Tonino Porcu , the 78-year-old found lifeless last night in his home in Ghilarza after being beaten to death during a robbery, had already suffered a theft in October.
This was revealed by the mayor of Ghilarza, Stefano Licheri: "Only a month ago - he explained - I learned that Tonino had suffered a theft in his old home in October and, worried, I asked that a large lighthouse be installed that illuminated the area, but it was useless. It is the work of a coward, who takes it out on the elderly, the frail, the children: it can only be defined in this way. What happened is terrible. We are shocked, it could happen to anyone ".
Four months ago the thieves entered the house rummaging everywhere, then they went after starting a fire: "Because of the fire the roof collapsed - recalls the mayor - it is this detail that led me to ask what had happened and I came to knowledge of theft ".
"I knew Porcu well - says the mayor - he came from a family of farmers. He had never married, like one of his brothers and his sister, who recently passed away. We often saw him out and about with his bicycle, then he sat down on the bench in the square in front of the house, where he lived, a few tens of meters from the one where he had lived with his mother and which he had left after the visit of the thieves ".
THE CRIME - According to the first investigations carried out by the coroner Roberto Demontis, Tonino Porcu was massacred in the night between Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 February.
The elderly man was hit with his bare hands or with a blunt object by the thieves: perhaps he caught them in the act and was attacked, or he was surprised while he was sleeping. What is certain is that the criminals have been rummaging everywhere for money and valuables before fleeing. Porcu may have died of his injuries, but it is also possible that he had a heart attack after the attack: he was heart disease.
The body was found last night, when the woman who helped him with the cleaning and his nephew entered the house alerted by some neighbors who had not heard from him since Monday evening. The pensioner was lying on the bed in the bedroom with his face swollen.
(Unioneonline / D)