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Comment by ALittleLight | Hacker News Reader

I know the article says the landlord and actress were friendly, but if I were the police I'd look into connections between the driver of the car that killed the actress and the landlord. I'd also want video or eyewitness testimony of the accident.

Murdering someone in a car "accident" seems like a good method for not getting caught. "It was an accident! So sorry!". The financial benefit to the landlord seems 5,000 a month and people have likely been killed for less.

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Had me curious if you could put the NYC rent-controlled apartment rate in a will. Apparently not. But, you can pass control to a family member if they live with you for 2 years. So, technically, it could go on forever.

https://www1.nyc.gov/site/rentguidelinesboard/resources/succ...

Is a tenant allowed to add their own bathroom, paint and ‘modernise’, or more accurately de-slum the place? If not, I’m not sure I see the appeal. It’s an interesting story but that is a terrible apartment.

https://www1.nyc.gov/site/rentguidelinesboard/resources/repa...

Basically looks like "no", unless the landlord approves it. Though I suspect, in practice, you would get away with anything that didn't bother the neighbors or made the landlord notice. Like repainting, or new carpet, both being relatively quiet work. As you say, though, that particular apartment probably needs more work than that.

The wild speculation seems unwarranted. The driver stayed at the scene and talked to the police, this is easy to Google.

I understand cynicism in the current environment, but we're talking publicly about individual real people, with no evidence of criminal intent (the article suggests the opposite, if anything).

that does not make sense. if he wanted her dead he would have not waited so long

The current landlord took over in 2002 - that's 12 years. In that time he could have first tried asking her, second tried making her feel guilty and or befriending her to get her to leave. His financial situation could have degraded, he could have come up with the idea or needed connection, and he could have built up the resolve to actually do it.

I'm not saying I think it's certain, I don't even think it's more likely than not. However, I think it's suspicious enough that it would be worth it to look into and rule things out.

As NYC rents go up, the incentive gets bigger.

Maybe it just tipped over his threshold.

He seems to be welcoming the publicity, or at leat not avoiding it. He didn't need to give a tour.

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