Hand-holding couple in GWB jump were being sought by police

Suffern police planned a news conference for tomorrow morning to discuss the case involving Gary W. Crockett, 41, and Nickie Circelli, 40, whose bodies were plucked from the Hudson River by New York City police and fire responders about 1,000 yards south of the bridge just after noon yesterday.

A half-hour earlier, a witness reported seeing the two jump together while holding hands, an authority source with direct knowledge of the incident told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

“They were wanted for questioning in a suspicious death,” a Nyack first responder said, adding that Crockett was a person of interest in the theft of an AR-15 rifle from a North Jersey home.

Circelli’s uncle was found dead yesterday afternoon. Authorities said the victim, who let the pair stay at his apartment, was asphyxiated. Sources said the couple left a note implicating themselves.

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Around 11:20 a.m. yesterday, workers mid-span on the GWB reported seeing “something out of their peripheral vision go by them from above to below,”said Joseph Pentangelo of the Port Authority Police Department. “The workers then saw the two in the water.”

CPR was administered after the bodies were brought to the 125th Street pier and both were rushed to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, Pentangelo told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

Both were pronounced dead soon after, he said.

“They had no ID. No car was found on the bridge,” Pentangelo said. “No note was left.”

Crockett had the key to his green, late-model Chevy Malibu in his pocket, Pentangelo said.

Authorities were searching for the car, which car wasn’t found on the bridge.

Suffern detectives who were looking for the two in connection with the homicide heard about the incident and contacted their Port Authority colleagues. They brought relatives to the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office to identify the bodies.

Both Crockett and Circelli had records for petty crimes. Circelli was charged in 2010 with a member of a crew known as the “Monticello Tool Bandits,” which took tools from contractors vans.

 

 

 

 

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