Left to herself without water or food, she died of starvation. She was left alone by her daughter who had to look after her, as she was not self-sufficient, she left for a few days on holiday together with her younger children. When she returned home she found her elderly mother already lifeless and – without calling the police – she covered her with a sheet, leaving her on the floor. The dramatic discovery was made by the Carabinieri, who arrived at the house in Montelibretti, in the province of Rome, to serve a judicial document on her daughter, a 49-year-old woman who was later arrested on charges of “abandonment of an incapable person”.
The discovery of the police
The macabre discovery took place last June 12th when the soldiers from the Montelbretti station went to the house of the suspect in the municipality of the northern province of the capital, for a notification of a document for an old judicial matter. Once at the house, not receiving any response and becoming suspicious of a strong odor coming from the apartment, they decided to investigate further.
Dead for days
They then carried out a check of the perimeter of the house and found an open window which allowed them access. Inside, the soldiers found the body of the elderly woman, lying on the ground. A single sheet partially covered her. The medical examiner intervened on site and confirmed that the 84-year-old’s death dates back to a few days earlier.
On holiday at the seaside with younger children
The immediate investigations made it possible to immediately shed light on what happened, and to direct the investigations towards the 49-year-old daughter, cohabitant, responsible for the care of the elderly woman, on whom evidence of guilt was gathered. Instead of looking after her, the woman in fact left the house to go on holiday in Abruzzo together with her two minor children, without providing the necessary care for her mother, thus abandoned to herself, without food or water and without any mobile phone to be able to call for help.
Abandonment of an incapable person
The elements collected therefore allowed the public prosecutor’s office of Tivoli to issue an arrest warrant against the woman as a suspect in the crime, considering her to be seriously suspected of abandoning an incompetent person, a condition following which the elderly mother died. The 49-year-old was then stopped by the carabinieri of the Monterotondo company and taken to the Rebibbia prison where the investigating judge of the Tivoli court validated the arrest and ordered the measure of house arrest.
