The San Severo traffic police and the Foggia flying squad have arrested Ciro Caliendo , the 48-year-old accused of the premeditated voluntary homicide of his wife, 47-year-old Lucia Salcone , who died on September 27, 2024 in what, according to investigators, was a simulated road accident.
The crash occurred on Provincial Road 13 in the countryside of San Severo , the couple's hometown. The car Salcone was traveling in with her husband caught fire, and the woman's body was found charred . The 48-year-old, under investigation for the murder weeks after the accident, has been in prison since this morning.
The investigation reconstructed the antecedent and preparatory phases of the crime, the subsequent moments, and the possible motivations that may have led the man to commit the premeditated murder of his wife, "to be identified, primarily," investigators explain, "in the intertwining of passion and economic motives."
According to the prosecution, "what happened was not a one-off occurrence but the result of a persistent determination to commit the crime without second thoughts and without interruption."
When interviewed after the incident, Caliendo, who was driving the car, said his wife had died as a result of a car crash with an oncoming vehicle. The impact, according to the man, caused the car to leave the road and hit a tree, which then set the car on fire, with the flames immediately spreading to the woman's clothes.
The reconstruction of the dynamics provided by the man had immediately aroused suspicions among the investigators, so much so that, just a few days later, the crime against the man was changed from vehicular homicide to voluntary homicide.
The investigation, through analysis of video surveillance systems, information gathering and technical activities, with the involvement of expert technical consultants, then revealed the "clear inconsistencies between the state of the premises and what the man declared."
(Unioneonline/vl)