"He was of Sardinian origins and had worked at the National Gallery. A polite person. Perhaps the only people he had bonded with were a group of hunters, with whom he shared the same passion."

A neighbor thus describes, in a testimony reported by La Nazione, Enrico Scoccia, the 69-year-old who allegedly shot his wife Maristella Paffarini, 66, and his daughter Elisa, 39, and then turned the gun on himself, in a farmhouse in Fratticiola Selvatica, on the outskirts of Perugia.

As for the crime, the witness continues, «I heard 3-5 shots. But I didn't get too suspicious because, as is well known, in the Umbrian countryside someone often shoots wild animals».

According to the agencies, which cite investigative sources, the murder-suicide hypothesis is the prevailing one and the involvement of other people is excluded.

Among the elements that support this reconstruction are the fact that the rifle was found near the man's body and the location of the fatal injuries.

As for the motive, no conflicts emerged within the family nucleus. The daughter had joined her parents a few days earlier and when they were killed the two women were in the garden.

The man - this is the hypothesis being examined by the Perugia Prosecutor's Office - would have suddenly shot as if he had lost his mind. It is worth considering the weight that some psychological difficulties he would have suffered from may have had.

(Online Union)