Martina Carbonaro's murderer apprehended: video surveillance proved decisive in tracing the culprit

On Martina's body there were no signs of sexual violence, but wounds, on the face and head, caused by at least four blows with a blunt instrument, most probably a stone.

The local doctor's inspection revealed that the teenager, after being hit 'savagely and repeatedly', died at the end of an agonising time, due to substantial blood loss.

Twice on Tuesday 27 May, investigators went to the cottage: in the afternoon, when glasses, blood stains and the stone used to commit the murder were found, but not the body.

And then, ten minutes after midnight, when the corpse was found, under the wardrobe. Video surveillance proved decisive in tracing the culprit, thanks to which Martina's last hours and her movements in Alessio's company were reconstructed.

The friend she had gone out with also provided crucial information: the 14-year-old girl met her murderer in a yoghurt shop.

She had told her parents that she was going to eat ice cream and at first it was even thought that she had been kidnapped and in fact the investigation was directed in that direction due to some reports.

Martina, according to what has been reconstructed so far, agreed to meet one last time with her ex, in a secluded place they both knew.

And this is where the crime took place. At the barracks, during the interrogation, Tucci first pretended not to know anything; then, cornered and faced with a series of contradictions into which he fell, he confessed around 2.30 a.m. in front of the pm and in the presence of his lawyer Mario Mangazzo, also showing his hands wounded by the violence used to kill.

He is charged with aggravated murder and concealment of a corpse.

He was also framed by his fingerprints, which were found on the cupboard under which he hid the girl's body. In the detention order, the motive was indicated as 'the girl's refusal to continue her romantic relationship with Tucci, which had been interrupted a few weeks ago', during which the young man tried several times and always in vain to 're-establish the relationship'. 

And unfortunately, once again, that last encounter proved fatal.

Martina's tracks were lost on the evening of 26 May: her parents reported her missing to the Carabinieri when the girl stopped answering phone calls and messages. Immediately afterwards, they launched an appeal on social media asking anyone who had heard from her to contact the police.

'I immediately thought something was wrong,' said her mother, Fiorenza Cossentino, whom everyone calls Enza, with teary eyes. Martina wanted nothing more to do with her ex, she said: 'Love can end. But can one die like that?"

In anger she pleaded for life imprisonment: 'What sin has my daughter committed? She was as beautiful as the sun'.

A torchlight procession was organised in Afragola, in the evening, with the participation of friends, relatives and many citizens, from Piazza Municipio to the place where the body was found.