By Jennifer Barrios
Newsday (New York)
Copyright 2007 Newsday, Inc.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The man who killed a former New York City firefighter from Long Island stole his valuable coin collection and sold it for about $18,000 to an unwitting California coin dealer, police in Scottsdale, Ariz., said yesterday.
In their final public statement, police said robbery appears to have been the motive in the slaying of Salvatore Princiotta.
Jeff Bigham, 56, wanted Princiotta’s valuable coin collection. So the Californian traveled to Princiotta’s Scottsdale home, shot the retired firefighter four times, and took it, according to police.
Besides selling the collection, Bigham also gave the California dealer a large commemorative Elvis stamp that he had stolen from Princiotta’s home, telling the dealer to try to sell it for him.
Princiotta’s body was discovered after relatives, alarmed that they hadn’t heard from him earlier this month, asked a nephew who attended school nearby to check on Princiotta.
The nephew, 21, also named Salvatore Princiotta, went to the condo on May 14, where he found the door locked, the house neat and orderly - and his uncle’s body on his bedroom floor.
The safe was unlocked, the collection gone. Princiotta had moved to Scottsdale last winter, hoping that the desert air would help the breathing conditions he developed after working at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Princiotta and Bigham, who met at a Las Vegas convention, spoke by phone almost every day in the days leading up to Princiotta’s death, police said.
Family members told police that they suspected a man named “Jeff” was involved in his slaying.
On May 25, police found Bigham at a motel in San Bernardino, Calif. When cornered, Bigham shot and killed himself.
Yesterday, Princiotta’s brother, Chuck Princiotta, said he credited his son with noticing the safe and alerting authorities. But the news that police had definitively linked Bigham to the crime was bittersweet.
“It only hammers home the unbelievable point that someone would murder somebody for some coins and a stamp,” Chuck Princiotta said.