JUSTICE FOR PATRIZIA FORMICA

On April 3, 2017 Caltagirone woke up astonished by a tragic event that occurred during the night: a 47-year-old woman, Patrizia Formica, had been stabbed to death in her sleep by her partner, 52-year-old Salvatore Pirronello. According to the first reconstruction of the investigators, the crime would have matured after days of arguments around 4 in the morning. Both were separated and had been living together for a few months. Pirronello had told the police, to whom he turned up an hour later with his clothes still stained with blood, that he had been seized by a fit after arguing with his partner because he wanted to interrupt the relationship. He said he got out of bed, armed himself with a large kitchen knife and hit the woman four times while he was still in bed and asleep. The crime took place on the fourth floor of a building in via Filippo Palatino, in the Balatazze district. Pirronello had been arrested by the police of the Caltagirone company, led by captain Matteo Martellucci. The murderous rush would have been sudden. Nothing about her let us foresee this murder since her victim, in the previous days, had published some posts on Facebook that did not reveal tensions and that portrayed her happy and in love with her partner.

After the first blows, the victim defended himself and a struggle was born. Badly wounded, with one of the blows that would have hit her in the heart, Patrizia Formica had spent the last strength left to get up and lock the bedroom door from the inside, as a last act of defense, probably for fear that the cohabitant could return. She then she had collapsed to the ground, in a lake of blood. When the police arrived in the house, they had to break down the door of the room, but Patrizia Formica was already dead. Shortly before, Pirronello, who was in pajamas, had changed and had gone to the police station to be constituted. The Caltagirone tragedy had deeply shaken the couple’s family and friends, but now, after 5 years, this sad story is coming to an end with the arrival of a definitive sentence for the murderer Salvatore Pirronello. In fact, after he was sentenced to life imprisonment in the first and second degree, his lawyers had appealed to the Supreme Court. In the end, the judges of the Supreme Court rejected the appeal, thus writing the word end to the case.