A man who murdered young women and mutilated their bodies, earning nicknames like "The Boy Next Door Killer" because he lived near his victims. One victim was supposed to go on a date with actor Ashton Kutcher, who testified that he saw what he thought was red wine spilled on her floor—it was her blood.

Michael Gargiulo, born in 1976 in Glenview, Illinois, began his killing spree in 1993 with 18-year-old Tricia Pacaccio, a neighbor he stabbed to death on her front doorstep [citation:4][citation:8]. DNA under her fingernails would later match him, but testing methods at the time were insufficient to secure a conviction [citation:6]. He moved to California in 1998 and continued his pattern, murdering 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin in 2001 with 47 stab wounds as she prepared for a date with Kutcher, and 32-year-old Maria Bruno in 2005, a mother of four who was "quite literally butchered" with her breasts cut off [citation:1][citation:5]. He was finally arrested in 2008 after a survivor, Michelle Murphy, fought off his attack and left a trail of blood evidence [citation:4].

Gargiulo was convicted in 2019 and sentenced to death in 2021 [citation:4][citation:5]. In September 2024, he was extradited to Illinois to finally face justice for the murder of Tricia Pacaccio, the teenage neighbor who was his first victim [citation:8].

Turn down the lights, put on your headphones, and press play because the man who hid in plain sight for fifteen years is finally behind bars.

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