She died at two years old, her little body covered in bruises. And probably not, she hadn't fallen down the stairs a few days earlier, as her mother claims. Those bruises, says the coroner, "were deliberate blows, some of them inflicted with blunt objects."
For this reason, the child's mother, Manuela A., 43, was arrested after a lengthy interrogation. It all happened in Montenero, a hamlet of Bordighera, inside a small house protected by a thick hedge and video surveillance, just steps from a property recently confiscated from the mafia. It all happened today, in a matter of minutes: the child was ill and had respiratory distress. The woman called an ambulance, but despite the efforts of the medics dispatched by 118, the little girl went into cardiac arrest. The doctors' efforts were in vain; she never recovered. But something was wrong. The child's body was heavily bruised.
That's why the Carabinieri arrive. The little girl's mother, who has two other children, aged 9 and 10, tells the officers that the girl had fallen down the stairs a few days ago. Her story, however, isn't entirely convincing. So she is taken to the police station where, along with the Carabinieri, she is questioned by Deputy Prosecutor Veronica Meglio. To them, the woman tells her story. The little girl had fallen down the stairs a few days ago but was fine. Today, she said, she went out, leaving her three children at home. But when she returned, the little girl was feeling ill and wasn't breathing, so she called 911.
The woman denies everything. She denies having hurt the little girl. But while she speaks and answers the investigators' questions, the Carabinieri review the surveillance footage, looking for evidence to support the woman's claims. And the medical examiner, appointed by the prosecutor's office, examines the little girl's body. And he makes a horrifying discovery: those bruises and ecchymoses are the result of deliberate blows, some of which were inflicted with blunt instruments.
The coroner's report and a review of the surveillance video convince investigators that the woman is lying. They decide to arrest her on charges of manslaughter. She could end up in the women's prison in Genoa's Pontedecimo. "We have requested house arrest at the woman's father's residence," said the woman's lawyer, Laura Corbetta, as she left the Carabinieri station, "but the request is still being evaluated. The prosecutor's office is awaiting further investigative evidence before making a decision. The magistrates are conducting further investigations."
