He killed the ex-partner with several gunshots and then turned the gun on himself, mortally wounding himself. Claudio Mereu, a 73-year-old businessman from Sestu, died on Sunday in the hospital three days after killing his ex-wife, Loredana Ionita.
The woman was shot to death on the street in Vanju Mare, a small village of 6500 inhabitants in Mehedinti county, Romania. The femicide took place a few meters from the business where the woman worked, a funeral agency, shortly after 9 am on 23 December last. The alarm was immediate with some witnesses who called the police inspectorate. When the agents arrived, there was nothing more to do for the woman: she was hit by several bullets and died instantly. On the ground, however, the policemen found Sestu's ex-husband in agony who - according to the reconstruction of the investigators, reported by the Romanian media - had returned to Romania in November.
The couple had lived together for 4 years, then problems arose and they separated in 2020. The gun used for the crime had the serial number abraded. Seriously wounded in the abdomen, Claudio Mereu died in hospital after a few days of agony. After killing the woman he shot himself in the abdomen. The emergency doctors who intervened on the spot tried to stabilize him and took him to the hospital, but there was nothing to be done.
The Romanian media gave a lot of space to the story: the funeral of Loredana Ionita (Dana for friends) took place yesterday afternoon: her mother was unable to attend because when she learned of the killing of her daughter she had a heart attack and was hospitalized . The timing of the funeral of the 73-year-old entrepreneur, well known in Sestu, is not yet known: until the 1980s-1990s he had managed an oasis for fishing along the provincial road to San Sperate, then the crisis and the decision to emigrate. .
Francesco Pinna
