Lorena Isceri called 112 from the boot: twenty minutes on the phone before being thrown from the viaduct
Lorena Isceri, 47, managed to call 112 whilst locked in the boot of the car by her ex-partner Federico Vella, who then threw her from the A1 motorway.
Three phone calls from the boot, then silence
Lorena Isceri had her telephone in her hand when Federico Vella opened the boot of the SUV on the overpass of the Lora viaduct on the A1. The voice of the woman was also recorded at the operations centre of the Florence police headquarters: "What are you doing?", the man allegedly said. Moments later, the woman — 47 years old, a business manager — was hurled into the void from a height of over forty metres.
According to Il Fatto Quotidiano — Cronaca, Lorena had attempted three times to call for help before that scene. The first call was to her mother: the communication was cut off almost immediately. The second to a friend: that one also failed to go through. On the third attempt she managed to reach 112, making contact with the Florence operations centre. "Federico has kidnapped me, he wants to kill me," she said.
Twenty minutes on the line with police
For approximately twenty minutes Lorena remained on the telephone with the operators. They, immediately understanding the gravity of the situation, sought to gather all useful information: the identity of the woman, that of the man, the vehicle, the registration plate, any possible presence of weapons. The mobile phone continued to transmit a signal and the police managed to geolocate it, identifying the vehicle moving on the motorway. An alert was activated for the highway police; the intersection with images from the surveillance cameras confirmed the position of the SUV.
Then the line went dead. The police headquarters attempted several times to re-establish contact, without success. According to an initial investigative hypothesis, Vella may have discovered that Lorena was talking to the police. When a patrol located the SUV stationary on the overpass, the woman was still alive. Seconds later, she was thrown into the void.
The relationship ended, the fear not reported
The relationship between Lorena and Vella, 36 years old, had ended a few weeks earlier, after a holiday in Greece. There are no records of prior complaints. A friend of the victim told La Nazione that she had warned her: "I had warned her that he would be waiting for her outside her house. Until yesterday I had asked her to go to the authorities, to report him. But she told me she would get through it on her own. She was an exceptional woman, whilst he turned out to be a Jekyll and Hyde."
Lorena's mother, interviewed by Sky and Rai, confirmed that her daughter was afraid of her ex. "She was afraid, in fact she had been staying with us — in Puglia — also because she was too frightened." The last time she had spoken to her was the morning of the day of the attack, at half past ten: "She was calm." When asked why her daughter had not filed a complaint, the mother replied: "She didn't want to harm him, with a complaint there were also criminal consequences, they had said, I don't know."
Vella arrested on the overpass
When officers reached Vella on the overpass, the man allegedly spoke words of accusation towards his ex-partner: "She cheated on me, she treated me badly, she attacked me." Investigators are now evaluating the hypothesis of premeditation of the femicide.
On Monday 7 September an autopsy on Lorena's body is scheduled to establish whether death occurred as a result of the fall from the viaduct or at an earlier time. An autopsy on Vella's body will also be ordered.
Source: Il Fatto Quotidiano - Cronaca