WWE expresses its continued sympathy to the Argentino family for their loss. He was admitted into the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame in 1996, according to the organization's website. Nicknamed "Superfly," the Fiji native was known for diving from the ropes and even the top of steel cages in a career that spanned four decades. "They did the right thing in face of all the evidence." "I think that it's been a long road," Argentino-Upham said. I never hit Nancy or threatened her."Īrgentino's sister, Louise Argentino-Upham, told The Morning Call that the charges came as a relief, especially the prospect that her mother, who turns 90 this year, may see justice in the case. To this day, I get nasty notes and threats. "This has been very hard on me and very hard on my family. "Many terrible things have been written about me hurting Nancy and being responsible for her death, but they are not true," he wrote in his 2012 autobiography. Snuka, now 72 and living in Waterford Township, N.J., has long maintained his innocence, saying the episode had ruined his life. The grand jury also said it heard evidence that Snuka beat Argentino in a hotel room in Syracuse, New York, in January 1983 - four months before her death - and repeatedly assaulted his wife, Sharon, in the fall of 1993. The grand jury's report said Snuka had provided more than a half-dozen shifting accounts of Argentino's injuries, at first telling paramedics he hit her during an argument outside their hotel room and that she struck her head on concrete, then claiming to police she slipped and fell during a bathroom break on their way to the hotel. Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin told the paper last year that Argentino's sisters approached him after the story ran, prompting him to give the case another look. But the investigation went cold.Ī June 2013 investigation by The Morning Call of Allentown raised questions about the case. At the time, forensic pathologist Isidore Mihalakis wrote that the case should be investigated as a homicide until proven otherwise, according to a grand jury report released Tuesday. She was pronounced dead at a hospital several hours later.Īn autopsy determined she died of traumatic brain injuries and had more than three dozen cuts and bruises, and concluded her injuries were consistent with being hit with a stationary object. Snuka, who had been at a World Wrestling Federation taping at the Allentown Fairgrounds, told police shortly after Argentino's death that he had returned to the couple's Whitehall Township hotel room to find her unresponsive in bed. Prosecutors in Lehigh County announced the results of a grand jury investigation into the death of Nancy Argentino, 23, of New York.
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Former professional wrestling star Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka was charged Tuesday with third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the death of his girlfriend more than three decades ago. He was reportedly fighting stomach cancer just this summer.ALLENTOWN, Pa. Snuka is currently a member of the WWE Hall of Fame, inducted in 1996. The Argentino family won a $500,000 civil judgment against Snuka in 1985 but he failed to pay that amount citing financial woes. The wrestler was charged four months previously for assaulting the woman in New York hotel room and being combative against police who were called to the scene. She died the next day in a local hospital. He returned to the Whitehall Township motel room and said he found the woman struggling to breathe and reported yellow fluid flowing from her mouth and nose. Snuka told investigators in 1983 that he had been at a WWF taping at the Allentown Fairgrounds on May 10, 1983. 2014.Īn expansive investigation by The Morning Call kept the case alive. The case went before a grand jury in Jan.
His bond was set at $100,000, according to Lehigh county officials.Īn autopsy report obtained by the outlet noted that Argentino had suffered multiple cuts and contusions on her entire body, with the woman dying of traumatic brain injuries consistent with a moving head striking a stationary object.Īrgentino's family had pressured officials for years into reopening the case. According to Allentown newspaper The Morning Call, the 72-year-old ex-wrestler was arrested and charged on Tuesday morning after being located in a New Jersey hotel room.