Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Son Mutilated, Disemboweled Dad in Gruesome Murder in America's 'Safest Town': Cops

Episode Date: August 9, 2024

Police in Ridgefield, Connecticut found an 83-year-old man dead in his bedroom on August 1. Police were called to Marc Uricchio’s home by his son, Steven Uricchio. An affidavit said Steven Uricchio told an officer he murdered his father “really, really badly.” Marc Uricchio had been mutilated and some of his organs removed from his body. Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy talks with News 12 Connecticut reporter Marissa Alter about the case and Steven Uricchio’s first court appearance in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/lctakeover to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Melissa Alter https://x.com/MarissaAlter/CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A quiet neighborhood in Connecticut called the safest city in America sees its first murder in more than 20 years, and police say this man is responsible for the gruesome slaughter of his own father. I have several shocking details of the murder with a reporter covering the case. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. I want to warn you, this case is incredibly disturbing. Stephen Uricchio is in jail in Connecticut, accused of murdering his father and mutilating him. The crime happened in Ridgefield. It's been

called the safest city in America. It's also the 11th wealthiest community in Connecticut. And the murder was so horrific that even the prosecutor is questioning Stephen Euricchio's mental health status. You don't often see that. Police in Ridgefield, Connecticut were called to the Euricchio home last Saturday morning around 1 a.m. by Stephen Eurikio for a report of a domestic incident. An affidavit says when police arrived, they found Stephen Eurikio with his hands extended in the air. The officer wrote that Stephen Eurikio was sweating profusely and had what looked like blood on his hands.

The officer asked Stephen Eurikio, what happened to your father? What did you do? And Uricchio responded, I murdered him. And then he added, really, really badly. What the officers found inside the home sounds like something out of a horror movie. They wrote that they found blood on the walls going up the stairs and also a fillet knife. Those officers found Mark Uricchio,

Stephen's father, in his bedroom laying on the floor. The 83-year-old man's face, his lower torso, and groin had been mutilated, and some of his internal organs were actually sitting outside of his body on the floor. The officers put Stephen Uricchio in handcuffs and placed him in the back of the cruiser. He was later taken to the hospital for stomach pains because he said he took a bottle of Advil hours earlier. The affidavit says, during questioning, the doctor asked Eurikio if he takes any medication, to which he stated no. The doctor asked him about a medication he was prescribed, to which Eurikio stated,

I haven't taken it in a month or two. The doctor proceeded to ask if he uses any drugs or alcohol to which Uricchio stated, I occasionally use cannabis. News 12 Connecticut was in court earlier this week when Stephen Uricchio made his first court appearance. He placed his head on the table at times, almost showing he knew the gravity of what was happening and what he had done. This is, of course, a really terrible case, but we're able to bring it to you today thanks to Upside, which is sponsoring Law & Crime's YouTube takeover. Upside is a great app that will give you cash back on things like food and gas. Upside gives you real cash back, money that will appear in your bank account that you can transfer from the Upside app. Download Upside,

claim an offer for what you're buying, and pay with your debit or credit card. You can use Upside at places like Shell, Exxon, Taco Bell, Chipotle, and many more. To find out how much you could earn, click the link in the description to download Upside. You can also scan the QR code on your screen and use the promo code LCTAKEOVER. Get an extra 25 cents back on every gallon on your screen and use the promo code LC takeover. Get an extra 25 cents back on every gallon on your first tank of gas. That's LC takeover for an extra 25 cents back on your first gallon of gas. Marissa Alter of News 12 Connecticut has been covering this case and she was actually in court the other day for Stephen Uricchio's first court appearance. So Marissa, take me inside that courtroom. What was going on?

Steven Uricchio obviously looked like he understood the gravity of what was happening. Well, what was interesting was initially it appeared he wouldn't walk into the courtroom. So when he did come in, it was because a marshal on either side of him had to hold him. His arms were just stuck to his side like this. His eyes were wide open. He was conscious. And a marshal was holding him on either side, brought him to the defense table. And that's when he just went immediately down onto the table, slumping. The judge asked him multiple times to stand up. He had no response. But the judge said, look, he came in. He was conscious. We're going to continue to proceed as is. And his attorney did say initially that, you know, this was new. He had spoken to him downstairs in lockup. He had limited communication with him, but this was not the case. And he seemed very concerned about his client. So Stephen Uricchio, according to the defense attorney, his demeanor had changed significantly between the time that he had met with him in the holding

cell briefly. And then the time he got to the courtroom, there was a significant change. It sounds like. That is what it does appear to be. He was on the table. He stayed down. This hearing lasted for maybe 14 minutes. And Stephen Euricchio was down for about half of it. And then suddenly, halfway through, he just perked up and stood there. But it still seemed like he didn't fully understand what was going on. And his attorney was very concerned. His attorney said, look, this is what we have to deal with right now. Didn't want to talk about bond or putting a plea in or anything like that in this case. His focus was getting Stephen Uricchio whatever help he needs. What I found interesting about this in watching your story was the fact

that the state attorney asked for a mental health exam. So you see that sometimes, but typically, you know, a state attorney is like talking about how horrible a crime is, how gruesome it is, how, you know, laying out all the reasons why somebody should get a bond or should not and why they are arguing for a certain dollar amount. But this is a state attorney who's saying we need to get some mental health people in here to look at this guy and figure out what's going on. Yeah, David Applegate is the Danbury State's attorney. And, you know, I spoke to him outside of court right before this happened. And he said this was an incredibly gruesome crime. He said he felt so bad for the family, what they must be going through.

