US News

SHE WASN’T SUICIDAL – ACTRESS’ MOTHER: NO WAY SHE HANGED SELF

The mother of indie-film star Adrienne Shelly broke down in grief yesterday, insisting that she cannot accept that her beautiful actress daughter hanged herself inside a Greenwich Village apartment last week.

“What a terrible thing to say – my daughter would never kill herself,” exclaimed a teary-eyed Elaine Langbaum, as family members tried to hold her back from speaking to the press at her home in Jericho, L.I.

Police sources said detectives were still investigating the death yesterday, but that they had not found any evidence to indicate Shelly’s death was anything other than a suicide.

They will not close the case, however, until after a medical examiner’s report is completed. That process could take days or weeks, sources said.

The body of the 40-year-old mother and film star, who appeared in the 1990 cult classic “Trust,” was found Wednesday dangling from a shower rod over a tub inside an apartment that she used as an office.

Her husband, a marketing executive who is known in liberal political circles for a political blog and public access talk show, found her at about 6 p.m. Spouse Andrew Ostroy, who has a 3-year-old daughter with Shelly, was questioned by cops for nearly five hours, police sources said. He could not be reached for comment yesterday.

A police source said there was no history of domestic violence between the couple.

Police sources also said detectives believe there was a suicide note, but that it may have been removed from the scene.

Shelly’s mom, however, isn’t the only member of her family who doubts she took her own life. A cousin told The Post on Thursday said that she seemed happy and gave no indication she was troubled enough to kill herself.

A source at the West Village building where she died told The Post yesterday that he was the last person to see her alive – just a few hours before she was found. He agreed she did not look suicidal.

“She was happy, really happy,” said the man. “We talked for a bit about Halloween mostly. I said ‘How was your Halloween?’ She said ‘It was great, I took my daughter [Sophie] trick-ortreating.

She was Cinderella.

We worked really hard on her costume. She looked really cute.’ “She was smiling, asking about how I was, which was nice,” the source said.