An Italian village has been left in shock after it emerged that a local nanny is at the centre of an infanticide investigation at a “house of horrors”, with the bodies of two newborn babies found buried in her garden.
The suspect, identified as Chiara Petrolini, 22, was arrested by police after DNA tests allegedly proved she was the mother of one of the babies, a boy.
Described as a “model college student,” Petrolini lived in the house with her parents and was on vacation with them in New York when the horrific discovery was made.
Police have been searching her family’s villa and garden in the quiet commune of Vignale di Traversetolo, near Parma, since last month, when her grandmother’s dog unearthed the body.
A leaked autopsy said the baby had been buried alive because “soil was found in the lungs” and a second body was discovered last week, but no further details have yet been released about the cause of death.
Chiara Petrolini was living in the house with her parents and was on holiday in New York with them when the terrible discovery took place.
Petrolini was arrested by police after DNA evidence allegedly proved she was the mother of one of the babies, a boy.
Police have been searching the villa and garden in the quiet village of Vignale di Traversetolo, near Parma, since last month.
Subsequent tests carried out on the body of the first baby discovered confirmed that the father is the woman’s boyfriend, a 22-year-old man named locally Emanuele.
Unconfirmed reports also emerged that the second body was found after Petrolini confessed to police.
She is now being held on suspicion of infanticide and has reportedly insisted she acted alone, without the knowledge of anyone else.
The law student is believed to have kept her pregnancy hidden before inducing labour in her 40th week and giving birth alone in her bathroom on August 7.
She then allegedly killed the baby and hid it in the back garden. Just two days later, she left for a holiday with her parents in the United States, a trip she had been planning for some time.
On the day of her departure, according to Italian media, her grandmother’s dog dug up the baby’s lifeless body, which had been wrapped in a sheet and hidden in a hole in the garden.
The grandmother initially mistook the body for an animal and called a neighbor, who alerted police after making the gruesome discovery.
Investigators reviewed Petrolini’s phone and conducted internet searches, which allegedly led them to the shocking discovery of a second newborn.
Petrolini allegedly searched on the Internet for ways to abort “a second child,” according to Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
Her friends and boyfriend said they hadn’t noticed anything and had no idea she was pregnant.
Petrolini hid her pregnancy by eating almost nothing for months, maintaining her slim figure even when she was full term, Italian media reports
Her boyfriend, “shocked,” told Italian media: “I didn’t know anything, I can’t believe it.” He insisted that if he had known, he could have taken care of the child.
“I would have liked to have had that child, I could have had it on my own. I am 22 years old, but I work and my mother would have helped me,” she said.
Petrolini hid her pregnancy by eating almost nothing for months, maintaining her slim figure even when she was full-term, La Stampa reports.
A close friend of Petrolini told La Repubblica that before leaving for vacation the young woman had shown “a calmness that now frightens me.”
“I’m still in shock,” the anonymous friend said. “I had to go through everything step by step because I was questioned by (the police). I can’t get over it, it’s like the world has turned upside down in front of me.”
Neighbour Gabriele Volpi said: ‘When the news broke last month that the first body had been found, my girlfriend showed me pictures of the woman on holiday in New York.
‘I couldn’t believe it, there she was standing with skyscrapers in the background and they had found a body in her garden.
-I don’t know her very well but I know her boyfriend very well, she’s a friend of my girlfriend but I know him.
“This is a very prosperous area, I can’t believe something like this happened here.”
The mayor of the town, Simone Dall’Orto, explained: “It seemed like a normal, classic family. The girl is a model university student, studying law.
‘The father is a businessman and the mother also works locally, they are the most unprepared family you can imagine.
‘There is a heavy atmosphere in the town and people are already calling it the house of horrors, no one can believe it.
Her grandmother’s dog unearthed the baby’s lifeless corpse, which had been wrapped in a sheet and hidden in a hole in the family home’s garden.
‘The police are carrying out their investigations. When the news of the first body was known, there was shock, but then hearing about a second body is incredible.
‘I know the family has left the house and moved out of the village, we can only hope that this chapter of our history closes quickly.’
In a statement, the local prosecutor in Parma confirmed that an investigation had been launched into the discovery of the two bodies and that the woman was the only suspect.
She added: ‘As far as we can establish, the pregnancies were carried out in secret and without the knowledge of the family, the father of the first child or friends.
“It also appears that no medical facility or doctor was aware of the pregnancies, but investigations are ongoing.”
