The couple is accused of complicity in the brutal murder. It is believed that the Palermo couple may have encouraged the father to kill his family in order to rid his home of “demons”. The Palermo public prosecutor’s office is investigating possible links to a sect and suspects religious fanaticism behind the bloody act that has shocked Italy.
After the crime, the 54-year-old called the carabinieri, who arrested him on Sunday. Only the daughter survived, who was spared for reasons that are still unclear and found by the emergency services in a state of shock.
Sons are said to have been strangled by their father
In the family home, investigators found the bodies of the two sons, both of whom were said to have been strangled by their father. Next to the elder was an iron chain, which according to the police was the weapon of the crime. The uninjured but severely confused daughter said that she woke up in the night and saw the bodies of her brothers. It is unclear whether she was drugged before the massacre. Her mother’s charred remains were found in the garden following several hours of searching. There is a suspicion that the alleged perpetrator did not act alone, but with the help of the arrested couple.
According to media reports, the main suspect and his wife were long members of the Protestant community in the town of Altavilla Milicia near Palermo, which they visited regularly until it was closed during the pandemic in 2020. After that, the church pastor reported, he never saw the couple once more. The alleged perpetrator had apparently met a self-proclaimed Protestant pastor, healer and exorcist from Bari via social media who claimed to be able to drive out the devil.
Accused called himself “Soldier of God”
The man, who is said to suffer from a mental disorder, is said to have become a religious fanatic in recent years. As a “soldier of God,” as he called himself on his social profiles, he was convinced that his job was to “fight for the kingdom of God.” The statements of the surviving daughter, who was taken to a protected place, might now prove to be decisive.
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