The 50-year-old, separated father of two children, would have killed because his parents didn’t want to give him any more money after he had caused them to lose their house for his debts. The investigators however they are cautious and say that the motive is still to be defined. «Perhaps we would need a psychiatry manual to define some criminal cases. And this is one of those”, comments those who are conducting the investigations. About ten years ago Ricci, financially supported by his father, had attempted to start a craft business. The business did not go well. The resulting indebtedness resulted in the sale of his father’s house at auction.
Last October, in fact, the elderly couple was forced to sell their home, thus guaranteeing the 60 thousand euros of debts that his son had not honored.
But what happened in the family house? According to the investigations, Ricci would have gone down to his parents’ apartment between 2 and 3 am pto take the blood pressure device. She wasn’t well and he wanted to measure her. Mom wakes up. She talks to her son. The discussion gets lively. Maybe the son asks for money, maybe she responds with a denial (Ricci’s statements in this regard are confusing). In any case, it is at this point that the killer takes action. With a string he strangles his mother in the kitchen. Once the woman is killed, she goes to her parents’ bedroom. The father is sleeping. He enters the room and approaches the bed. He is holding something. Maybe a hammer, which will be found by the police. But even on this point the murderer will say that he does not remember what he was and it is as if he drew the shape of the weapon used from a dream. At least this is the impression he gives to the investigators. The father moves, tries to get up, but the blows he receives to his head give him no escape. He succumbs. He dies. The killer still has the murder weapon in his hand. He heads into the garden where there is a well. Then she goes back to sleep upstairs.
In the morning (at 7.45), Luca Ricci accompanies his son to school for credit recovery courses in Pesaro. He returns to Fano and stages the fake alarm. He calls the police: “My parents aren’t answering and the door is locked.” The firefighters arrive and find them dead. The story he tells does not convince the investigators. In the afternoon, around 4pm, the interrogation begins at the Fano police station conducted by police officers from the Pesaro Flying Squad. His answers are limited to many “I don’t remember” until the confession. Ricci is taken to prison in Villa Fastiggi on charges of multiple voluntary homicide. Aggravating cruelty recognized.
As happens in these cases, it is almost always the neighbors who provide the first elements to journalists in their attempt to sketch the biographies of victims and murderers. In unison, all the neighbors of the murdered elderly people spoke of Luca as a “good, kind, calm, absolutely non-violent” man. A good father who never let his children want for anything and who remained on good terms with his ex-wife “because you can’t wish Luca any harm.” No signs of depression, nothing that could suggest a disagreement with his parents. Sunny, friendly with everyone. Personal trainer Giulio Giustiniani, who manages the security personnel who work at the Carnival parades and who met the killer in the gym, told Resto del Carlino: “Always polite, always present and precise, a good person who never caused me problems. I always saw him alone, he lifted weights but he wasn’t one of those obsessed with physical fitness or muscles.”
