Man Commits Double Murder Because He ‘Couldn’t Take’ His Pregnant Girlfriend Anymore

A New Jersey man who killed his girlfriend and her mother in cold blood later admitted he committed the crime because he felt like “a little puppet on the string.”

Shortly after 3 a.m. on Sept. 30, 2009, a seemingly distraught Nicholas Nigro III phoned 911 and said he found his pregnant girlfriend, Paula Mulder, 21, and her 48-year-old mother, MariJane Buri, hurt inside their blood-covered Egg Harbor Township home and begged the dispatcher to send help.

Responding officers found Nigro, 25, outside the residence and the two victims shot to death in separate bedrooms inside.

Several hours later, police interviewed Nigro at the station. Video shows Nigro initially claimed he and his girlfriend enjoyed a great relationship. “It’s hard to meet somebody like that,” he told detectives of Mulder, who he said was his fiancée.

He added he and his future mother-in-law, Buri, also got along well with each other and insisted he had no idea why the pair would be targeted for murder.

When asked who could have wanted to harm the pair, Nigro mentioned an alleged local drug dealer known as “Fresh” and told detectives he owed the man $600.

Detectives, however, doubted the victims were killed over a drug debt and accused Nigro of crying fake tears and being involved in the slayings. “You put the gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger,” one detective said.

After investigators put more pressure on Nigro by telling him they were also interviewing his family, he appeared to become increasingly agitated that his attempts to control the situation were failing.

He finally cracked.

In a shock move, Nigro told a detective he committed the crime and asked to be arrested, claiming “pain” drove him to kill. “I’m breaking. I’m stepping up to the plate, like a man,” he said.

Nigro then detailed how he first killed Buri, the mother, because he wanted Mulder to hear her die.

“She turned my life upside down,” an emotionless Nigro alleged of his girlfriend.

Claiming Mulder was out to get him and the situation had been building for two years, Nigro said that “rather than just breaking up,” he shot her because he “couldn’t take her anymore.”

“She kept playing me for a fool, like I was a little puppet on the string,” he added.

In May 2011, Nigro was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to a total of 125 years behind bars.

“This is without a doubt the most cruel, depraved, cowardly set of acts I've ever seen,” Superior Court Judge Michael Donio said of the slayings.

Stream episodes of Signs of a Psychopath now on discovery+.