Her name is Chiara Petrolini, a 22-year-old law student accused of premeditated murder and concealment of a body. The girl is said to have confessed to everything. According to the investigators' reconstruction of what happened in the semi-detached house in via Baietta in Vignale di Traversetolo, in the province of Parma, she did everything alone. But investigators are checking the possible role of six other people in relation to the two bodies of newborns found in the garden. Her lawyer Nicola Tria says she “will not speak to anyone until everything is clear”. But according to an accredited source, the girl “was no longer eating so as not to gain weight and make her belly grow”. And one of her friends says that Petrolini was “serene as always: not a sign from her. A tranquility that now scares me.”
August 9
The first newborn buried in the garden was found on August 9. “I did everything myself. I gave birth to the baby without anyone's help,” Chiara told investigators. She gave birth in her bathroom without anyone hearing her. Then she went out with her friends. Only later would he bury her in the garden. She is said to have given birth on August 7. And the next day she went on vacation with her family. Destination New York. The Petrolini family returned to Italy after August 15. In the meantime, the family dog had started digging in the garden and the grandmother, who was in charge of the house, noticed the body and called 112. The newborn had been pregnant for at least 40 weeks. The woman had mistaken him for an animal. The discovery of the second newborn is rather due to an investigative activity.
Cell Phone Orders
It was cell phone checks and internet searches that led to the discovery of the remains of the second newborn. This too at least 40 weeks. The burial dates back to last year. The parents knew nothing and she did not go to the doctors: “No one but the girl knew about the pregnancy,” said the Parma prosecutor, Alfonso D'Avino. “The gestation was not followed by any professional (gynecologist, family doctor). The birth took place at home, outside the hospital setting,” he added. Chiara's boyfriend (or ex, as it was written), or Emanuele, tells The press that “I would have kept this child. I could even hold him alone. I am 22 years old, but I work and my mother would have helped me.” Sonia Canrossi, Emanuele's mother, also spoke out in the newspapers. Al Corriere della Sera He said he and Chiara had known each other “since primary school.”
The hidden belly
Sonia Canrossi says she last saw the girl on August 7. And that on that occasion “you couldn't see the belly.” According to their mother Chiara and Emanuele, “they went to school, communion and confirmation together. She helps at the summer camp and is a babysitter. No one would have imagined this tragedy.” In fact, this was repeated twice: “And if the first was surreal, I think the second is something beyond imagination. I would have helped them. In fact, I would have kept him. He was my nephew.” Today, he says, he has no news of Chiara's parents and she “doesn't forgive him.” There will never be any justification.” The RIS found the second newborn after investigating the 22-year-old's phone. Chiara Petrolini had searched the Internet for how to abort her second child. She is said to have received help from a friend (without knowing it) who is studying obstetrics. Although there are still some unclear points on the matter.
The friend and the tranquility that scare
One of Petrolini's closest friends instead addresses Republic. “I’m still in shock. I had to go through everything step by step because I was questioned by the Res. I can’t get over it,” she begins. The girl says that there was no sign or hint from Chiara about what she was experiencing: “A tranquility that now scares me. Not to mention those two dead newborns. I can’t stop thinking about it.” She says that if her friend had asked her for help, “I would have been by her side.” The relationship with her boyfriend was “absolutely calm.” She tried to call him. But Chiara “doesn’t answer and I don’t know where she is. I don’t know what to do and before I can help her, I have to help myself. It’s like the world has turned upside down in front of me.”
Internet searches
“She hadn't changed physically. He never mentioned it. I repeat: it's something devastating and incomprehensible,” Emanuele told investigators. In the case of the second discovery, a DNA test still needs to be carried out to be sure of the parents' identity. The Ris carabinieri started digging in the garden again because there were unmistakable Google searches on the girl's mobile phone. One of them was “how to give birth to your second child”. She tried to deny it until the end. After the discovery of the second body, she collapsed. And he confessed everything.
Cover photo by: Republic