Overseas authorities are searching in Tel Aviv, Israel for a mentally ill man who police believe stabbed his parents to death inside their Staten Island home yesterday.
Eric Bellucci, 30, seen above, who is said to suffer from schizophrenia, is the prime suspect in the stabbing death of his parents, Arthur and Marian Bellucci, according to sources.
The 61-year-old man and 56-year-old woman were found with multiple stab wounds around 8:30 p.m. yesterday in their home at 3 Poillon Avenue in Annadale, Staten Island. They were pronounced dead at the scene.
Sources say the couple’s daughter, Vanessa, went to the house in concern because she had not heard from her parents. She went inside, found blood all over the inside entrance and called 911.
Law enforcement sources say Eric Bellucci, 30, took his parents’ Honda pickup truck to Newark Liberty International Airport and boarded an El Al Airlines flight for Tel Aviv just before 3 p.m. yesterday.
El Al Airlines has refused to comment.
Neighbors remember the Belluccis as very caring people.
“We will all suffer a tremendous loss. This neighborhood, my family, my mother will grieve this loss,” said family friend Jerry Tannuccilli, who has known the family for over 20 years. “This wasn’t Eric, the Eric we knew as a child. I mean, I used to pick him up from intermediate school…. I just can’t believe that this world could be without Marian.”
“They were just wonderful people. Warm, loving, the best friends anyone could ever have,” said family friend Grace Piccione.
Yet Tannuccilli says that Eric Bellucci’s mental illness worsened over the last year.
Family friends say a week ago, Eric Bellucci had an argument with his parents, possibly over his care, and left. They say Marian Bellucci was torn about what to do with her son and often talked about him to her friends.
“She loved her son dearly. She was afraid to call… the cops [last week], she was worried about him,” said Piccione.
Friends also say up until a year ago the Bellucci family had no problems with Eric. He serves as vice president of a family-operated home health care company called Home Care Partners, Inc.
“They tried to get him help and he refused,” said Tannuccilli. “He said there was nothing wrong with him.”
Published reports say that Vanessa Bellucci recently moved out of her parents’ house because of concerns over her brother’s volatile behavior, but family friends told NY1 that Vanessa moved out because she had started law school.
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(Source: NY1)
2 Responses
Why Israel, of all places?
Maybe we can offer to trade him for Pollard?