A 17-year-old is accused of killing a 42-year-old woman on their first date because he allegedly “wanted to know what it feels like to kill a person.”
Maria Campai disappeared on 19 September after telling her loved ones she was going for a job interview.
The next day (20 September), the authorities launched a search operation after her sister filed a missing persons report.
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Hours of CCTV footage and interviews with several witnesses led detectives to a 17-year-old boy.
He was arrested on Thursday (26 September) and immediately told the police where to find the body.
It was found on the same day under some leaves in the garden of an abandoned house in Viadana, northeast of Parma, Italy.
The body showed signs of strangulation and blows to the face and head.
The police believe Campai and the teenager had sex and then a row after she refused to comply with his requests.
They suspect he then knocked her out with several dumbbell blows to the face before strangling her.
Traces of blood were found in his family’s garage, which the teenager had turned into his personal gym.
The Italian press has since dubbed it the “garage of horrors”.
The police believe the suspect killed her there before dragging her body to the spot where it was found.
Chillingly, he allegedly told the police that he wanted to “know what it feels like to kill a person”.
It’s believed Campai met him through a paid dating site.
She turned up to their first meeting with a friend and went with the teenager to the garage after the friend left.
The suspect lives in Viadana with his parents and two sisters.
His acquaintances describe him as kind, peaceful, polite, and reserved.
He was disproportionately strong for his age but had never lashed out or been involved in fights, according to reports.
However, he was obsessed with MMA and reportedly showed an interest in bare-handed killing techniques on social media.
Detectives say he had conducted online research on extreme sexual practices.
And they reportedly uncovered evidence of his disturbing admiration for confessed murderer Filippo Turetta.
After allegedly killing Campai, the teenager went about his usual routine, including going to the technical institute he attends.
He is now being held at a young offender institution in Milan on suspicion of murder with intent and of concealment of a corpse.
He will be questioned again today (30 September) and the garage will also be reinspected.
Campai was from Romania but moved to Italy in 2000.
She lived with her husband in Tuscany, where she picked vegetables and also worked at some beach resorts.
After her divorce in 2022, she moved in with her sister Roxana in Parma, as reported by Need To Know.
The suspect’s father, who is from Albania, told local media: “If my son has done wrong, then he will face the consequences.
“If he really did kill her, he must have had one or two accomplices.
“He couldn’t have done it all by himself. It’s just not possible.”
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