Ashley Ellerin
Fashion student Ashley Ellerin was stabbed 47 times in her Hollywood home. Serial killer Michael Gargiulo, the 'Hollywood Ripper,' was convicted in 2019. Actor Ashton Kutcher testified at trial.
On February 22, 2001, twenty-two-year-old Ashley Ellerin, a fashion design student, was found dead in her Hollywood Hills home. She had been stabbed 47 times. She had plans to go on a date with actor Ashton Kutcher that evening; when she didn't answer the door, Kutcher assumed she had stood him up.
The case went cold until serial killer Michael Gargiulo was arrested in 2008 for the attempted murder of another woman. DNA and other evidence connected him to Ashley's murder as well as the 2005 killing of Maria Bruno in El Monte.
Gargiulo, dubbed the 'Hollywood Ripper' by the media, was a neighbor of Ashley's who had lived in the apartment complex next door. He followed a pattern of targeting women who lived near him.
In 2019, Gargiulo was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. Kutcher testified at trial about arriving at Ashley's door the night of the murder. Gargiulo was sentenced to death in 2022.
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