Pusceddu murder: the instigators were the ex-girlfriend and her new partner. Two hitmen were hired for €15,000.
A breakthrough in the investigation into the Buddusò murder of August 2025. Four arrests by the Carabinieri. The motive: sentimental reasons and professional disagreements.Killed for €15,000. Four arrests for the murder of Marco Pusceddu, killed in August 2025 in Buddusò.
According to the hypothesis put forward by prosecutor Elisa Succu, supported by investigating judge Gian Paolo Piana during the preliminary investigations, the crime had two instigators: the victim's ex-partner—originally from Iglesias—and a colleague of Marco Pusceddu—also a 118 emergency responder, originally from Carbonia and romantically linked to the woman.
The couple allegedly commissioned the murder from two people residing in the Sulcis-Iglesiente area, who received €15,000 for the killing . This sum was confirmed by investigations and documented by various loans and numerous cash withdrawals in the run-up to the murder.
It was precisely the verification of these cross-references of money that allowed us to reconstruct a series of meetings between the instigators and the perpetrators, with a view to organizing and carrying out the crime.
The investigative findings have allowed us to identify the alleged motive, which can be traced back to sentimental and professional reasons between the victim and the alleged instigators.
Of note is what was ascertained by the RIS which, during a search in January 2026, in a settlement in the Caput Acquas area, in Carbonia, led to the discovery of a track A 7.65-caliber semi-automatic pistol with the "118" serial number erased . One of the alleged hitmen had it in his trailer. Ballistic tests linked the weapon to the shots fired against Pusceddu a year ago.
Biological analyses revealed the presence of genetic traces on the seized weapon that can be traced back to one of the alleged perpetrators. The car the killers allegedly used to reach Buddusò and escape after the murder was also identified, as reconstructed from the phone records of the suspects involved, traffic data, and images extracted from video surveillance systems installed in various towns across Sardinia. According to the findings, the murder was premeditated.
The investigations have in fact also allowed to identify the presumed perpetrators of a previous attack suffered, again by Pusceddu, on the night of 28 April 2025 in an isolated rest area in Flumentepido, in the Carbonia area .
On that occasion, the victim, lured to the scene under a pretext, was allegedly attacked from behind while he was changing a tire on the car of his colleague – the alleged instigator of the murder – and hit on the head with an ice axe , suffering a multiple fracture of the skull and serious injuries that would have left him unable to work until July 2026.
During the investigation, an ice axe believed to be compatible with the one used in the attempted murder was also recovered. According to the prosecutor's theory, the same people planned both the attempted murder and the murder, which unfortunately succeeded.
The failure to achieve the intended objective led to the hiring of two hitmen . The four recipients of the precautionary measure are being held in the Cagliari-Uta prison pursuant to the order issued by the judicial authorities.