Luciano Hellies, 77, and his wife Ignazia Tumatis, 59, had been living separately in the house for two years. Different bedrooms but lunches and dinners eaten together, when possible.
She, much younger than him and tired of the routine, had started to go out and play sports, to have interests far from those domestic walls that they had almost shared for some time now. She had signed up for courses and often returned late at night. And that didn't suit him. For nothing .
Quarrels were frequent in that house in via Podgora , in the San Michele neighborhood of Cagliari. The last one, last night, proved fatal . Luciano at the height of the argument (Ignazia had returned at 11pm, after the Italy-Spain match, too late for him) attacked her with a kitchen knife. Then he phoned one of his four daughters to say four terrible words: "I killed my mother." At least nine blows were inflicted , and when the rescuers arrived there was nothing left to do for the 59-year-old.
The Flying Squad officers blocked him in the house, he was in a state of shock, his clothes still stained with his wife's blood.
Hellies, who remained at the police station until this morning before being transferred to the Uta prison, also confirmed that he was exasperated by his wife's sudden change in habits: "I couldn't take it anymore," he said . Adding a further detail, she responded to his complaints with a grimace: "He laughed in my face and I never saw him again" , she confessed.
(Unioneonline/L)