Spouses beheaded in the Modena area, son interrogated: today hearing to validate the arrest

Daniele Tavoni, 55, was arrested on charges of double murder of his mother Vincenza Giannini, 74, and her husband, 83-year-old Pier Ferdinando Casari. There are "serious indications of guilt" against him, as explained by prosecutor Luca Masini. The crimes occurred in the late afternoon of October 15th. According to initial information, relations between the spouses and the 55-year-old, who lived in another apartment but in the same farmhouse, were tense, perhaps due to economic issues

Vincenza Giannini and her husband Pier Ferdinando Casari were brutally killed in their home in Mirandola, in the Modena area. The perpetrator of the two crimes was Daniele Tavoni, the woman's 55-year-old son. The man was arrested yesterday morning as the main suspect in the events that occurred in the late afternoon of October 15th. Tavoni is now under investigation for double aggravated murder and is in prison at Sant'Anna in Modena awaiting the request for validation from the investigating judge. The validation hearing should be in the next few hours: in the meantime the man has been placed under interrogation.

The double murder

The crime took place in the home of the two victims. The alarm was raised on 112 by a call from a lady worried about not having seen or heard from her neighbors for a few days. When the officers of the Mirandola police station, together with the firefighters and 118, entered the house they found the two bodies with obvious signs of violence. Vincenza Giannini and her husband Pier Ferdinando Casari were found with their heads decapitated. In a short time the investigations led to the woman's son, Daniele Tavoni, who lives in the house adjacent to that of the two victims. Inside the man's house the tools used for the crime were found and, as reported by the prosecutor's office, also "very obvious and copious traces of blood".

Who are the victims

The victims were called Vincenza Giannini and Pier Ferdinando Casari. She, 74 years old, was originally from Bovino, in the province of Foggia. The 83-year-old man was born in San Felice sul Panaro, in the Modena area. Vincenza Giannini had moved to Emilia Romagna decades ago: she had worked for thirty years as a worker at Haemotronic in Mirandola, a company in the biomedical sector. In Emilia she had met and married the 83-year-old, known in the town as Pietro: those who knew them speak of them as a united and calm couple. Inside the walls of the house, however, there were some concerns related to Daniele Tavoni who lives in the house next to his mother's.

Who is the alleged killer?

Daniele Tavoni, 55 years old, is Vincenza Giannini's son from a relationship prior to her marriage to Casari. The man, it is understood, had had mental health problems in the past. He is not currently under the care of Modena's mental health services but previous contacts from a treatment process dating back over 10 years ago have emerged: the last visit appears to have been in 2019. The 55-year-old does not have a permanent job: a factor that caused considerable concern for his mother and which was often the subject of arguments between the man and the two elderly spouses. Some people close to the family, interviewed by the investigators, reported that Daniele Tavoni, as he was unemployed, often turned to his mother and her husband to ask for money and this had made relations between the three tense. For those investigating, therefore, it could be a crime of an economic nature but further investigations are necessary to identify the motive with certainty.