Italy is reeling from the brutal femicide of Pamela Genini, a 29-year-old business woman and model who was stabbed to death at her home in Milan on Tuesday evening.
Genini’s former partner Gianluca Soncin, 52, is accused of stabbing her more than 30 times, according to autopsy results released on Friday.
Soncin, who for over a year had allegedly threatened to kill Genini if she left him, was arrested at the scene, covered in blood and with a self-inflicted neck wound.
After being treated in hospital he is currently being held in solitary confinement in prison, as requested by the prosecutor.
He faces charges of voluntary homicide, cruelty, stalking and premeditation, given that he had brought the knife from home, according to Italian media.
Timeline
Genini was reportedly on the phone with her friend, an ex-boyfriend, at 21.22 on Tuesday when Soncin, who had recently made a copy of her keys, entered her apartment in the Gorla district in northeast Milan.
A neighbour reported seeing Genini through the peephole trying to leave, and Soncin grabbing her by the hair and pulling her back inside, Corriere della Sera reports.
Genini’s friend heard the panic in her voice on the phone and received a message from her after hanging up, at which point he called the police. Neighbours who heard her screams also called the police.
Scared
“I’m scared. This guy is completely crazy… I don’t know what to do,” Genini wrote at 21.46, and six minutes later, her last desperate message: “Darling, what do I do?”
Her friend tried to reassure her: “The police are coming. I called them and I’m coming too. Open up downstairs, the police are down there.”
When the police rang the buzzer downstairs, Genini responded: “Glovo, second floor”, in an attempt to make Soncin believe it was a food delivery.
The officers rushed upstairs and broke down the door, but Genini had already been stabbed dozens of times on the balcony. She died shortly afterwards.
History
Several people close to Genini, including the ex-boyfriend she was on the phone with and several friends, said that when they were together, Soncin prevented her from seeing other people, beat her and threatened to kill her, her family and even her beloved dog if he left her.
For a while, the two had lived together in Cervia, a seaside town in the Emilia-Romagna region, before Genini broke off the relationship and moved back to Milan.
Despite suffering multiple accounts of violence, Genini never reported Soncin to police, in what the prosecutor investigating her murder describes as a “bitter” situation.
Femicide debate
The high-profile case has reignited a femicide debate in Italy, with women’s groups calling for earlier police intervention, stricter monitoring of violent partners and better funding for shelters.
In July the Italian senate approved new legislation aimed at combatting femicide and gender-based violence.
The bill, which requires final approval from the lower house, establishes femicide as a separate crime from intentional homicide, punishable with a life sentence.
It also tackles aggravating circumstances, with increased penalties for the crimes of domestic abuse, stalking, sexual violence and revenge porn.