COSENZA The trial on the murder of Rocco Gioffrè, a 75-year-old from Cosenza killed by the self-confessed culprit Tiziana Mirabelli, continues before the Court of Assizes of Cosenza. The crime took place in the woman’s apartment in a public building in via Monte Grappa in Cosenza on February 14, 2023. This morning, the Court and the parties viewed the footage from the camera installed in the victim’s home, analyzing the frames before and after the committed crime. The hearing continued with the examination and cross-examination of three other witnesses, they are members of the Carabinieri serving in the Cosenza Centro barracks. The officer Giovanni Tufaro recalled receiving a call from a colleague “at 2.38pm on 18 February 2023, Luigi Li Preti asked me if I knew Tiziana Mirabelli, I was out of office at the time”. At “5.25pm Lieutenant Bazzurri informs me that a patrol from the mobile radio section was at the home of today’s accused, but was unable to trace her”. After a few minutes, the carabiniere Renato Covello contacted Tufaro at 5.30 pm «and he informed me that Mirabelli was in the Cosenza Centro station. The defendant was relaxed and calm.” On February 19, Tiziana Mirabelli will return to the barracks, this time to confess to her crime. The lawyer Cristian Cristiano, legal defense of the only accused, asks the witness if he has ever received and noted news of complaints against Mirabelli filed by Gioffrè or if he has ever had to intervene to settle a dispute between the two. For both questions, the answer is negative. The witness recalls how Mirabelli “carried out social activities with the Prendocasa Committee and helped people in difficulty”. It’s the turn of Lieutenant Renato Morrone, Commander of the Carabinieri Cosenza Center Station. He was responsible for the examination of people informed of the facts, the interrogation of the accused, the analysis of the seized chats and other activities relating to the seizures of the apartments of the victim and the accused.
The chat and the booklet
There is a chapter considered relevant by the prosecution and concerns the asset assessments carried out on the accounts of Gioffrè and Mirabelli. «There is a chat – reports Commander Morrone – which concerns Tiziana Mirabelli and her sister Simona «where they talk about a booklet of the accused jointly registered with her mother». The booklet – according to the witness – «was also available to Mirabelli on the day of the murder». The story continues. «On 12 February 2023, the day of the celebration of the Madonna del Pilerio, we record an exchange of voice messages where Simona Mirabelli asks for the return of the booklet». As the hearing continued, we learned that the sum expressly requested by the woman would amount to 250 euros. «After the murder there is a voice from the accused’s mother, who, using Simona Mirabelli’s telephone, thanks her daughter for the return of her booklet». The investigator records movements in the booklet before and after the murder. And on February 14, the date of the crime, «we record a payment of 1,800 euros in cash made in the post office in Piazza Crispi in Cosenza by Tiziana Mirabelli». Why is the data relevant to the prosecution? Because according to what was claimed in the previous hearing by one of the men serving at the Cosenza barracks, Rocco Gioffrè «he was in possession of a savings deposit where the pension was credited». The elderly person, by consolidated habit, immediately after the pension was credited went to the post office to proceed with withdrawing the entire sum. «Usually on average equal to around 1,800 euros». The last withdrawal of approximately «1,900 euros is dated 8 February 2023». The amount of Mirabelli’s credit on the postal booklet and the withdrawal made by Gioffrè is similar. However, it should be noted that Commander Romano – prompted by questions from the defense – reports Gioffrè’s average pension equal to «1,180 euros per month, in some cases even from 1,300 euros which he withdrew at the counter at the same time as the credit”. The lawyer Cristiano asks the witness whether he is aware of a credit dated January 2022 made to the victim’s account “for over six thousand euros”. The answer is affirmative, Gioffrè would have withdrawn that sum – from what emerged – in three tranches.
The safe, theft and the connecting apartments
There is a case within the case in this murder mystery. And it’s about thein the safe at Rocco Gioffrè’s house it’s a theft suffered by Tiziana Mirabelli in her homewhile she was subjected to kidnapping (she still is, ed). «At the Gioffrè house there is a safe, but no traces of Tiziana Mirabelli have been found“, says the witness who adds: “it was in a room and we didn’t find the keys”. So far, little or nothing strange, but the story is embellished with an important detail. Lawyer Cristiano asks the witness if he is aware of the presence of a “communication” between the homes of the victim and the confessed offender. «From the bathroom of Rocco Gioffrè’s house there is a window that overlooks an open space with a climbable wall that allows you to get to Tiziana Mirabelli’s house». The balcony – emerges again – «it acted as an intermediary for the passage of an electricity cable between the two homes».
However, this communicating passage between the two apartments escapes the eye of the camera installed in Rocco Gioffrè’s home. Regarding the theft perpetrated by unknown persons at the Mirabelli home, the latter filed a report on 27 December 2023. When together with her lawyer she returned to the scene of the crime. On that occasion the woman notices and reports the absence of the TV and other objects.” Lieutenant Morrone, present at the time of the inspection, noted how the window communicating between the houses was “broken” while the entrance door “had no signs of forced entry and the seals had not been removed”. The last testimony is from the Carabiniere Ferdinando Muraca, who, regarding the recordings of Tiziana Mirabelli’s conversations in prison with her family members, said that he had not “noted anything relevant”. According to the defence, in those conversations there were confessions by Mirabelli on the alleged harassment perpetrated by Gioffrè on the woman.
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Tags: Cosenza theft Tiziana Mirabellis home house seizure
