Maria Prudenza Bellanova, the 82-year-old woman whose body was found yesterday by the carabinieri inside a freezer in the house where the old woman lived with her son in Ceglie Messapica (Brindisi), would have died on 17 November.
It was the latter, 55-year-old Angelo Bellanova, who told the carabinieri, who interrogated him until late in the evening, who admitted to having put the body in the freezer and is now being reported for concealing a corpse.
The Brindisi prosecutor's office investigating the incident ordered the seizure of the house.
The man, assisted by his lawyer Aldo Gianfreda, told investigators that when he became aware of his mother's death, he watched over the body for a day and then "out of a sense of fear of being judged for the death of his parent and " he would have decided to hide the body.
According to what emerged during the interrogation, mother and son had a relationship "of profound symbiosis" and so the man would have been "traumatized" after realizing that the woman was dead.
All elements that need to be explored.
The 55-year-old was described by some witnesses as "taciturn but never rude".
According to some of the woman's nieces, however, for months the man would have refused to let his aunt see.
Yesterday the police were alerted by some family members, with the carabinieri who reached the house where the mother and son lived with the staff of a social services cooperative who had followed the family until September.
In the next few hours, the public prosecutor in charge of the file, Mauron Gallone, should order an autopsy to ascertain whether the causes of death were natural and how long ago it dates back.
