A 17-year-old boy has confessed to stabbing his 53-year-old aunt Chiara Guerra and disposing of her body in the Livenza river near their home in San Stino di Livenza, in the Metropolitan City of Venice.
The killing took place on the evening of Saturday 13 June in San Stino di Livenza, a small town in the Veneto region that lies between the Livenza river and the Malgher canal, some 60 kilometres north-east of Venice. The victim, Chiara Guerra, was 53 years old. Her body was found in the water near the family home.
The boy, who turns 18 in a matter of months and is an Italian citizen originally from San Stino di Livenza, confessed to the killing during the night. He was questioned by officers from the Portogruaro Carabinieri Company. He confessed to magistrate Carmelo Barbaro of the Pordenone Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is leading the initial investigation. The prosecutor has since forwarded the case to the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office in Trieste, which has jurisdiction given the suspect’s age.
Family disputes cited as motive
Investigators believe the murder was rooted in serious and longstanding family disputes. No further details of the specific nature of those conflicts have been released at this stage. Carabinieri officers and forensic medical examiner Antonello Cirnelli are on site conducting investigations.
The Carabinieri moved quickly to focus their suspicions on the boy once the investigation was under way. He was subjected to a prolonged overnight interrogation before confessing to responsibility for the crime. The confession, extracted in the early hours of Sunday 14 June, marked a swift resolution to the initial phase of the inquiry.
Because the suspect is a minor, the case has been transferred to the Trieste Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office, which handles criminal proceedings involving under-18s across the Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Veneto judicial districts. The proximity of his 18th birthday does not affect his classification as a juvenile for the purposes of this case, as the alleged offence was committed while he was still 17.
Italian law provides for significantly different sentencing frameworks for juvenile offenders, including in cases of homicide. The maximum sentence applicable under the juvenile penal code is generally lower than that available to adult courts, and the proceedings are conducted with greater protections for the minor’s identity and privacy.
