Ashton Kutcher’s Grammy party date was murdered by a serial killer…

Ashley Ellerin was Initially raised in Somerset, New Jersey.  In high school, the family moved to Los Altos, California. Ashley was confident and adjusted to the move well.  A friend of the small-town girl from Northern California described Ashley Ellerin as “beautiful,” “fun,” and “spontaneous.”
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After high school, she moved to Los Angeles and dated Vin Diesel and actor Denny Kirkwood. (Pictured below) On the February 1, 2001, Ashley drove her father to the airport. After she returned home, Mark Durbin visited Ashley to fix a ceiling fan in her home. Ashley was having some home renovations done. Durbin testified that he was intimate with Ashley at about 7:20 on the evening she was murdered, but claimed he didn’t kill her. Mark was an aspiring actor. Durbin stated he was out the door at 8:15, minutes before Ashley was murdered. This is suspicious, but there is no evidence linking him to Ashley’s murder.
 
Ashley received a call from Ashton Kutcher at 8:24 p.m. He had invited her to a Grammys after-party with him. Ashton told her he’d pick her up at 10:20. p.m.
 
Investigators interviewed people in Ashley’s neighborhood. A man walking his dog heard a shrill scream from Ashley’s home at 8:30 p.m. (which gives Ashton a solid alibi).   Ashley Ellerin was a student at L.A.’s Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (pictured below) when she met Ashton Kutcher.
When Ashton showed up at Ashley’s Hollywood home around 10:45 pm, his knock at her door went unanswered. Ashton was late. He peered in the window and saw what he thought to be a puddle of spilled red wine on the floor. (Ashley had thrown a party the previous night.) Assuming she was mad at him for being late, Ashton finally left. Ashton was a rising star in “That 70’s Show” at the time.
 
The coroner’s report indicated Ashley had been stabbed 47 times, some of the wounds so deep they almost went all the way through her. (Suggesting the killer was strong.) Her throat was cut almost decapitating her. The stab wounds go from left to right, suggesting the killer was left-handed. There was blood all over, and no effort to clean up the mess.
 
Investigators were told by Ashley’s friends that a man named Michael Gargiulo had been creeping around, who claimed to be a furnace man.  He had walked into a party at Ashley’s home uninvited and didn’t speak to people at the party. He just sat on the couch and watched Ashley. Michael lived down the street from Ashley and moved out of the area shortly after Ashley’s murder. Tricia PacaccioWhile investigators were gathering information on Gargiulo, they received a call from an investigator in Chicago regarding the 10-year-old cold case murder of Tricia Pacaccio. Both Ashley and Tricia’s bodies were posed in a seductive manner after being stabbed to death. Tricia was a popular high school student at Glenbrook South High School in Chicago and was only 17 years old when she was murdered. Her friend Karen Isenberg Jones described Tricia: "She was a beautiful person, inside and out. She was genuinely nice to everybody.” Tricia had gone out with her friends on August 13, 1993 for a scavenger hunt, and had left at 1:00 a.m. to drop a friend off on her way back home. She didn’t make it inside, however: Her father found her body the next morning on their steps with the door key in her hand. Her plan was to attend Purdue University in September to study engineering and environmental issues.
 
When the Chicago detectives said they we’re looking for a guy named Mike Gargiulo, the LA investigators were shocked. Even though Tricia had been murdered in 1993, DNA testing in 2003 discovered Tricia had fought her attacker and Gargiulo’s DNA was under her fingernails. Gargiulo lived in the neighborhood and was an acquaintance of Tricia’s older brother.
 
What they discovered about Mike Gargiulo was disturbing. He was a left-handed boxer with a hot temper. He handcuffed a high school girlfriend and raped her. He threw his sister on a table, breaking it, and had thrown his father through a window. Mike is pictured below with a young woman he raped on a date. (Her picture, to the left, has appeared with an interview in a published news article, otherwise I wouldn’t print it.) Despite the evidence against Gargiulo, it was determined it was not enough evidence to prosecute him, so he was released. Mario Bruno (mother of 4) The Attacks Continue
Two years after the DNA match, on the night of December 1, 2005, a killer climbed through the kitchen window of an apartment in El Monte, a working-class suburb of L.A. The young woman who lived there, an aspiring model named Maria Bruno, had reported a “weird guy” had been watching her. Maria had separated from her husband, but they had gone out to eat together the night before her murder and he had returned to pick her up the next morning.
 
The intruder stabbed Bruno 17 times. As with the Ellerin case, the killer appeared to have posed Bruno’s body. The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department found a blue medical bootie outside Bruno’s apartment, but at the time, they couldn’t connect it to a suspect. They did discover that Michael Gargiulo lived across the alley from Maria and had a direct view of her door from his apartment. Pictures of Michelle Murphy’s bathroom, and cut and bloodied hands after the attack, were shared with the jury.
 
Michelle Murphy becomes a hero! In April 2008, Michelle Murphy, a petite, 28-year-old awoke sometime after midnight to a man straddling her body, stabbing her in the chest. She grabbed the blade, the steel slicing her palms. She kicked wildly at the man, her blood-slicked body making it hard for him to hold her. At some point, the man cut himself. Michelle kicked the attacker in the chest. He fell against the wall. “I’m sorry,” he said, staggering out. Michelle identifies her neighbor, Michael Gargiulo, as her attacker. The DNA collected from the blood left at the scene belonged to Gargiulo. He was arrested on June 6, 2008. A bag with some tools and blue medical booties were found in his car. Michael Garguilo has fired numerous attorneys, delaying court proceedings. The press dubs him “The Hollywood Ripper,” the “Chiller Killer” and the “Boy Next Door Killer.” Michelle Murphy was able to point directly at Garguilo and identify her attacker in court.  Garguilo was convicted of murder and the jury is pushing for the death sentence. He is scheduled to be sentenced in July of 2021.
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Thank you, Michelle, for your heroic fight! You have saved others from being victims.
I appreciate people spreading news about my books. On April 30, 2021 the Pine Journal featured Lying Close. The Bad Habit events were a tremendous success, with both days selling out of tickets. Thank you Bad Habit for being a great supporter of a local author! I am looking to additional events…
 
Thanks for listening, 
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 Frank Saturday, May 8, 2021, Frank will be signing books at the Spring Fling in downtown Brainerd 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Frank will be in front of CatTales Books & Gifts 609 Laurel St, Brainerd, Minnesota. 
Every once in a while, I hear a line or two in a song that runs through my head over and over, and the best version of this song wasn’t the Mills Brothers, but instead Clarence Henry (in my opinion). This is song is for everyone who’s said something they wish they wouldn’t have said to someone you love—“a hasty word you can’t recall…”
 
You always hurt the one you love, the one you shouldn’t hurt at all.
You always take the sweetest rose, and crush it ‘til the petals fall.
You always break the kindest heart, with a hasty word you can’t recall
So if I broke your heart last night, it’s because I love you most of all…

Clarence Henry, You Always Hurt the One You Love

Ryan Gosling singing the same tune