A man arrested on Thursday on suspicion of stabbing to death an Italian woman as she took an evening stroll near her home in July this year has confessed to the murder, claiming he had no idea why he attacked his victim.
Moussa Sangare, the 31-year-old Italian citizen born to Malian immigrants, admitted stabbing 33-year-old Sharon Verzeni four times on a small street, Terno d’Isola, in Bergamo, in the early hours of July 30 this year.
Sharon had decided to take a late-night walk while her partner slept when she was accosted by Sangare who stabbed her three times in the back and once in the chest — an attack her autopsy revealed was rapid and which left her no time to react.
As her attacker fled, Sharon managed to call the emergency services to tell them, “He stabbed me,” but died shortly after her transfer to the hospital.
A widescale search for Sharon’s killer took place last month, with the Italian authorities particularly interested in the identity of a man caught on CCTV footage fleeing the vicinity of the murder on a bicycle.
That man was later identified as Sangare who was arrested last week and admitted to the murder.
“Tonight, at the end of very intense investigations, we were able to identify the gentleman on the bicycle who during the night first made spontaneous statements and then made a full confession,” Bergamo’s deputy prosecutor Maria Cristina Rota told the press.
During his police interview, Sangare claimed to have “had a sudden fit” which prompted him to attack Sharon — a woman he had never met and had no prior knowledge of.
“I can’t explain why it happened, I saw her and I killed her”, Sangare told the police.
However, the local prosecutor’s office claimed the killer left his house equipped with four knives, leading them to believe the attack was premeditated.
“The aim was obvious, he wanted to hurt someone,” said Rota, who revealed that his statements to the police led to the recovery of his clothes worn that evening along with several knives unused in the attack, and crucially, the recovery of another knife buried near the Adda River the prosecutor believes is the murder weapon.
“We believe this based on the length and width of the blade, which is compatible with the wounds found by the medical examiner on the body,” the deputy prosecutor told journalists.
The investigation also found that two minors, aged 15 and 16, had been threatened by Sangare with a knife just moments before the murder. Rota explained how the killer Sangare “gave up with the two kids and then met Verzeni who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The suspect, of Malian origin, lived just five kilometers from the crime scene in Suisio. He was unemployed and had no criminal record.
During a search of his property, police officers found a cardboard cutout the size of an adult human which had been used as a practice board for throwing knives.
Following the confession, a statement from Sharon’s family conveyed their relief that the killer had been apprehended and would be brought to justice.
“The news relieves us and also sweeps away all the speculations that have been made about Sharon’s life,” it read.
The killer’s lawyer has suggested the existence of a psychiatric illness that, if medically substantiated, could see Sangare avoid prison and be sent to a psychiatric facility.
“It is very likely that there is a psychiatric problem, even if it is premature and will be a topic to be explored further with consultancy and a possible request for an expert opinion, but this is still a very relevant aspect,” explained lawyer Giacomo Maj.