RIDGEFIELD, N.J. (WPIX)—
A murder suspect is in the hospital after he tried to commit suicide after killing his ex-girlfriend, according to Ridgefield, New Jersey police. But it was the end of a story that even veteran cops call bizarre.They cornered their suspect, 30 year-old David Goodell, after a collision and car chase. It ended on a short street that has seen a high-profile murder in the past, and also ended with a grisly discovery that surprised investigators.
Police say they got calls from Ridgefield residents Monday afternoon saying that a man was bleeding profusely in the parking lot of Ridgefield Park High School.
When police arrived to investigate, they say Goodell jumped into his car and rammed it into a police cruiser. Police say he then led them on a car chase that ended about a mile-and-a-half away on Elizabeth Street, a two-block dead-end residential cul-de-sac.
There, cops were able to get Goodell to come out of the car and into an ambulance, which transported the badly bleeding man to Hackensack University Medical Center for treatment for box cutter slashes to his wrists. He had apparently tried to commit suicide.
When police went to search Goodell's car, they got a big shock. The body of his ex-girlfriend, 21 year-old Viviana Tulli, was in the passenger's seat. She had been strangled, and details as to how long her body had been there and how long she had been dead have not yet been released.
"She was my baby, my baby, my princess," Tulli's mother, Luz, said exclusively to PIX 11 News.
A friend who had come to the Tulli's home in Garfield to comfort the family told PIX 11 News that Viviana was very popular and very trusting. She said that Goodell told Tulli that he would kill her, but Viviana did not believe him.
The small street where the car chase ended has seen similar tragedy in the past.
In September 1999, 39-year-old Gladys Ricart was murdered in a home on Elizabeth Street on her wedding day. She was wearing her bridal gown and a tiara and was taking pictures with her family when her ex-boyfriend, Augustin Garcia, burst into her home and unloaded a .38-caliber revolver into her.
Garcia is serving a sentence of life in prison for the murder that took place in a home just 100 yards from where police arrested David Goodell.
Goodell now faces a murder charge -- the same charge for which Augustin Garcia was convicted. The Bergen County prosecutor is expected to file other felony charges against Goodell after he is released from the hospital.
