The news cases continue to tell of children killed by their parents. Stories that we would not like to hear but which are more frequent than one might think.
According to the report of the Eures economic and social research association on ‘Homicides in the family’, 85 children under one year old were killed by their parents, between 2000 and 2019, and 473 children in total.
Also according to the Eures report, the mothers are responsible for the criminal events, in percentage and with respect to the time frame taken into consideration, but as the age of the children increases, the responsibility of the mothers decreases and that of the fathers increases.
Often it is homicide-suicide, or attempted murder. And unfortunately the number of cases continues to increase. Cases of filicide from now to 2002March 2022, Mesenzana (Varese)
A 44-year-old man took his own life after killing his two sons aged 13 and 7, in Mesenzana, in the Varese area. To find the bodies was the mother of the children who had gone to get them. The parents of the two victims were in the process of separation. January 2022, Mozzarone (Varese)
A 40-year-old man, Davide Paitone, kills his 7-year-old son with a stab in the throat. The carabinieri found the body of the small hidden item in the wardrobe, together with a confession note. The man, after killing his son, also tries to kill his wife from whom he was separating, by stabbing her. The 40-year-old tried to escape, but was tracked down and arrested by the carabinieri. October 2021, Verona
Two girls, of Sinhalese origins, aged 3 and 11 were found lifeless in their room, in a shelter house in Verona. The search for their mother began immediately, whose body was later found in the Adige. June 2021, Ferrara
At dawn a phone call arrives at 112: “My son is dead”. Upon their arrival, the carabinieri find a 29-year-old woman, with deep cuts in her wrists, under her shock who tells them that she had killed her son, a one-year-old child whom the military still finds in her mother’s bed where she he had slept. March 2021, Cisliano (Milan)
Edith was 2 years old, and was killed by her mother, Patrizia Coluzzi, 41, accused of aggravated murder for the death of her daughter, which occurred by suffocation. That evening the two older brothers were not there, the 41-year-old had from a first marriage. After killing the little girl, the woman attempted to take her own life, inflicting wounds on her stomach and arms with a stabbing weapon September 2020, Rivara (Turin)
Andrea was 11 years old, and was killed by her father, Claudio Baima Poma , with a pistol shot. After taking his life, he hugged him and with the other hand used the same gun to kill himself with a shot to the head. November 2014, Ragusa, the crime of Santa Croce Camerina.Loris Stival is found in a gully, 4 kilometers from the school he attended. His mother Veronica Panarello had reported his disappearance a few hours earlier. For the death of his son, Panariello, at the end of a trial including the media, is serving a 30-year prison sentence. April 2013, Carovigno (Brindisi)
And on April 4, Francesca Sbano poisons her 3-year-old daughter with herbicide and immediately after her launches herself from the balcony of her house near Brindisi. She left the family a note: “Benedetta I’ll take her away with me”. The little girl dies a few hours later in the hospital. March 2013, Rovito (Cosenza)
On March 6, a 43-year-old from the province of Cosenza, Daniela Falcone, picks up her 11-year-old son from school and takes him to the mountains. It is here that she kills him, cutting his throat with scissors. She hits him repeatedly. She tried in vain, shortly thereafter, to commit suicide. October 2013 Aabbadia Lariana (Lecco)
A 25-year-old woman from the Ivory Coast kills the first of her two children, raging several times on the body of her baby. August 2011, Feniglia (Grosseto)
A woman killed her 16-month-old baby, throwing him into the waters of the Feniglia during a ride on a pedal boat. In her pc, the investigators find traces that can be traced back to the woman’s will to ‘get rid’ of the child. February 2010, Ceggia (Venice)
Tiziana Bragato, 47, kills her six-year-old son, suffocating him, then hangs herself. The husband will be the one to discover the murder-suicide. July 2009, Parabiago (Milan)
On 20 July, in the province of Milan, Marcella Sardeni, a 35-year-old company executive suffering from severe depression, killed her 4-year-old son by strangling him with a telephone cable. After 4 months, the woman confesses that it was her. August 2009, Genoa
A 19-day-old baby boy is strangled by his mother with a cell phone cable and takes his own life. The woman, 35, lived alone with her baby and suffered from postpartum depression. September 2009, Castenaso (Bologna)
He kills his 6 and 5 year old children by stabbing them, then commits suicide by jumping off the terrace on the second floor of the house where they lived. The carabinieri found the children’s covers on the bed. The woman, it will later be ascertained, suffered from depression due to a separation from her husband in sight. May 2005, Casatenovo (Lecco)
A 5-month-old baby is found drowned in the bathtub of his home. To the police, her mother, 29, said that thieves would have entered the house, they would have beaten her. The child, left alone, would have slipped into the water until he drowned. Two weeks later, the woman confessed to the crime. September 2005, Merano
39-year-old Christine Rainer calls 118: “Come, I killed my son.” The woman stabbed her son, 4, who had just started eating bread and jam. She says she had a “blackout” to the police officers who took her to the police station, where she tries to kill herself by jumping from the second floor. March 2005, Rome
The little girl is only 2 months old and is found dead, killed by a knife, in her house at Romanina, in Rome. Her mother, after killing her, attempts suicide. July 2004, Vieste (Foggia)
A 33-year-old woman suffocates her children, aged 2 and 5, by covering their mouths with adhesive tape. In the same way, she commits suicide shortly thereafter. It is her father, a 37-year-old man, who finds his children and woman lifeless.March 2004, Lecco
A 37-year-old woman of Albanian origin stabbed her three daughters aged 3, 10 and 13. She then she tried to take her own life. When questioned by the magistrates, she confesses to her crime. June 2003, Desio (Milan)
A 29-year-old Peruvian strangles and drowns her three-month-old daughter in a toilet in the hospital of Desio, in the province of Milan, who was hospitalized for a fall from a wheelchair. June 2002, Aosta
Matteo and Davide were 4 years and 21 days old. Their mother, Olga Cerise, 31, killed them by throwing them into the small lake of Les Illes in Saint Marcel, near Aosta. The woman confessed to killing them. May 2002, Valtellina
On May 12, a 31-year-old woman, in her home in Madonna dei Monti, a hamlet of the Municipality of Valfurva, opened the door of the washing machine and put her 8-month-old baby in the basket. She killed her by activating the wash. The father will be the one to discover the murder, who returned home with his other 11-year-old daughter. January 2002, the Cogne crime. Samuele Lorenzi is 3 years old, he is found lifeless, with deep wounds on the head, in his parents’ bed, in the house of Montroz. The mother, Annamaria Franzoni calls for help and asks the neighbors for help. The murder weapon, probably a billhook, will never be found.
Sentenced to 30 years in the first instance, in 2004, Franzoni was reduced to 16 years on appeal, with the granting of generic extenuating circumstances. In 2008, the Supreme Court confirmed the 16 years of imprisonment. Franzoni served 6 years in prison, 5 under house arrest, extinguishing the sentence early for good behavior.
