Perhaps Clara Ceccarelli, the merchant killed yesterday afternoon in her slipper shop in the center of Genoa by her former partner, had had an omen of what would happen to her.
And two weeks ago, according to what was told by the clerk who occasionally helped her, the woman had paid for the funeral to avoid weighing on the elderly father and his disabled son.
An omen almost confirmed by the admission of Renato Scapusi, his former partner of 59, unemployed and gambling addict.
The man confirmed what was immediately more than a suspicion.
"I went into the shop and we started arguing. I wanted to get back together but she didn't want to and so I hit her," he told the mobile and steering wheel investigators, "after which I wandered around the city and then tried to kill myself".
Prosecutor Giovanni Arena disputes the aggravated voluntary murder.
It is not excluded that the accusation may worsen and that the premeditation may be challenged.
Scapusi, defended ex officio by the lawyer Stefano Bertone, arrived in the shop with a knife which he then threw away as he ran and which has not yet been found.
The man will be subjected to a psychiatric examination: the task will be entrusted to the doctor Gabriele Rocca.
In the next few days the validation of the detention will be fixed.
"Unfortunately we didn't hear anything, otherwise we would have intervened. Renato waited for the evening to come and for the boy to leave the shop," said one of the shopkeepers nearby.
Scapusi had started to haunt her right after the relationship ended a year ago.
Phone calls, teasing the shop windows, minor damage.
She had only reported damage once and said she had suspicions about her ex.
However, the complaint was closed.
In the afternoon, the activists of Non una di Meno and the Mascherona anti-violence center demonstrated in via Colombo, in front of the site of the tragedy.
Two hundred people brought flowers and messages for Clara.
"Just call it raptus, just call it a crime of passion" reads a banner.
