Tortured and tortured for hours before being killed. The tests on the remains of Antonella Salamone and on the bodies of her sons Emanuel, aged 5, and Kevin, aged 16, the victims of the massacre in Altavilla Milici, Palermo, have reiterated what had already emerged a week ago during the first inspections carried out by the investigators in the house where the massacre took place. A horror story confirmed not only by the 17 year old who confessed to having participated in the massacre together with her father and the couple of family "friends" but also by the autopsy.
The protagonists of this family massacre were the woman's husband, Giovanni Barreca, aided by his 17-year-old daughter and two alleged accomplices, Sabrina Fina and Massimo Caradente, who convinced them to perform a sort of exorcism on their relatives to "free them from the devil". As Barreca had declared from the moment of his rambling phone call to the police: «Good evening, I have to hand myself in.... my wife was possessed. Basically my wife died. The demons are eating me too." Now they are all in prison on charges of multiple murder, aggravated by base motives, and suppression of a corpse.
THE STORY – The girl, after asking to see her father, began to speak, leaving the magistrates of the juvenile court breathless. His statements, in which he confesses to having actively participated in the massacre, are an endless gallery of violence and torture. All verified by the experts of the forensic medicine institute of the Palermo Polyclinic. «We were in the kitchen, my mother was on the floor with her face down - said the 17 year old -, and Sabrina, Massimo, Kevin and my father were also present. They tortured her in turns, both Sabrina and Massimo. They gave her the hairdryer at the highest temperature, they hit her on the back with the pan." «My father watched, Kevin and I were standing and exchanging glances, understanding that this wasn't normal. My mother told me to call the police, but for fear of being tortured I too didn't do it", the story continues. The girl clarified that her mother died on February 9, after being tortured for a day: "Sabrina and Massimo told me that she had a heart attack while she was lying on the floor in the kitchen." And he added that "they wanted to have her cremated", which is why they first burned the body and then buried her in a hole "dug by my father and Kevin". Then it was the turn of little Manuel, who was also tortured with the hairdryer, and finally his older brother.
THE INVESTIGATIONS – Whoever had first entered that house had spoken of a horrifying scene. A shocking vision also confirmed by the words of the Termini Imerese prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio during the press conference: «In many years of my career I have never seen anything more horrible». The autopsy on the battered bodies of Kevin and Emanuel concluded last night. As for the mother's remains, we will still have to wait for the DNA test and a whole series of investigations on the bones found buried and burned not far from the villa of horrors.
However, to establish the exact causes that led to the death (investigators spoke of strangulation or suffocation) more in-depth examinations will be necessary. The appraisers will have to submit their report within 90 days. The bodies of the two little brothers will return tomorrow morning to Altavilla Milicia where the Municipality has set up the funeral chapel which will remain open throughout the day. The parish priest, Don Salvo Priola, will celebrate a funeral mass in the evening.
(Unioneonline/D)
