ITALY: Three women’s deaths were discovered in two apartments in Rome’s upscale Prati neighborhood, prompting police to look into the possibility of a serial killer.
In an apartment on Via Augusto Riboty, two of the women—both sex workers of Chinese descent and thought to be in their 40s to 50s—were discovered stabbed to death.
On Thursday morning, the body of one of the deceased women was discovered outside the flat, while the other body was discovered inside. The building porter called for help after discovering the body of one of the murdered women.
The sister of the deceased, Marta Castano Torres of Colombia, discovered her body in a basement apartment on a nearby street. Marta was a sex worker as well. She had been fatally stabbed.
The bodies of the Chinese women, who have not yet been named, were found to have been stabbed in the throat, chest, and back.
According to a source with the Rome police, detectives are looking into the possibility that the same perpetrator killed both of the women. It is thought that Torres, 65, was slain before the other two deaths. According to the Italian news, Torres worked as a sex worker to help support her daughter financially.
The murders took place in an exclusive neighborhood, just a few hundred metres from Italy’s supreme court, where there has been an increase in recent years in criminal networks operating prostitution operations out of flats.
As a result of the killings, proposals have been made for prostitution to be regulated as a profession in Italy to safeguard sex workers. Street prostitution is legal in Italy, but organised prostitution and brothels are prohibited.
Ermina Gbido from the Committee for the Civil Rights of Prostitutes, a non-profit group started by sex workers in 1982 to combat sex trafficking and support those in the industry, said, “These killings are awful.”
The far-right party of the prime minister, the Brothers of Italy, Federico Rocca, a councillor in Rome, claimed that the prostitution industry in apartments was deeply ingrained in “every district of the city.”
Also Read: Shraddha Walkar Murder: Aaftab to Be Produced in Court Today
