Colonia woman allegedly killed while sleeping

• Vito Nigro, 42, has been charged with the death of his ex-wife, Giorgina Nigro of Colonia.
• Giorgina Nigro was found dead inside her Devon Road home on Wednesday.
• The couple has three young children, ages 4, 6 and 10. Their infant son died in January.

WOODBRIDGE – The morning Giorgina Cimino Nigro was killed, she and her ex-husband, Vito Nigro, were scheduled to see a doctor to discuss the death of their infant son earlier this year and other issues.

They never made it to the Wednesday appointment.

Instead, Giorgina Nigro's mother, Angela Cimino, believes that her former son-in-law, who still lived with her daughter, took their two young daughters, ages 6 and 4, to a day-care center, returned to the home and allegedly killed her daughter as she slept.

Giorgina Nigro, 32, died at 10:01 a.m. Wednesday from blunt-force and sharp-force trauma, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey. The type of weapon used was not disclosed.

"She was a pretty girl, my last little girl. She was a princess," Cimino said about the youngest of her six children.

On Thursday, Vito Nigro, 42, was charged with his ex-wife's murder and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. He is being held at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where is listed in stable condition. His bail has been set at $750,000.

Vito Nigro allegedly tried to commit suicide and was injured when he jumped onto the Garden State Parkway on Wednesday, sources said. Cimino alleges that Vito Nigro also jumped onto the highway about five years ago and survived.

"He deserves to be charged. I don't know exactly what went wrong. I feel bad I wasn't there to stop it," said Cimino, a California resident who stayed with her daughter for three weeks in January after the sudden death of her infant grandson, Angelo.

Cimino said she expects to arrive in New Jersey on Friday.

Cimino said she learned about her daughter's death Wednesday. Her oldest daughter, who lives in New Jersey, was contacted by Vito Nigro's mother. Although Cimino's oldest daughter was initially told Giorgina was missing, when she went to the house, she learned that her sister had been killed.

Cimino's adult grandson on Wednesday saw blood on the couch in the Devon Road home in the Colonia section of the township where the couple lived.

Cimino said her daughter was strong.

"She could have struggled and gotten away if she was awake," she said, adding that her daughter carried pepper spray. "My daughter was a sweet, smart young lady. For the children, she stayed. Giorgina was loving and sweet. She didn't know what to do about the kids."

Working together at hair salon

Cimino said she last spoke to her daughter on Monday. When she called her daughter on Tuesday at work, the European Hair Designs salon off Oak Tree Road in South Plainfield, Vito Nigro answered and wouldn't let her talk with her daughter.

"He was very controlling," Cimino said.

Two workers at the shop Thursday morning declined comment. The salon is believed to be owned by Vito Nigro's mother. A customer entering the shop said she was "heartbroken" over Giorgina Nigro's death.

"He (Vito) was always around here," said Leo Riu, manager of Angel Tips, a nail salon located near the hair salon.

He said he knew Vito Nigro only to say hello.

"She (Giorgina) was nice. She always came here for her nails," he said.

An Edison woman, a longtime customer who declined to give her name, described Giorgina Nigro as a "dedicated mother."

"She was the best at what she did. She was a bright woman beyond being a hairdresser, but she loved doing hair," she said.

Cimino said her daughter, who married in 2001, had had a rocky relationship over the years with Vito Nigro. She said the two met when her daughter, a former Illinois resident, moved to New Jersey to live with her older sister who worked at the hair salon with Vito Nigro.

They married when Giorgina Nigro was just 18.

"We weren't happy about it. He was a lot older. He was her first man. He was not the right person for her," said Cimino, who alleges that her daughter's ex-husband introduced her to drugs (which she later overcame), threatened and abused her and played too rough with the children.

"Everybody was afraid. He beat her. We had to be nice to him so it wouldn't get worse. I couldn't say too much or he would take it out on the kids," she said. "She tried to leave him."

Cimino said the couple divorced about five years ago and lived separately for a while but were living together at the time of her death.

She said Vito Nigro tried to kill her daughter with a knife about a year and half ago and was stopped by the couple's young son. Vito Nigro was arrested and later released after his mother bailed him out. Afterward, he went to classes for anger management, Cimino said.

Cimino said the couple struggled after the death of their infant son in January. She said her daughter was depressed but got help. Her daughter told her that Vito Nigro said he wanted to die.

Cimino questions if Vito Nigro planned to kill her daughter. She said he took the couple's 10-year-old son to his mother's home Tuesday to spend the night. The boy had not returned home when his father returned from dropping his 6-year-old and 4-year-old sisters at the day-care center.

Cimino said her oldest daughter, who lives in New Jersey, has custody of the three children. She said she wants the children to be with family members who love them.

Anyone with information about Giorgina's Nigro's death is asked to call Woodbridge Detective Andrew Kondracki at 732-634-7700 or Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office Detective Craig Marchak at 732-745-3254.

Staff Writer Suzanne Russell: 732-565-7335; srussell@mycentraljersey.com