A man, during a violent family discussion, stabbed to death his wife and his 8 year-old daughter in Catania. The tragedy took place this morning in via dell’Iris, in the San Giorgio suburb of Catania. In the house there was also the other daughter of the couple, a 13-year-old girl, who was wounded and is in now hospital. The man was arrested by the Carabinieri of Catania, who found him in the apartment with the knife still in his hands.

The police intervened after the neighbours called them because the woman and her daughter were screaming for help. The murderer, 48-year-old Carmelo Sanfilippo, is at the Garibaldi Hospital in Catania because before the arrival of the police he attempted suicide by stabbing himself in the abdomen. The man is guarded by the carabinieri. The family slaughter took place at dawn. According to the first reconstruction, just before 6.00 a.m. Carmelo Sanfilippo got a knife from the kitchen and killed his wife, Maria Rosaria Drago, 35 years old, and his younger daughter, 8 years old.

The screaming caught the attention of the neighbours, who called the police. The carabinieri intervened: the older daughter, 13 years old, ran out and was taken to the hospital. In the meantime Sanfilippo stabbed himself in the abdomen to try to commit suicide. The reasons for the slaughter are still unknown. The corpses were found in the bedroom in a pool of blood. Sanfilippo has a clean record and works in a company that builds coffins.

Translated by Chiara Nunnari from John Milton Institute