What seemed like an accident, in the following hours turned into a mystery, and the hypothesis of a femicide-suicide arose. Stefano Del Re, 53, and his ex-wife Lorena Vezzosi, 51, were found dead in their car which had fallen into the waters of the Po in Casalmaggiore (Cremona).

When the firefighters, around 7am yesterday morning, recovered the Nissan registered to the nurse from the river and found it without the license plates, they immediately thought it was an accident. Having acquired testimonies and videos, and having evaluated the many anomalies that gradually emerged, the harshest hypothesis emerged, that of a femicide: absolute certainty is still lacking but the investigation, coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Cremona and managed in the field by the Carabinieri in collaboration with their colleagues from Romagna, is open with the hypothesis of murder and suicide.

Del Re, investigators think, may have first killed his ex-partner, mother of his two children, with whom he had nevertheless remained on good terms, given that they were going out for dinner on Thursday evening, and then decided to end it by throwing himself into the river. The results of the autopsy, which should be carried out on Monday, will be decisive in dispelling any remaining doubts. It will be crucial because the investigations carried out so far - in particular the cadaveric inspection - have not highlighted any significant traces of violence against the woman: neither gunshot wounds nor stab wounds. Only trauma to the right leg considered compatible with the dynamics of the crash.

What suggests the crime, however, are the images recorded by the cameras of the rowing club which looks precisely at the stretch of Po where the tragedy occurred. They film the arrival of the car with the couple on board: it is 2.56am and the car, at high speed, goes off the road, grazes the pier and ends up in the water without any attempt to brake. As if the driver had really wanted to throw himself into the Po. And above all they fix a detail: while Del Re, in a sort of extreme attempt to save himself, is portrayed while driven by the survival instinct he tries in vain to cling to one of the moored boats, Vezzosi it never gives any sign of life. He was motionless on the passenger seat at the moment of transit along the towpath, he was in the exact same position when the Nissan fell into the water and he was still lying that way when the small car was brought back to shore by the firefighters. As if she were already dead. Or in any case in a state of unconsciousness and, in any case, not able to react.