Beaten to death with an iron bar and then suffocated , perhaps with a pillow .
This is what emerged from the autopsy carried out this morning on the body of Yana Malayko, the 23-year-old Ukrainian resident of Castiglione delle Stiviere in the Mantua area who disappeared last January and was later found in a sack 13 days later .
According to the first results, at least four blows to the head inflicted by ex-boyfriend Dumitru Stratan - arrested on charges of premeditated voluntary murder and concealment of the body - with a blunt instrument, probably a metal rod , would have been fatal. Yana's body was found last Wednesday , under a pile of wood in the countryside of the area and is reported to have no gunshot or stab wounds.
The 23-year-old, as evidenced by the wounds on her hands , would have tried to defend herself with all her might, but in vain. There are also signs of beatings on the lips . The coroner's examination is not complete but it served to add another small piece that makes the picture that tells the dynamics of the killing more and more clear.
Dumitru initially tried to lock the girl's body in a suitcase . Failing to do so, he would have opted to hide it in a sack, which he dragged along the stairs and loaded into his car to finally reach the place where he buried it. The , after which the authorization for the funeral will be given.
