A university student had her throat slit in the street by a fellow student who had been harassing her for two years.
The suspect had followed trainee nurse Sara Campanella from the hospital where she interned on Monday (31 Mar).
A witness later told the police: “I was standing at the bus stop when I suddenly heard loud screams.
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“At first, I couldn’t tell where they were coming from or what was being said.
“Then, I saw a girl I’d never seen before running along the pavement across from me.
“She was fleeing in a panic, bent over, crying, and clearly in distress.”
The same witness reported seeing a young man approach the victim “holding a bladed weapon”.
Sara, 22, dropped to the ground in a pool of blood with a deep cut to her neck, as reported by Need To Know.
Dozens of people were on the street at the time and one even tried to chase her attacker as he ran away.
Emergency responders arrived at the scene in Messina, Italy, and gave Sara first aid.
But she died soon after arriving at the same hospital she had left a short while earlier.
The police found the suspect, Stefano Argentino, hiding in a B&B linked to his mother in Noto a few hours after the crime.
Argentino, 27, knew Sara from university and had allegedly been pestering her for two years.
He would constantly ask her out and refused to accept that she was not interested in him.
Despite the persistent harassment, Sara had never reported him because she never thought he would go this far.
Before being killed, she had sent one of her friends a voice note saying: “The creep is following me.”
And chillingly, witnesses told how the last words she yelled over and over were: “Stop, leave me alone!”
Sara’s family is from Misilmeri, but she had been living in Messina for two years for her studies.
Her uncle told local media: “She was full of dreams and had a zest for life.”
Antonino Fricano, who had been dating Sara for a few months, wrote on social media: “Goodbye, my love.
“This should never have happened – not to us. A piece of my heart has been taken away.”
Prosecutors say other suspects aided and abetted the crime.
The Messina Prosecutor’s Office said: “He managed to escape quickly after the incident, relying on the support of unidentified individuals to cover his tracks.”
Argentino remains in prison as the investigation continues.
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