with Jewish culture and told one old classmate he was in Mossad—but when he tried to buy a ticket to China, via Turkey, his credit card was declined and he was recognized as being wanted in NYC.
According to the Post, Bellucci appeared paranoid: "Wearing a lime-green Department of Corrections jumpsuit, Bellucci repeatedly pulled back his long, unkempt hair as he warily eyed the unexpected visitor sitting before him. 'I don't know him,' Bellucci told a nearby correction officer. 'I don't know him. Is he secure?' 'Did my family send him?' Bellucci nervously asked." Then, after saying he had nothing to do with his parents' deaths, "he said he did not want to make any more comment, then got up and walked from the room." Bellucci was charged with two counts of second degree murder; he is being held without bail and is on suicide watch.
Tagged
arthur bellucci
eric bellucci
fatal stabbing
jailhouse interview
marian bellucci
mossad
staten island
Tel Aviv
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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