A family tragedy with an 81-year-old woman, Mariolina Seguri, as the victim , suffocated to death with a pillow by her husband , Giovanni Secci, the same age, in the solitude of their apartment in via Boezio 28 in Monserrato .

The tragedy unfolded in the bedroom early yesterday afternoon. Then the elderly man, desperate and in shock, called the Carabinieri, who took him to the station, where he was formally arrested for murder. The woman had no chance to defend herself : her son was away at work at the time, and no one in the building heard her screams.

And while awaiting the results of the autopsy, which will be performed on Monday by coroner Roberto Demontis on behalf of Deputy Prosecutor Enrico Lussu, what emerges is a picture of a tragedy the couple has endured in silence : the woman had been ill for some time, requiring constant care that Secci, a former janitor now in his eighties, apparently no longer tolerated . But, as confirmed by the mayor, the couple had not reported the incident to social services, which they had contacted in August for other reasons.

Features and insights by Raffaele Serreli and Luigi Almiento in L'Unione Sarda on newsstands and on the L'Unione Digital app.

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