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© Julia Malakie/Lowell SunChristopher Piantedosi at his arraignment Monday in Woburn District Court in the murder of his girlfriend.
US - New Hampshire's so-called "Remorseful Robber" is accused of stabbing his girlfriend 34 times in a brutal murder that was witnessed by his daughter's friend who was in the middle of a video chat on an iPad at the time of the killing, a prosecutor said.

Details of the gruesome murder were revealed Monday morning when Christopher Piantedosi, 39, of Methuen, Mass., was ordered held without bail at his arraignment on a murder charge in Woburn District Court.

Piantedosi, who last year admitted to stealing a New Hampshire woman's wallet and other items and later returning them with a note of apology, said nothing and stared at the floor as Middlesex County Assistant District Attorney Nicole Allain described how he repeatedly stabbed his longtime girlfriend, Kristen Pulisciano, 38, in front of their 15-year-old daughter last Thursday night at her Burlington, Mass., home.

The murder followed his arrest by Plaistow, N.H., police last summer after he stole from a woman's purse at a Plaistow Market Basket on July 18.

Piantedosi later mailed the wallet back to her and then showed up at her house to return her $90, plus an extra $10, wrapped up in an apology letter along with her stolen GPS and a new charger. Piantedosi signed the letter "Stupid" and was later dubbed the "remorseful robber" by police.

On the night of the killing, Allain said the couple's daughter called 911 to report that her father had stabbed her mother, and when Burlington police officers arrived they saw blood-covered sheets in the daughter's bedroom and Pulisciano's "lifeless body" wedged between the bed and the wall. She was "covered in blood" and had a knife protruding from her neck, Allain said.

Piantedosi, who told a court clinician that he suffers from bipolar disorder and attempted suicide on April 29, has been living with his parents for the past six weeks. He arrived at the Burlington home where he used to live with Pulisciano around 6 p.m. Thursday.

While Pulisciano was waiting for dinner to be delivered that night, the daughter was having a video chat on her iPad with a friend in her bedroom.

During her video chat session, she could hear her parents arguing in the kitchen. She told her friend that she would "be right back" and left the iPad video chat running.

"She went down into the kitchen and she saw her father, the defendant, grab a knife out of the kitchen. Her mother was able to speak to the defendant. He gave her the knife. The daughter then made a comment to the defendant, 'What are you trying to kill Mom or something?'" Allain said.

At that point, she said Piantedosi grabbed a butcher knife and followed after Pulisciano, who had gone into her daughter's bedroom.

The daughter's friend, who was still logged into the video-chat session, saw Pulisciano come into the bedroom, close the door and hold her body against it to stop Piantedosi from opening it, Allain said.

Piantedosi then kicked in the bedroom door and threw Pulisciano on the bed, where he began stabbing her with the butcher knife, Allain said. The killing was visible to the daughter's friend through the video chat, Alllain said.

"He could hear the victim saying, 'Please, please.' He could hear the daughter yelling, 'No. No.' He then heard the defendant say, 'You gotta die. You gotta die.' He then heard the victim say, 'Chris, please stop. I love you' and then the defendant began stabbing Kristen numerous times," Allain said.

The daughter's friend on the video chat told police he could hear Pulisciano's voice getting softer and then saw her fall to the floor between the bed and the wall.

Piantedosi allegedly fled the murder scene and tossed his cell phone and bloody clothes in a Dumpster in Leominster, Mass., and after a night on the run, showed up outside the Massachusetts State Police barracks in Weston, Mass., Friday around 1 p.m. A state police sergeant saw him on the ground outside the barracks, realized it was Piantedosi, and arrested him.

During a search of his car, police found two handwritten notes on the dashboard.

One note said, "Unarmed. Just have to sleep." Another note said, "I put knife on table. Continued talking. She grabbed again. I grabbed a bigger one. Went at it in front of daughter. No, no, no, no."