One of the NYC morgues in Midtown East – Photo: Andrés Correa Guatarasma / Courtesy.
Luca Nogaris and Alessio Picelli, two Italian partners on a business trip to New York, were found dead of suspected overdoses in their basement Airbnb rental in Long Island City, Queens.
Police were called to the building on 29th Street near 40th Street around 2:45 a.m. Wednesday and found the victims dead, identified by Italian media as 38-year-old Nogaris and 48-year-old Picelli.
Luca e Alessio trovati morti a New York: l’ipotesi https://t.co/vSlrKqoCtg da @Today_it pic.twitter.com/67vfsnYF6I
— Roma Today (@romatoday) August 12, 2022
A drug known as paraphernalia was found near their bodies, police sources said. The city’s medical examiner is yet to complete autopsies to determine how they died.
According to the Italian press, the two men were partners in a home furnishings business. The craftsman Nogaris and the furniture designer Picelli were natives of Rovigo, about 50 miles from Venice. The two were in New York on a business trip, he stressed. DailyNews.
Their bodies were found in a three-story building in the shadow of towering new developments nearby Long Island City. Residents there said several of the eight units are rented month to month, and the basement unit guests were merchants from Italy.
“We get people from everywhere,” said Daniel Alves, 37, who helps maintain the building. He said he didn’t know anything was wrong there until he saw the men leaving in body bags.
According to a source, the two men had worked for the Italian designer Achille Salvagni at an ultra-luxury townhouse renovation project on the Upper East Side. A representative for the design company declined to comment.
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