An 86-year-old man killed his ex-wife with a knife inside a hospital on the Tuscan coast on Friday, before taking his own life by jumping from a third-floor window of the same building.
Franco Dini, 86, stabbed 67-year-old Myria Dini to death in the rehabilitation ward where she had been treated for three weeks, before jumping from a third-floor window; police in Viareggio are investigating.
Attack took place in rehabilitation ward
The killing happened shortly before midday at the Versilia Hospital in Lido di Camaiore, in the province of Lucca. At 11.45am on 3 July, an 86-year-old man in the hospital’s rehabilitation ward stabbed his 67-year-old ex-wife before jumping from a third-floor window. Emergency responders attended immediately, but medical staff could do nothing to save either the woman or her former husband.
The woman has been named locally as Myria Dini. She had turned 67 that day. She had been admitted to the Versilia Hospital roughly three weeks earlier in serious condition, being treated in the rehabilitation ward for severe neurological problems. Her ex-husband, named as Franco Dini, 86, lived in nearby Viareggio, as she had, and visited her regularly at the hospital.
According to initial reconstructions of events, the man entered her room as he usually did to see her, then produced a knife and fatally attacked her. The hospital’s own statement places the stabbing and the fall together at 11.45am in the rehabilitation department.
Police investigating how knife entered hospital
Officers from the Viareggio police are now working to establish the full circumstances of the attack, including how the weapon was brought into the hospital and whether there had been any earlier signs of tension between the pair. Investigators are also examining the man’s movements before the attack, and whether warning signs of distress had emerged in the preceding days. Notably, those who knew him said the man had shown no apparent friction with his ex-wife and visited her regularly without incident.
The tragedy is the second fatal domestic incident to strike the Versilia area in the space of a week: last week, in the same area, Piero Moriconi killed his wife Kety and their 24-year-old son Mirko.
