Advertisement
Ashton Kutcher’s statement during the hearing of alleged repeat murderer Michael Gargiulo made headlines across Tinseltown in 2019. The performer, most recognized for his performances in That ’70s Show and Two and a Half Men, landed in the witness stand, recalling a haunting memory from 2001.
At that time, the U.S. entertainer had planned an outing with Ashley Ellerin, a 22-year-old style scholar. He showed up at her Hollywood bungalow to pick her up, but things quickly went sideways. According to Fox 11, he showed up tardy, roughly at 10:30 p.m., after attempting (and not succeeding) to contact Ellerin via telephone. The lamps were illuminated within her residence, yet nobody responded to the entrance.
Advertisement
He peeked through another window and saw what he “thought was a red wine spilled on the carpet”—an odd, but harmless sight. In hindsight, of course, he realized it was far from harmless. Ashton Kutcher didn’t think much of it, figuring she’d gone out without him.
Advertisement
But the next day, news broke that Ellerin had been brutally murdered. Her roommate found her body. She had been stabbed 47 times, nearly decapitated. Needless to say, the Killers star was freaked out. His fingerprints were on her door, and he immediately spoke to the police. Police later connected Gargiulo to the crime, and that’s where the case began to unravel.
Gargiulo has been accused of a gruesome killing spree spanning years. He, apprehended in 2008 following the failed slaying of Michelle Murphy, has been connected to no fewer than three homicides. Besides Ellerin, Gargiulo stands charged with the fatal stabbing of Maria Bruno in 2005 and Tricia Pacaccio in 1993.
Advertisement
The connection between these victims? They all lived near Gargiulo, and in each case, the attacks were brutal and personal, with a knife used in each slaying. Police didn’t catch him right away—he slipped under the radar for years. It wasn’t until his DNA was found at the scene of Murphy’s attack that investigators put it all together.
Gargiulo, condemned to execution in 2021 over California homicides, was transferred to Illinois in September 2024 regarding the 1993 slaying of Tricia Pacaccio. He’s presently confined at the California Medical Center.
Ashton Kutcher barely avoided becoming an additional target of the Tinseltown Slayer. His postponed entrance might’ve preserved his existence, yet it also thrust him into the center of one of Los Angeles’s most haunting homicide incidents. Decades onward, his statement assisted in exposing the horrifying acts of Michael Gargiulo—evidence that even in glamorous LA, true terror can strike alarmingly near one’s doorstep.
For more such stories, check out Hollywood
Must Read: When Jada Pinkett Smith Opened Up On Labels, Love & Life After The Infamous Oscars Moment
Follow Us: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | Google News
Advertisement