And at that point, we didn't really have any details, we in the public and the media, about what exactly happened. All police had told us was that this man was charged with murder for killing an older man, and they were calling it a domestic violence incident. But we didn't know the specifics of what happened. And so when we got into court, David Applegate did say, you know, this was a gruesome crime. And he also brought up that Stephen Uricchio had made admissions about committing this crime. So that's why he was asking for the bond to remain at one and a half million dollars. But he seemed really focused on we need a competency evaluation. Something is definitely going on with this person. Let's not get into the specifics of the case. Let's get into what is going on with him and make sure that he is mentally sound to even continue with these legal proceedings.

And I don't you don't see that a lot. Sometimes you do see it. But I was actually quite surprised by that. Seems like a very responsible thing to do, given the allegations in this case. And it is a horrifically gruesome crime. The allegations are absolutely awful. It sounds like the police walked into this house and it was a virtual house of horrors. This poor man, Mark Uricchio, had been murdered. I mean, there's blood on the walls. He had been mutilated. According to the court documents, his organs were outside of his body. And they're saying, the police are claiming, that Stephen Uricchio said, I murdered him really, really badly. I mean, my God. Obviously, I don't know if anybody else was home at the time. Do we know, was Stephen Uricchio living with his father alone? Or is mom involved and was not there? What do we know,

if anything, about the home life or what the family was doing in that neighborhood or who was there? Things like that. We really don't know a whole lot. Police have been very tight-lipped about this. Again, the information we have about this crime is because it came out in the arraignment report after the arraignment, those court documents. Police haven't said anything. All we know is that they arrived. Apparently, Stephen Uricchio was the one who called 911 and said, I hurt my father. And that came out in the arraignment report. But police, again, only saying that this was a murder and not really giving any other information. We've asked about, was anybody else home at the time? Did anybody else live there? And those questions haven't

been answered. So I think there's a lot of questions about what exactly happened and how this happened. You mentioned before, clearly, Stephen Uricchio's mental state wasn't all there. His attorney did say in court that he has a significant mental health history. He didn't go into the details about what that was exactly, so we don't know. But in the court documents, Stephen Uricchio did tell workers at the hospital that he had been on medication, we don't know what kind, in the past. And it had been a month or two since he had taken any. I remember reading that and thinking to myself, oh, my goodness, he was off his meds. And so when people are off their medication, really awful, bad things can happen.

And then he talked about, too, in the documents, taking like a bottle or a lot of Advil and the hours preceding his visit to the hospital. Why he did that, we just don't know. You know, this has been talked about, this town, Ridgefield, and this neighborhood, that this is a really safe neighborhood. And a lot of times people think, oh my goodness, bad things rarely happen in these safe neighborhoods. And that's true. This is not a high crime area. This is a neighborhood, it looks on your footage to be very, you know, just a suburban neighborhood. And I'm sure people are there with their families, just living their lives. Everybody has issues.

But this had to become as a huge shock. I think I read that this was the first homicide in this town in 20 years or more. And so to have 21 years, 21 years. So to have something like this happen and for it to be so horrific, I mean, that had to be quite a shock. I can't imagine the police in that community are used to dealing with homicides since they haven't had one in 21 years, and then coming upon something like this? Oh, you can only imagine what it was like for them emotionally to walk into that house and see this crime scene. But yeah, Richfield, it's very safe. It's about 25,000 people, very quaint, kind of a quintessential New England town. It's right on the border with New York. It's a very charming downtown. They're known for their holiday stroll that a lot of people go to. And we're talking about a neighborhood that's primarily, this is single family homes,

manicured lawns. This is not an area where police are really ever called to. And crime in that town, we're talking about probably like petty crime. We're not talking about violent crime. So this is truly shocking. One of our producers grew up in Ridgefield and she is just beside herself that something like this happened. We heard the same thing from neighbors. And our producer said when she went to high school, they always talked about, oh, we live in this bubble. It's kind of like Pleasantville, the movie. So something like this happening, I think no one can really wrap their head around it right now. Yeah, it

looked like a very cute, quaint town. And yeah, I mean, I don't think anybody anywhere, no matter what the crime rate would be in a neighborhood could wrap their heads around a man, an 83 year old man being found with his organs laying outside his body and being mutilated. And I just, it'll be interesting to see what comes of this mental health evaluation. Obviously, Stephen Uricchio, according to what's in the documents, knew what he had done. He made admissions once the police got there. He called the police. So he knew what he had done was really bad. Yes, he is accused at this point and enjoys the presumption of innocence.

But there are a lot of admissions that he made in those documents. So what's the next step after the competency evaluation? I mean, obviously, even if they rule he's not or they deem he's not competent, they will take steps to restore his competency and then the process will move forward. Right. I think the hope is for his attorney to be able to get him into Whiting, which is a forensic hospital here that deals with people who have severe mental health issues. And a lot of other cases I've covered, suspects have been sent there and doctors have worked to try to restore their competency to see if they can then move forward with the legal proceedings. His attorney did tell me after, he wouldn't take any questions really about the family dynamic. All he did say was he called this a tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions. And he did say his client, Steven Uricchio, is devastated just as the family is

devastated. You can only imagine what they are all going through trying to understand how this happened. Absolutely. It is devastating and horrible, horrible, horrible thing. And our hearts go out to the family. Marissa Alter, thank you so much. We appreciate your time. Thank you for coming on. Thank you. We really appreciate you having me. Stephen Uricchio's bail was set at $1.5 million. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy.

Thank you so much for joining me. I'll see you back here next time.