“I tore out mother’s heart.” It was a shocking confession made by Salvatore Dettori, 46 years old, former Navy soldier, arrested by the Carabinieri for the murder of his mother, Silvana La Rocca, 73 year old retired teacherwhose body torn apart by numerous stab wounds was found yesterday evening in the garden of his villa in Marina di Leporano (Taranto). The investigations revealed the existence of conflictual relationships between the woman and her first-born son, determined in particular by her precarious economic situation.
The victim, originally from Saracena (Cosenza), was a widow and lived alone at home. Her husband, Cataldo Dettori, a former specialized Ilva worker, died at the age of 54 in November 2002 in an accident at work in the steel plant, falling from a forklift. The other son instead lives in France. It was he, according to the reconstruction provided by the investigators, who phoned a cousin late yesterday afternoon asking him to go to the house in Via Trasimeno to check on the condition of his mother, with whom he had not been able to contact for hours. The family member made the macabre discovery, finding the woman lying on the ground, in a pool of blood, near her car which was parked in the courtyard. The Carabinieri of the provincial command were then alerted, led by Colonel Antonio Marinucci, who intervened with colleagues from the Scientific Investigations section who carried out the technical investigations. Also on site were the prosecutor on duty Salvatore Colella and the medical examiner, as well as the firefighters and 118. The first reconnaissance of the body revealed the unequivocal signs of a violent death. And, from the testimonies collected, suspicion immediately fell on the woman’s first-born son. Salvatore Dettori was thus tracked down and taken to the headquarters of the provincial Carabinieri command to be interrogated. In his vest he hid a shield containing two cross-shaped swords.
The man, after initial hesitations, made a full confession, reporting that he had killed his mother during the morning using two knives that he had brought with him: one “Pattada” type (named after the town famous for its production) and one shot. He added that he had tried to get rid of the weapons and clothing worn during the murder, that he had spread bleach inside the apartment and that he had disconnected the gas pipe with a view to “blowing up the house”. As for the motive, the 46-year-old provided conflicting statements, some considered unlikely (such as that of having killed the woman because she forced him to “eat human flesh”), describing every phase of his mother’s murder and claiming to have “ripped out her heart”. The man, in the presence of his trusted defender, then confirmed his version of events in a second interrogation at the end of which the prosecutor Eugenia Pontassuglia and the public prosecutor Colella signed the arrest order for the crime of aggravated intentional homicide , committed with premeditation and cruelty. The murder weapons were recovered and seized. During the confession, Dettori stated that he first “hit the mother on the back of the head and, subsequently, having failed to kill her immediately, he inflicted several stab wounds on her throat, abdomen and finally her sternum to remove her heart, remaining close to her until moment of his last breath”. Details that the investigators themselves defined as “chilling”.