Femicide in Foggia, husband shoots wife to death

Antonio Fortebraccio, the 48-year old security guard who confessed to killing his wife, 46-year old Stefania Rago, was arrested on charges of voluntary manslaughter aggravated by marital relations and taken to prison this morning by the carabinieri. The man fired four shots at her last night with his service pistol inside their home in Via Salvemini in Foggia After he turned himself in at the Carabinieri barracks and confessed to the crime.

Before hearing the dull sound of the four bullets fired by the man, neighbours heard a heated argument. It was not the first time the two had argued. On the contrary, the quarrels, the neighbours said, were very frequent. The reasons were trivial, some spoke of gratuitous scenes of jealousy on the part of the man.

On social media, Stefania Rago had often highlighted her situation as a committed woman against domestic violence. She posted photos of red shoes in which she wrote: 'If I ever lower my head... it will only be to admire my shoes'. And then: 'Stefania, your mistake was trying to make everyone happy except yourself'.

Sentences that today sound almost like a will. The couple had two children, in their early twenties: a boy and a girl, who were not at home at the time of the tragedy. After the crime in Via Salvemini, the woman's relatives rushed in, her elderly mother in tears leaning on a stick. Then the desperate children, hugging each other for comfort, and the relatives. All huddled together in grief and shock.

The perpetrator apparently called the Carabinieri himself. He was then picked up by the military and taken to the barracks for questioning. "My partner,' says a neighbour, 'called me and told me that there was a heated argument going on in the flat next to ours. Then she heard the gunshots. After a while she looked out and saw the flashing lights of the police". "I arrived here," says the man, "and we heard that the woman had been killed by her husband. Terrible news. My companion is scared, she keeps crying".