A terrible triple homicide.
A Sicilian confessed to killing his wife and their two sons because they were “possessed by the demon,” a spokesperson for the Italian Carabinieri said on Monday.
This triple murder against a backdrop of sectarian drift occurred last week in Altavilla Milicia, near Palermo, as part of an “exorcism” session, said the same spokesperson.
Giovanni Barreca, a 54-year-old mason, confessed before the carabinieri to having killed his wife Antonella Salamone, 41, and their sons Kevin, 16, and Emanuel, 5.
“I wanted to free them from the demon,” explained this fervent evangelical during his arrest.
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According to an initial forensic examination, the murders could have taken place on Friday February 9, although it was not until Sunday evening that the suspect called the police to confess to his crimes.
“I killed my family, I'm waiting for you: come and get me,” he revealed to investigators, specifies the Italian channel TG24 before adding: “there was the devil in the house.
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The 17-year-old eldest is the couple's only child to survive.
“They did a ritual to chase away the devil,” the woman told the police. We still do not know why she was spared and was probably drugged.
The mother's partly charred body was found half-buried in the garden of their house, while the bodies of the children found in their beds bore marks of strangulation.
Couple of family friends arrested
“Giovanni had been obsessed with religion for some time, but we hadn't heard from Antonella for at least a week,” said Antonella Salamone's aunt and grandmother.
According to the Italian press, the father regularly invoked on social networks the name of a self-proclaimed evangelical pastor from Bari.
Very present on Facebook and TikTok, he invites the faithful not to go to the doctor because he claims to be able to cure them, as well as to “cast out Satan”.
The carabinieri are seeking to determine his possible role in the alleged murderer's act, as well as that of a couple of family friends.
The latter were arrested and imprisoned, suspected, again according to the press, of having incited him to kill his loved ones.
This couple belongs to an evangelical community, which denounced on Monday “the horror” of the triple homicide.
“The evangelical community of Altavilla Milicia categorically distances itself from any form of violence,” she assured in a press release.