Handyman Interrogation Tapes Released In Ft. Laud. Millionaire Murder
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) - State prosecutors released never before-seen interrogation tapes of a South Florida handyman being questioned by police. The man describes how he was caught in the middle of the murder of a millionaire.
It was one in the morning on June 28th when the handyman, Rey Silva, said he got a strange phone call.
"She said, I need you to rent a truck," he told investigators.
The caller, he said, was 54-year-old Catherine Pileggi calling from the cell phone of her boyfriend, millionaire Ron Vinci.
In the just-released interrogation videos, handyman Silva said he went to the couple's Fort Lauderdale mansion later that morning.
That's when he said Pileggi told him Ron Vinci was dead.
"Then I say to her, Why?! I'm surprised," he said.
The handyman remembered Pileggi saying Vinci fell down the stairs and died. He says she took him to a bag with the body inside.
"Then she said, I need you to get the boat and throw him in the water. He wants to be buried in fresh water," he said.
Investigators now say Pileggi bought a dive weight belt and weights on the same morning they believe she beat, shot and stabbed Vinci.
Handyman Silva says he refused to help dump the body in the water and called Vinci's friends for help. He said one friend reached into the bag to feel the body.
"Everybody's scared, and when he puts his in, he takes his hand out and says, it's Ron," he said.
Vinci's mansion on Coconut Drive is for sale and Pileggi is still behind bars at Broward Main Jail with no bond. She faces first degree murder charges.
