A family wiped out, likely due to a tragedy linked to loneliness and the difficulty of caring, without any help, for their 5-year-old daughter, suffering from a serious illness.
This is the dramatic hypothesis emerging from the initial investigations into the deaths of three people—a father, mother, and young daughter—found dead in their apartment in Rome's Pietralata area, on the eastern outskirts of the capital.
The bodies of the three family members, along with that of their dog, were found inside their home after a relative, who had been unsuccessfully trying to contact the family for hours, raised the alarm. Responding to the scene, partly following reports of gunshots, Carabinieri officers and firefighters had to force open the door of the apartment, which was locked from the inside.
The scene they found was dramatic: Luca Ambasciano, his wife Valentina Pambianco, aged forty-two and forty-one, respectively, and their young daughter Bianca, were dead in their bedroom, pierced by gunshots. Also in the room was their dog, who had suffered the same fate. Initial investigations revealed the child's difficult situation, suffering from a disability that required constant care. This theory was further supported by the discovery of several notes written by both parents, which emphasized their inability to care for the child unaided. Hence the decision to take action, which appears to have been mutually agreed upon between the parents.
"We can't do this alone" is the summary of the handwritten messages left by the little girl's father and mother, messages explicitly referencing the child's condition, their feeling of isolation, and the difficulty they faced in caring for their daughter. According to reports, one of the parents suffered from depression. The family was also receiving financial support from Rome's social services. The shots were fired from a gun legally owned by Ambasciano, which investigators found in the same room of the home. The couple's neighbors are incredulous, describing it as a "tragedy" and describing how the parents were deeply attached to the little girl. They were seen taking her out for walks around the neighborhood together.
"We are shocked," said Massimiliano Umberti, President of the 4th District, and Annarita Leobruni, Vice President of the 4th District, "a mother, a father, and a little girl supported by social services, attending one of our daycare centers. A family who, over the past year, had decided to live with their daughter's disability at home, with a mother who had left her job to devote herself full-time to her daughter's needs and time. We are shocked, and this tragedy should give us pause. Because, despite the support of our social services and the Local Health Authority, evidently all of this was not enough to bear the burden of a family's loneliness and desperation. We feel helpless."
(Unioneonline)
