Faced with the murder of Sharon Verzeni, my first thought did not go to the genealogy (which should never interest us in these cases) of Moussa Sangare, the 31-year-old Italian with Moroccan origins who said: “I don’t know why I did it, I saw her and I killed her”. My thought, as a journalist, was: “How many crimes like this have we seen. How many have we reported”. So many.

The Voices in Luca Giustini’s Head

Luca Giustini was 35 years old and a railway worker when, on August 17, 2015, in Ancona, he grabbed a kitchen knife and killed his 18-month-old daughter. The police found a notebook in which he wrote down some words. They were the voices he heard in his head that had convinced him to kill. Those who knew him said they had seen him behave strangely but no one had given it weight. He was acquitted because he was incapable of understanding and willing. He is still in a private health facility.

It was February 23, 2019 when Said Mechaquat, 28 years old and an Italian citizen of Moroccan origins, killed Stefano Leo, 34 years old from Biella, slitting his throat with a knife in the street of Turin. He was accused of voluntary homicide aggravated by futile motives and premeditation. This was because Mechaquat had left home with the idea of ​​killing but without knowing who. Why did he choose Leo? “I saw him walking too happy” said Mechaquat. In 2021 the sentence of 30 years in prison was confirmed on appeal.

On June 13, 2021, Andrea Pignani, a 34-year-old computer engineer, took his father’s gun, went to a green area in Colle Romito, in the Municipality of Ardea (province of Rome) and shot. He killed two children and an elderly man, then barricaded himself in his home and took his own life. Although he had shown signs of mental insanity, he had never been treated or taken into care by social services or the Department of Mental Health.

Andrea Tombolini in Assago

“I thought I was sick, I was ill. I saw all those happy people, who were well, and I felt envious.” This was Andrea Tombolini’s explanation for what he did on October 27, 2022, when he stabbed

six people, killing one, in a shopping center in Assago. The man was subjected to a psychiatric evaluation. The result? Capable of understanding and willing but serious psychiatric disorders had emerged. In 2024, the sentence of 19 years and 4 months was confirmed in the second degree.

Iris Setti was 61 years old and lived in Rovereto, in the province of Trento, and she had no idea who Chukwuka Nweke, 38 years old of Nigerian origin, was when he met her in a park, knocked her out, raped her and killed her with 50 kicks. It was August 5, 2023. Nweke has yet to be tried for voluntary homicide, aggravated by robbery and sexual violence. That morning he had signed up at the police station for another pending case and was known for being the type who would occasionally go on a rampage in the street and attack someone senselessly.

No motive

Today Sharon Verzeni. And if what the PM said is confirmed, that is, that “there is no motive”, we will have to ask ourselves “why”. There is a “why”. There always is. Perhaps it should not be sought in the passports of the torturers. Perhaps the real issue is mental health, in a country where little or nothing is done to intercept and treat the fragilities of the psyche because it is still an uncomfortable taboo. Instead, the time has come to talk about it in a broad way. Not to absolve or justify. It is necessary to learn to recognize certain disorders. To save those close to us. To save ourselves.