Pro wrestler Anthony Durante, right, poses with "Pitbulls" tag-team partner Gary Wolfe during their ECW days. Durante and his girlfriend Dianna Hulsey were found dead Thursday in their Misquamicut home.
CHIEF: CHARGES 'NOT LIKELY' IN COUPLE'S DEATHS
BY RYAN BLESSING - THE SUN STAFF
WESTERLY - Authorities say it is unlikely that criminal charges will ever be filed in connection with the apparent fatal overdoses of a Misquamicut couple last week.
"We can't rule it out, but it's not likely," Police Chief Stephen N. Baker said Saturday.
Baker said it could be several weeks before the state medical examiner's office releases a toxicology report confirming what drugs may have led to the deaths of a professional wrestler and his girlfriend when the couple died in their 3 Linwood Ave. rental home.
Detectives continue to investigate how Anthony Durante, 36, and Dianna Hulsey, 29, died in the living room of the house on Linwood Avenue. A relative of Durante's found the bodies Thursday. The couple's two children were also in the house, where authorities believe the victims lay dead for more than a day. The children, a 21-month-old boy and an 8-month-old girl, were unharmed, though they were taken to and treated at The Westerly Hospital.
Authorities announced Friday that the couple appeared to have overdosed on drugs, and that police found a latent needle and evidence of the prescription painkiller OxyContin near the bodies, Baker said.
As to whether the investigation would result in criminal charges, Baker reiterated there is no evidence a third party is tied to the deaths. Baker also said there were no telltale signs of a suicide, such as a note, in the house. Neither victim showed signs of trauma, an autopsy shows Friday, but the bodies did exhibit needle marks associated with drug use, Baker said.
The couple and their children were not well known in the Misquamicut neighborhood, having apparently moved there three weeks ago, sources said. They reportedly moved to Rhode Island from Philadelphia last November and stayed with Durante's family.
Durante gained a measure of fame as a professional wrestler in the early to mid 1990s, working out of the Extreme Championship Wrestling federation, based in Philadelphia.
Dave Meltzer, editor and publisher of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter -- a California-based publication for wrestling fans that provides extensive "real-world" coverage of the industry behind the scenes -- recalled that Durante "was something of a star" in the early days of ECW. The Philadelphia company gained almost a cult following because it presented shows with far more intensity and more dangerous stunts than the more mainstream World Wrestling Federation, now World Wrestling Entertainment, based in Stamford, Conn.
Durante was paired with Gary Wolfe in a tag team billed as the Pitbulls, with Wolfe taking the moniker "Pitbull No. 1" and Durante as "Pitbull No. 2." And the team became the ECW's tag-team champions in 1995, Meltzer said. Another pro wrestling Web site indicates that "Pitbull No. 2" became ECW's "television" champion in 1996.
But while Durante had been a "regular" with the ECW almost from the start in 1993, Meltzer said, he was dropped by the company in late 1997 or early 1998 after he and Wolfe were arrested on drug charges, according to reports.
Those charges included allegations of steroid possession and distribution filed in 1995 and again in 1997, records show. Durante pleaded guilty to conspiracy to selling marijuana and methenolone -- an anabolic steroid -- in 1998 and was sentenced to three years' probation. It is unclear how the 1995 charges were resolved.
A European-based Web site also indicates that Durante, again in the Pitbulls tag team as "Pitbull No. 2," wrestled in Japan and worked as JAPW's heavyweight champion in 1997, then returned to the U.S. later that year.
He had no criminal record in Rhode Island, officials have said.
Police are not certain how Hulsey and Durante were related or how long they had been together.
Hulsey worked at the Westerly Wal-Mart and has relatives in the Baltimore area; Durante had been employed at Foxwoods Resort Casino.
The state Department of Children, Youth and Families took temporary custody of the children, who will probably be turned over to local relatives, Baker said.