Police and Neighbors: Mehovics' Son Witnessed Slaying

The 16-year-old knew his father wasn’t supposed to be at their West Street home in Southington.

So when Nurija Mehovic began fighting with his 37-year-old ex-wife, the teen's mother, on Saturday morning, he attempted to step in.

The older of two sons watched as his father grabbed ex-wife Saudina Mehovic by the hair, shot her in the side and then slashed her throat with a knife, neighbors said, their accounts confirmed by police sources. 

“He tried to intervene but there was nothing he could do,” said neighbor Geoffrey Meissner, who took the couple's two children inside. “He tried to stop a car that drove by while the youngest boy ran to our yard yelling for help.”

The couple's 14-year-old son screamed for help just moments after Meissner and his wife said they heard a loud bang outside their home. The two were watching television and looked outside to find him in the yard.

“He kept repeating that his father had shot his mother,” Meissner said. “We were worried about his safety so we took him inside. We found the oldest boy in the street trying to stop a car and brought him in as well.”

By Sunday morning, there was little activity in the usually quiet neighborhood located at the south end of West Street in Southington's Village of Plantsville, but neighbors said it would be hard to put behind the memories of what happened.

Police are continuing to investigate what led to what they have classified now as a murder-suicide. 

Nurija Mehovic, 48, was found a short time later near a nature classroom set up in the thick woods behind the Plantsville Elementary School.

Southington Police Sgt. Lowell DePalma said  show Nurija confronted his ex-wife in front of the home, shot and stabbed her before proceeding into the wooded area behind the home, where he shot himself.

Both were later pronounced dead as a result of the injuries at the Hospital of Central Connecticut, Bradley campus. 

The last homicide in Southington was in 2007.

“It was very tough on the boys,” Meissner said. “They kept wanting to go see their mother, but we didn’t know what was happening and had to keep them inside. They didn’t find out until after lunchtime that both their parents had died.”

It was a violent end to a turbulent relationship for the couple, who moved to America from Bosnia when the 16-year-old was just a baby. Saudina Mehovic, whose maiden name is Skorupan, left her family behind to come to America. The boys’ paternal grandmother lives in the Netherlands.

Saudina Mehovic, who worked at the UConn Health Center in Farmington, filed for divorce in 2009 and the couple went back and forth before the divorce was finalized almost year ago. But the drama didn’t end there.

A court battle ensued and contempt motions were filed, including one in April 2011, according to records available on the state’s judicial website.

Even after the divorce, Nurija Mehovic had a hard time letting go. On his MySpace profile, he maintained photo albums dedicated to his family that included multiple pictures of Saudina as well as Photoshopped images of her on the cover of Vogue magazine.

He also maintained a Youtube channel under the name PoemsNurija that dedicated poetry and songs to her. The latest, posted in November 2010, included a picture of the two of them together with the song “For the Rest of My Life.”

Friends of the family, many of whom were from the UConn Health Center, gathered outside the home in a parking lot at the corner of West Street and West Main Street both Saturday and Sunday, many in tears as they grieved over the death of Saudina Mehovic.

They declined comment.

The state Department of Children and Families is working to provide proper homes for the two boys.

Meissner, the neighbor, said despite witnessing the incident, the older teen has remained strong — even stoic.

“I was walking my dog this morning and it’s like nothing ever happened,” he said. “But you look at the house and it’s something you will never forget.”