Did “Superfly” do it?
A Pennsylvania grand jury will reopen and investigate the 31-year-old death of Nancy Argentino, who was then the girlfriend of WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka.
The Lehigh County jury will look into what happened May 10, 1983, when the 23-year-old brunette beauty, a Brooklyn native, ended up dead.
“I think it’s important to have a grand jury take a look at it and we’ll see what they think,” District Attorney Jim Martin told the Allentown Morning Call on Tuesday.
The announcement comes seven months after the newspaper revealed an autopsy report and interviews never seen by the public that revealed Argentino died of “traumatic brain injuries consistent with a moving head striking a stationary object.”
There were also signs of domestic violence on the woman’s body, the autopsy report showed, including more than two dozen cuts and bruises from her head to her feet.
The autopsy report determined the death was a homicide, but no one was ever arrested.
Snuka was at one point a “person of interest” in the case but never charged, the Morning Call reported.
In 1985, the woman’s family won a $500,000 wrongful death case against Snuka, but he claimed he had no money and never paid a cent.
Argentino was rushed from the couple’s Allentown motel room the day she died with yellow fluid gushing from her nose and mouth as she gasped for air.
She died at a hospital hours later.
Snuka gave cops inconsistent statements. He first said he pushed her and she fell and hit her head.
But the Fijian native, whom was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1996, later said she slipped on the side of a highway after the couple stopped to urinate.
Autopsy reports showed the woman had no gravel or other material consistent with a fall on a concrete roadway, the newspaper reported.
Snuka, now 70 and living in New Jersey, wrote in his 2012 autobiography that rumors he killed Argentino ruined his life.
The married Snuka called the woman his “East Coast girlfriend” in the book.
Known for his signature “Superfly Splash” while in the ring, Snuka, a hulking 235-pounds and nearly 6-feet tall, was accused of assaulting the woman five months before her death.
He later pleaded guilty to lesser charges.
Martin, the district attorney, told the newspaper that “there’s no question it’s going to be a difficult case” because of the 31-year time lapse.
Argentino’s family was thrilled with the news.
“I’m kind of in, like, total shock,” Lorraine Salome, the woman’s older sister, told the Morning Call. “This is something that should have happened 30-some-odd years ago. But at least it’s happening now.”
The semiretired Snuka did not return a Morning Call request for comment.
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