After several hours of interrogation, a 17-year-old boy confessed to killing his father, mother and 12-year-old brother in the house where they lived in Paderno Dugnano, in the northern suburbs of Milan. It is not the first time that the children themselves have killed their parents: sometimes still minors, there have been several cases in which they have massacred their parents and often even their siblings, with a coldness and violence that have left the police and public opinion stunned.
In Italy, 43% of murders are committed within the home, a percentage that in the north becomes one in two. According to the latest data from the Ministry of the Interior, from the beginning of the year to August 25, 186 murders were committed in Italy and of these 88 occurred within the family, almost 50%. A long trail of crimes.
The cases of Doretta Graneris and Ferdinando Carretta
Going back in time, among the oldest crimes is that of November 13, 1975 in Vercelli: Doretta Graneris, just 18 years old, killed her mother, father, 13-year-old brother and maternal grandparents with gunshots. Doretta’s boyfriend, Guido Badini, was an accomplice in the massacre. The girl was at odds with her family and had been living with her boyfriend for several months. On August 4, 1989 in Parma, Ferdinando Carretta killed his father Giuseppe, his mother Marta and his brother Nicola with a firearm, taking the bodies to a landfill. Tracked down in the United Kingdom, he confessed to the triple murder and his hatred towards his father in front of the cameras of “Chi l’ha visto?” Acquitted due to total incapacity to understand and want, he died at 61 years old.
Pietro Maso, Elia Del Grande: murders committed by their children
On April 17, 1991, Pietro Maso, 20 years old, massacred his parents Antonio and Rosa in their home in Montecchia di Crosara (Verona) with an iron pipe and a pot. His friends, Giorgio Carbognin, Paolo Cavazza and Damiano Burato, the latter a minor, also took part in the murders. Maso was sentenced to 30 years, his friends to 26, the minor to 13. In 2008 Pietro was granted semi-liberty and, thanks to the pardon, he finished serving his sentence in 2013. Last year he was investigated again for an attempted extortion against his sisters. Seven years later, on January 7, 1998, in Cadrezzate (Varese), Elia Del Grande killed his father, mother and brother with rifle shots to get hold of the family money but, stopped for a random check in Switzerland, he was arrested.
Erika and Omar
This brings us to the 2000s. On February 21, 2001, in Novi Ligure (Alessandria), Erika De Nardo, 16, together with her boyfriend Omar, killed her mother Susy with forty stab wounds and her 11-year-old brother Gianluca, whom they had also attempted to drown and poison with a rodenticide. The motive, according to Erika’s stories, who initially tried to divert the investigation but was caught by the police’s bugs, was due to the bad relationship with her mother. Erika and Omar were sentenced in 2001 to 16 years, she to 14, he to 14. Today they are both out of prison, she even graduated in philosophy in 2009 during her detention. Her father, who had survived because he was away from home, forgave her and has always remained by her side.
Federico Bigotti, Benno Neumair and sisters Paola and Silvia Zani
On December 30, 2015, Federico Bigotti, 22, killed his mother Anna Maria with eight stab wounds on the outskirts of Città di Castello (Perugia), immediately posting a photo of him smiling and the caption: “The caresses on the scratches are felt more”. He was declared incompetent and admitted to a psychiatric facility.
In 2021, two episodes ended up in the newspapers. On January 4, 2021, Benno Neumair, 31, killed his father Peter and his mother Laura Perselli by strangling them with a climbing cord. The confession came after the bodies that he himself had thrown into the Adige River were found. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Six months later, in May, the two sisters Paola and Silvia Zani, 26 and 19, killed their mother, Laura Ziliani, by suffocating her and burying her. The two were arrested together with the boyfriend of the older sister, 27-year-old Mirto Milani. The three were sentenced to life imprisonment in the first degree.
this article is originally published on .today.it
