In the early hours of Friday morning, police interrupted a 32-year-old man, Nicholas Scurria, as he was allegedly dismembering his girlfriend’s body.
Scurria was charged with first and third-degree murder in addition to weapons charges and abuse of a corpse. All charges relate to his girlfriend’s killing, People reports.
The Victim’s Name Has Yet to Be Released as Authorities Have Been Unable to Contact the Deceased’s Family.
The victim’s name is still being withheld as police have not yet been able to notify her family.
911 calls were first made at 4:15 AM on Friday. One caller, who was later identified as a neighbor, said they woke up to “loud screaming in the neighboring apartment and also heard banging. It became quiet and [they] heard sawing-like sounds and the gathering or shifting of plastic materials.”
Shortly after arriving on the scene, police traveled “around the apartment to the north side and observed from outside the bedroom window a white male […] seated on a mattress […] cutting/sawing a female victim’s left leg with a machete.”
According to the affidavit, officers also noticed the victim’s decapitated head on the floor.
Police broke into Scurria’s apartment and apprehended him, placing him inside an idling police vehicle. According to police, the 32-year-old “made unsolicited statements” to officers, “repeating, ‘She tried to cut my balls off.'”
In addition, Scurria told police that he lived with the victim despite their relationship being over.
“The defendant stated that during the argument, he knocked the victim unconscious after repeatedly striking her in the head,” the affidavit states. “The defendant admitted he attempted to get rid of the evidence by dismembering various parts of the victim’s body.”
Jack Stollsteimer, a Deleware County District Attorney, released a statement following the suspect’s arrest and characterized the incident as “horrific” and “a sad reminder of the threat that many women face on a daily basis.”
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Nicholas Scurria Has Yet to Enter a Formal Guilty Plea.
“Preliminary indications are that the victim and the defendant formerly had a romantic relationship and were — at the time of the murder — sharing a residence,” the DA explained. “Based on the defendant’s statements at the time of his arrest, in response to what the defendant perceived as a threat to his masculinity, he brutally killed — and then dismembered — his victim. His actions were cowardly as well as evil, and he will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
“We must continue to look for ways to support women against the danger of domestic violence,” Stollsteimer also stated.
Although officers allege that Scurria confessed to the killing, a formal plea has not been submitted.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org.