«It was a tragic fatality»: thus Patrizio Rovelli, lawyer of some of the 14 suspects, heirs of the land on which stands the ruined farmhouse in via Dessanay in Nuoro, where Patrick Zola and Ythan Romano, aged 15 and 14 years, following the collapse of the roof.
All the co-owners are accused of aggravated multiple manslaughter: the building at risk of collapse was not fenced and was accessible to all. «It was a farmhouse in which no one had lived for decades», continues Rovelli, «over time the heirs had done some building work and railings had been installed, a surrounding wall had also been built and demolished after the expropriation for the construction of the dirt road. Subsequently", underlined the lawyer, "these uncontrolled access by the children began, so much so that several years ago the owner's elderly sister had sent reports to the authorities".
The house of the tragedy also has a history that leads to the trail of Sardinian crime in the middle of the last century. Right there lived Nino Mereu , a shepherd convicted at a very young age after the Sa Ferula massacre (1950), on the old state road 389 Nuoro - Bitti, where there was an attack on a valuables carrier containing 1 and a half million lire.
3 carabinieri were killed and the driver of the armored car and another soldier were injured. Mereu was accused of being the lookout by the gang and was arrested. He repented and named his accomplices. Nino Mereu served part of his sentence in prison and returned to work as a shepherd on the land on Dessanay Street, where he built the house where Patrick and Ythan died and where he lived for 30 years as a bachelor. After his death the heirs never returned to that house and so it was abandoned.
(Unioneonline)
