A tragedy occurred in the district of Bosco dei Preti, on the outskirts of Avellino. Driven to despair by his disabled daughter's illness, a 63-year-old man, Costantino Mazza, shot her with a pistol and then took his own life. The daughter, Alessandra, was 35 years old.
The two lifeless bodies were found under a pergola outside their country house on a hill in Avellino. According to a preliminary reconstruction of the events by investigators, Costantino legally owned the pistol he used to shoot his daughter Alessandra, killing her. Immediately afterwards, he turned the gun on himself and committed suicide.
The murder-suicide appears to have been triggered by increasingly strained relations between father and daughter. The young woman was being treated for a series of severe disorders that caused her mood to change dramatically, leading to frequent arguments and disagreements within the family.
The tragedy unfolded in the early afternoon in a rural residential area near the state highway bypass that skirts the Irpinia capital and connects to the two motorway exits for Napoli-Canosa. The father and daughter were outside the house while the mother was inside.
What triggered the man's decision will have to be determined by investigators who have initiated all necessary inquiries. The investigation is being coordinated by the public prosecutor of Avellino, Luigi Iglio, who arrived on the scene together with the deputy chief of police, Gianluca Aurilia. Preliminary external examinations of the victims' bodies have been ordered by the magistrate and assigned to the forensic doctor, Carmen Sementa.