"She was in a panic, cried, bent in pain."

In Italy, two students were killed. The killers are an ex -boyfriend and a fan who the girls did not reciprocate. This caused protests throughout the country

Since the beginning of the year in Italy, at least 11 women have died at the hands of men - as a rule, former or current partners, husbands or annoying fans have been going on a crime. In the last week alone, two murders occurred in the country. The Roman student Ilary Sulu stabbed and threw her ex -guy into the ravine far outside the city. A week later, in the Sicilian city of Messina, another student Sarah Campanella cut the throat right on the street. The killer is a man who has haunted her for two years.

Italians throughout the country go to many thousands of protest against the femicide - intentional murder of women committed, as a rule, by a man on the basis of hatred, gender discrimination or as a result of gender violence. Read more about the stories of girls and how the processions are held in the material of the New-Europe.

The story of a Roman student of Ilaria Sula. The ex -guy killed her and threw her into a ravine outside the city

Ilaria Sula, a 22-year-old third-year student of the faculty of statistics at the University of Sapienz in Rome, left the house that she rented with her friends, and never returned. A week later, she was found dead in a large suitcase at the bottom of the ravine near the municipality of Poli (about 40 kilometers from the center of Rome).

As the results of the autopsy showed, she received three stab wounds in the neck and died of hemorrhagic shock.

The girl was killed by a 23-year-old architect-architect Mark Anthony Samson, originally from the Philippines. He confessed to the murder. The crime, according to him, occurred in the midst of a quarrel in his apartment on Homs Street in the north of the Italian capital, where he lived with his parents. In the room of the young man, traces of blood were found.

Mark said that he killed Ilaria with a knife, who then threw it into the garbage container, plunged the body into the car, before pushing him into the suitcase, drove to the place and threw it off the hill. According to investigators, the next day he took the phone of Ilaria and sent all sedative messages on her behalf (“I have everything good, thanks to everyone”) to confuse the police. The knife has not yet been found, like the girl’s phone, who, probably, the young man threw it into the sewer.

The young man was accused of deliberate murder and concealment of the corpse. So far, autopsy cannot determine the day and time of death - additional tests will be required. However, between the last voice message of Ilaria, which she sent to her friends in the evening of March 25, and the moment when the observation camera captured the brand car about 500 meters from the ravine, the difference is 22 hours.

On April 2, the police interrogated the parents of the young man - it turned out that they were at home at the time of the murder. So far, they have not been charged with them. Now investigators find out whether someone helped Mark to hide the lifeless body of the girl.

The parents of Ilaria filed an application for the loss of a person on March 28 - they immediately suspected that she was not writing messages from her phone. The next day, they met with a former young man in a police station. “We did not know that they broke up. He told us that he was very sorry and that he was concerned about the disappearance. He seemed calm, he even hugged me, ” said Father Ilaria Flimur Sula.

“We do not understand why he did it. Only he knows. I talked with her for the last time two weeks ago when she came to us. She was calm and did not tell me about any problems. They were together for a year, but then parted, ” said the younger brother of Ilaria Leon.

The story of the Sicilian student Sarah Campanella. An obsessive fan cut her throat on the street in front of everyone

Another femicide occurred in the Sicilian city of Messin on March 31. 22-year-old Sarah Campanella, a third-year student at the University of Messino at the faculty of biotechnology, cut the obsessive fan, 27-year-old biologist Stefano Argentino, right on the street in the city center.

On the day of the crime, he followed her to the university hospital, where the girl was internship. When he caught up with her, they began to argue. Sarah, not wanting to talk anymore, left the young man, but Stefano caught up with the girl and grabbed the back. She escaped, but the guy grabbed her again and stabbed her. But even after that, Sarah tried to run away, she screamed throughout the street: “Stop, let me go” before she fell. A passerby, hearing screams, chased Stefano to detain the attacker, but he managed to hide.

“She was in a panic, cried, she bent in pain,” said the witness. The doctors arrived immediately after the attack, but Sarah died on the way to the hospital - she lost too much blood.

Argentino was detained a few hours later in the city of Noto - 180 kilometers from Messina. The man was still in the same clothes in which he cut his throat Sarah, and was surprised at the presence of the police. At the same time, he was not aggressive: “It is difficult to recognize in this modest young man a killer who, a few hours earlier, cut his throat to the one who rejected him. Perhaps this explains why Sarah, cheerful, beautiful, with a thousand dreams and a thousand friends, never really considered his danger, ” writes Corriere Della Sera.

On April 2, Stefano appeared before the investigating judge and gave a confession.

The victim's friends knew that Stefano pursued the girl for two years and bought signs of attention that she did not like: messages, constant requests to go somewhere and even ridiculous reprimands. Once he was completely indignant that Sarah "did not smile at him as before."

“He was shy, not too sensitive, closed. <...> If he was in the room, no one noticed his presence, ”the acquaintances of the guy said. The girl did not contact the police, because she did not consider the attention of a man threatening. But no one - neither a sacrifice nor her friends - thought that everything would go so far.

Sarah’s mother, Maria Zakkaria, admitted: the family did not know that the girl was pursued. Her daughter “boldly considered” that she would be “no”, she added: “Sarah no longer says, she no longer laughs, she is cold. There are no more colors, there is no more sea breeze that you loved so much, no more air. <...> We did not know that she was being persecuted. She just wanted him to leave her alone. <...> She wanted to live, dream and graduate from the university, ”she said .

“You always need to speak out and contact the police! Help me give Sarah a voice, ”Maria added.

Femicid in Italy - the problem is not new

In Italy, the problem of gender violence is acutely: since the beginning of 2025, at least 11 women have become victims of the femicide. According to the Ministry of the Interior, in 2024, out of 321 murders committed in the country, 113 were committed against women. Femicides go mainly the current or former partners or husbands of women.

In November 2023, protests against gender violence broke out in the country after a 22-year-old student Julia Chekketein was brutally killed in Padua. Her body with 26 stab wounds was found only a week later in a ditch near the lake. The crime suspected the former young man of the victim, the 21-year-old Filippo Tutret. The girl even before the tragedy said that she did not want to maintain contact with Filippo. The police did not respond to signals.

"This happens again, again and again." Women throughout Italy go to demonstrations against gender violence

On April 2, more than two thousand women went out in the center of Rome to protest against gender violence. Raising the posters and banners upwards, they started the way from the University of Sapienz, then blocked Tiburtin Street next to the city’s main station and filled the square in front of the University of Roman.

“For Ilaria, for Sarah, for everyone”: a woman shouted this slogan into a megaphone, wrote it on banners and

They held him in their hands throughout the demonstration. “I could be in the place of Ilaria! <...> The Femicid of Ilaria is not news, not some exceptional event, but a sign of a system that is internally sick, ” said one of the speakers.

Hundreds of people also brought flowers to the university building where a young girl studied.

“This happens again, again and again. We are tired of seeing how nothing is done in Italy to combat this phenomenon [femicide] to stop the patriarchal culture, which ultimately kills.

Two days, two femicides, and the government is silent. For years we have asked for prevention, information, ” said another participant in the demonstration.

In Messin - the city where Sarah was stabbed - about 5 thousand people took part in a torch march against the femicide. The mother of a murdered student came to the action, who thanked all the audience for “giving Sarah a voice”.

In addition, on April 1 in the evening, two thousand women went out into the streets in the Roman district of San Lorenzo to “shout out their anger and call the government to be responsible for ineffective policy”: “Dear President Meloni, you did not hear anything about what we asked in the squares,” the girls said. Similar promotions also took place in Milan, Bologna, Naples, Padu, Pisa, Peskar, Turin and Genoa.