Pietro Delia, a 65-year-old accountant and Laura Lupo, 62, a municipal police officer, had gotten back together a few years ago, after a period of separation. This morning, after an evening spent with her daughter, the tragedy occurred in the apartment in the central via Notarbartolo in Palermo, an area under surveillance because a magistrate lives there.
The murder suicide
The woman allegedly grabbed her service pistol and fired four shots at her husband which hit him in the chest and abdomen and then turned the weapon against herself, fatally wounding her neck and head. She discovered the bodies, the firefighters who called by the neighbors and her daughter who couldn’t get in touch with her parents. She had an appointment with her father to go to the studio located in via Nicolò Gallo.
“We could never think of such a thing,” said a family member near the house. The carabinieri of the provincial command found the two bodies lying in the kitchen. The woman was still holding the gun. No sign of forced entry on the front door. The house is tidy, nothing out of place.
The jealousy hypothesis
The hypothesis that the woman was jealous of her husband and feared betrayal. This is what friends and relatives whisper. Husband and wife were known and appreciated in their activities. Laura Lupo had been serving in the municipal police force for thirty years. For a few years you had been seconded to the judge’s offices in Palermo.
Few doubts about the dynamics
There is little doubt about what happened this morning between 6.30 and 7 in the apartment in via Notarbartolo in Palermo. It was at that moment that someone heard gunshots that broke the Saturday morning silence. The investigations are conducted by the carabinieri and the medical examiner intervened. The two bodies were in the kitchen. The autopsy is scheduled for next week in the Forensic Medicine department of the Polyclinic where the bodies were transported.
Shocked colleagues
“We are shocked. Our colleague was appreciated by everyone and we would never have thought of such a tragic epilogue – says Nicola Scaglione, a trade unionist and colleague of the woman – We are waiting to understand what happened, but I can immediately say that none of us could have imagined a disaster of this nature . Laura was an esteemed person who we all loved.” For everyone, a violent action that leaves dismay. “A very bad story that took us all by surprise. No one could have imagined such a dramatic epilogue – says the commander of the municipal police Angelo Colucciello – Our colleague was a person characterized by great calmness and elegance in her features and behaviour. She carried out her work in the offices of the Justice of the Peace with great professionalism and preparation. She is an irreproachable municipal police officer”.
