A 53-year-old man, Marco Panichi, has been arrested for fatally stabbing of his 36-year-old girlfriend, Grey Sanmartin Villalba, in Vergiate, in the province of Varese, Italy, on Friday, October 23.
After committing the crime, Marco, who is a plumbing technician, drove to his father’s apartment in another province, confessed to stabbing Grey, and then turned himself in to the police.
At the police station, he claimed he was defending himself from an attack by his partner, whom he alleged wielded a knife at him during the argument. He claimed the attack didn’t originate with him but with Grey, who was “extremely jealous.”
Police investigators found the deceased woman’s body in their bedroom, and next to it was a kitchen knife with a 33-centimeter blade. The medical examiner who carried out the first inspection counted at least fifteen stab wounds, many of them in the neck area.
According to reports, the two had been seeing each other for barely a year. The deceased, who was seventeen years younger, lived in Ancona, was separated, and was the mother of two minor children, while Marco had lived for about ten years with another partner in Civitella Roveto, in Marsica. When that relationship broke down, he acknowledged the new relationship with Grey.
He rented an apartment in Vergiate, where they both lived, and several times showed off his bond with her on his Facebook and Instagram profiles. On July 16, he updated his relationship status on social media to ‘officially engaged.’ A few days before stabbing her to death, he shared a photo embracing her, accompanied by a love emoji and a song.
