The Ukrainian woman accused of stabbing Pasquale Reggio, an 87-year-old elderly man in Vibo Valentia, remains in prison. In fact, the investigating judge, accepting the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, validated the arrest while simultaneously ordering the woman’s detention in prison for attempted murder.
According to what emerged during the investigations conducted by the Vibo Valentia Flying Squad, the woman, who had been working temporarily as the man’s carer since the end of June in place of a compatriot, would have set up a rudimentary “operating room” in the room of the elderly man’s home and after having put him to sleep with substances that would have had a sedative effect, would have lacerated his abdominal area with a kitchen knife to – as she said during the interrogation assisted by her lawyer – remove an unspecified «animal» inside the human abdomen.
The police intervention, investigators report, began at 2.50am last Wednesday after a distress call. The police officers found the elderly man lying on the bed unconscious with several blood-soaked bandages on his body, particularly in the abdominal area. The man was immediately taken by 118 personnel to the Vibo Valentia hospital where he was found to have massive thoracic haemorrhage and a stab wound as well as multiple displaced fractures. Given the seriousness of the conditions, the patient was then urgently transferred to the Catanzaro hospital where he is hospitalized with a reserved prognosis.
From the Flying Squad’s investigations it emerged that the woman had started working in the elderly man’s home at the end of June and should have completed the assignment on August 20, the day after the incident. At the scene, the Flying Squad officers seized several knives, latex gloves and a pack of sodium chloride, used or otherwise prepared by the woman. In light of the elements collected and the danger of escape – there was a suitcase packed in the room – the Flying Squad proceeded with the arrest which was then validated.