ROME – A mother of a nine-year-old child was killed with a hammer in Bolzano in a gender related homicide, police said. The woman, identified as 35-year-old Romanian Alexandra Elena Mocanu, was brutally murdered by her housemate. The suspect was quoted by police saying, “I killed her with a mason’s hammer.”

 The assasin, Avin Mecja, confessed to the police late in the evening on Monday with a detailed account of how he murdered her. The police reported that his confession was “incredibly detailed and linear.” He was only released from the police investigation at 3 in the morning on Wednesday, and the autopsy records confirmed his grotesque story. The mother was killed by a blow to the head with a mason’s mallet.

 Unfortunately, this case is anything but unique in Italy. Domestic violence has been steadily on the rise for women in Italy, with the pandemic causing a surge of cases of violence against women. According to ISTAT, over 30 percent of women have been victim to a sexually or physically violent crime in their life, and the situation is only worsening. It was reported in August that there are consistently over 100 gender-based murders a year.

 The court hearing for this recent murder case is scheduled for Wednesday at a local Bolzano prison, where the murderer is currently being held in solitary confinement. Mecja is facing a life imprisonment sentence. He has previously been convicted of sexually violent crimes and served time in the past. 

 It has been reported by local media that his motive for the crime was jealousy.

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