Photo: Clifton Heights Police Department
Officers in Pennsylvania responded to a gruesome crime scene early Friday (February 11) morning outside of Philadelphia. Officials in Clifton Heights said they received a report of a domestic disturbance after a neighbor reported hearing screaming and banging coming from a nearby apartment.
After a few minutes, the apartment became eerily quiet, and the neighbor could hear the "gathering or shifting of plastic material." When officers arrived, they discovered 32-year-old Nicholas Scurria sitting on a mattress, sawing off the leg of his decapitated girlfriend.
"It's shocking to me, and it's shocking to everybody else that this had to happen in our hometown," Bill Mehok, who lives nearby, told WPVI.
Scurria told investigators that the two got into a fight and that he "knocked the victim unconscious after repeatedly striking her in the face/head areas." He then admitted to dismembering her body so he could dispose of her remains.
He was taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder, third-degree murder, criminal possession of a weapon, and abuse of a corpse.
"I've been an officer for 32 years; this is absolutely horrible," said Clifton Heights Police Chief Timothy Rockenbach. "I don't even know what words I could describe to you how actually incredibly insane this is, especially in my town."