Messina: investigation into the death of Melissa Echevarria, killed by a Tunisian already detained, carried out

It is a story of marginalization and violence that of Melissa Echevarria, the 40-year-old Argentine whose lifeless body was found on August 14 in the courtyard of a building in Messina. At the beginning it was thought of yet another case of death due to loneliness, perhaps due to drugs, but almost a month later came the turning point in the investigation. No accident, no overdose, Melissa was killed and the person responsible, already in prison for other crimes, confessed.

Melissa lived on the fringes of society, supporting herself by expedients, in an abandoned house that didn't belong to her. Investigators also ascertained that he was using narcotics, which he would have also taken in the hours before his death. At first the hypothesis of a violent death was discarded because the autopsy, carried out at the Piedmont hospital in Messina, had not identified any gunshot marks on the body, nor wounds attributable to a cutting weapon, nor obvious signs of violence. At the same time, the tests had been complicated by the advanced state of decomposition in which the corpse was.

And there was also another question mark: the fact that the woman's position, when she was found lifeless, made one imagine the presence of another person next to her, who then fled. The investigations of the police flying squad, coordinated by the Messina prosecutor's office, then radically changed the scenario. The new reconstruction hypothesized that the woman was strangled.

A 44-year-old Tunisian man ended up under the police spotlight, having already been detained for a week for another legal matter involving family mistreatment. The man also has a history of personal injury and was also charged with violating an approach ban. His name was linked to that of Melissa because during detention, when cornered by investigators, he confessed to having killed her at the height of an argument. Now his statements will have to be evaluated as a whole by the judicial authority, while the exact dynamics of the crime, and above all the motive, also remain to be clarified.

The hypotheses of voluntary and unintentional homicide are being examined by the prosecutor's office. The 40-year-old Argentinian was buried in the Lipari cemetery, but further investigations may be necessary to shed full light on the causes and manner of her death. Including the exhumation of the body.