Staten Island victim in suspected murder-suicide was looking forward to marriage

A Staten Island woman who months ago met her boyfriend on a dating website was excited to soon marry hiim — but now cops are investigating the couple’s deaths as a murder-suicide.

The heartbroken family of Priscilla Scarpati, 36, said she and James Guidone, 37, planned to start a family. Their decomposing bodies were found inside Guidone’s multi-generational family home on on Amador St. near Amity Place in Graniteville about 12:25 p.m. Tuesday.

“She told us he was always talking about killing himself,” Scarpati’s mother said Wednesday, soon after authorities informed the family they had identified Scarpati as the dead woman by her fingerprints.

Scarpati had been stabbed multiple times while Guidone’s body showed no obvious signs of trauma, cops said. Scarpati’s beloved cat was also found dead in the house.

Cops believe Guidone murdered his fiancee and then somehow killed himself. The city Medical Examiner is conducting autopsies on both victims.

“It seems totally out of character,” Guidone’s cousin George Guzman, 67, said. “It’s hard to believe he would do that. I would never think that he’s that kind of kid who would stab somebody like that.”

A week earlier, Guidone’s great-aunt received a panicked call from Scarpati saying Guidone had held a knife to his throat and threatened to kill himself.

“When he had the knife to his throat he said, ‘I think she might be pregnant now and if she’s pregnant I’m not going to be here for the baby,’” said Barbara Seegitz, Guidone’s great-aunt’s partner.

Scarpati’s family said Wednesday they do not believe she was pregnant.

Seegitz and her partner Laura Guidone hurried over to the home and were able to calm Guidone.

Guidone’s life had been spiraling in recent years. He was falsely accused of stealing his grandfather’s wallet and after his arrest he tested positive for drugs, according to his family. He beat the theft charge, his family says, but the drug results caused him to lose his job as an MTA bus driver.

The family and neighbors say Guidone never used drugs but relatives in the house did heavily, causing him to test positive.

Guidone’s grandfather, who owned the house, passed away in the spring from complications of dementia.

The victim and Guidone were sharing the house with Guidone’s father, Anthony Guidone Sr. and brother, Anthony Guidone Jr.

In February 2023, Anthony Jr. climbed naked to the roof of the two-story family home and engaged in an hours-long standoff with police that ended when he leapt onto a crash mat set up cops below, family and neighbors say.

Court records show he Anthony Jr. was arrested that month on a slew of charges including assault, weapon possession, criminal contempt and menacing. He is being held without bail for that case and two others.

Anthony Guidone Sr. is serving time on Rikers Island for a conviction on an unknown charge.

That left James Guidone and his fiancee living alone in the house.

After not hearing from James Guidone for several days, Laura Guidone and Guzman went over to the home on Tuesday. Being unable to gain entrance to the house, they called police who found Scarpati and Guidone in an advanced state of decay.

“We’d been calling him, he’s not answering the phone. I call the girlfriend, she’s not answering,” said Guzman. “We check the door. We check the back door. We check all the windows. Everything is locked.”

“When they opened the door I smelled the smell of death,” Guzman added of when cops came.

Days later, two families are shocked and trying to make sense of the tragedy.

“I’m trying to keep myself calm,” Laura Guidone said. “It’s hard.”

With Thomas Tracy