Couple who leaped to their deaths were suspects in murder

Philip Messing

nypost.com

A couple who leaped to their deaths from the George Washington Bridge were suspected of strangling a man in their home in Suffern, NY, before they drove south and took the fatal plunge, sources said Tuesday.

Nickie Hunt-Cirelli, 40, and Gary Crockett, 41, were being sought by Suffern police for robbing and murdering Hunt-Cirel­li’s uncle just hours before they jumped from the bridge Monday, law-enforcement sources said.

Neighbors said the couple hopped into a Chevy Malibu and bolted from the area early Monday after a ­violent ruckus in the home.

“Those two went running. They never said a thing.”“I heard a loud boom and that was it,” said Josefina Rodriguez, who lives upstairs in the apartment building.

Rodriguez later learned that a man in the apartment had been killed.

“[Hunt-Cirelli’s brother] came upstairs to me and told me that his uncle was dead,” the woman ­recalled.

The couple allegedly robbed the uncle of money and an AR-15 assault rifle before killing him.

The Rockland County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death a homicide, sources said.

It was determined that the victim had a broken vertebra, which was consistent with him being choked to death.

After allegedly killing the man, the duo drove to the bridge, where they held hands and leaped off together around 11 a.m. Monday.

Authorities said the couple had no wallets or identification on them when they jumped.

They were pulled out of the Hudson River barely alive and rushed to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, where they died.

Investigators were able to identify them after Suffern cops called Port Authority police to say the bridge jumpers might have been involved in the slaying, a source said. Relatives then identified the two bodies.

Hunt-Cirelli had been previously arrested in upstate Monticello on burglary charges, a source said.

Neighbors said both Hunt-Cirelli and Crockett had drug ­addictions and were oddballs.

“I always thought there was something wrong with them,” said Rodriguez.

“Maybe it was a bad energy about them. They just looked weird. Sometimes you can just tell there is something off about them.”