The research of Elena Del Pozzo, the five-year-old girl who disappeared yesterday in Tremestieri Etneo , in the province of Catania, ended with a turning point and in the most dramatic of ways.
The little girl, who would have turned five in July, was found dead. There was no kidnapping: it was the mother, who confessed to the crime, who had the body found.
The woman, Martina Patti, 23, told the carabinieri yesterday that, while she was returning home after having taken her daughter to kindergarten, three hooded people and one armed with a pistol had opened the door of her car, taking and taking away Elena .
A complaint that, according to the investigators, was "not very credible" from the beginning, starting from the fact that no one had seen anything. Then the strange timing: Patti had not called the carabinieri immediately , as one might expect from a parent who sees a child being snatched away in that way, but she went home and only later went to the police station with her relatives .
For hours the carabinieri had been putting pressure on the woman, contesting all the various anomalies and inconsistencies: in the end, Patti gave in and revealed where to find her daughter's body. This was confirmed by the Catania prosecutor, Carmelo Zuccaro: "This morning he had the body found and now we are collecting his statements". A confession: even if in the interrogation, at the end of which she was accused of multiple murder and concealment of a corpse , she was unable to explain how and why she would have committed the crime.
The carabinieri have cordoned off an agricultural land a few hundred meters from the house where Elena's mother lives . The area is flown over by a helicopter and is beaten by military personnel.
"Martina Patti wanted to frame my brother - says the paternal aunt of the child -. A year ago my brother was unjustly accused of a robbery, but fortunately he was completely cleared. When he went from prison to house arrest, we found a threatening note under the house. : 'Don't be a cop, be careful what you do'. My brother doesn't know anything about anything. The girl's mother referred to that note saying that they had kidnapped Elena ".
(Unioneonline / D)