Commentary by Patrick H. Moore
It is perhaps somewhat of a cliché to tell someone that he or she needs to get their priorities straight and most people will certainly bristle a bit when some well-meaning, albeit officious, soul tells them to do precisely that. We humans are congenitally stubborn and simply don’t like being told what to do.
On the other hand, someone can have their priorities straight in their own mind and discover that society (and law enforcement ) see things quite differently.
This appears to be what happened to Carlo Lissi, a darkly handsome soccer fan who used to live with his wife and his two children in a villa in Motta Visconti near Milan.
Lissa, a 31-year-old IT consultant, appears to have lined up his priorities in the following eminently reasonable (in his mind) manner:
1) Seduce the young female colleague at work with whom he had become deeply infatuated. Unfortunately, the colleague apparently would not cooperate, perhaps because she did not view Lissa as the ideal man with whom to tango. Lissi decided that the problem was that Miss Desirability didn’t want to make beautiful music with him because he was tied down – married with children.
2) Thus, logically enough, Lissi decided his best hope would be to murder his 38-year-old wife and his two young children. That way his family – whom he had come to view as excess baggage — would be out of the picture, and he could present himself to the young woman whose image was carved upon his heart as a free man. Of course, it’s entirely possible that Lissi had never told Miss Sweet that he was married and had a family. On the other hand, his co-workers may have informed her – we don’t know.
3) Lissi’a third priority, once he had dispatched his poor family to god knows where, was to under no circumstances miss Saturday’s critical World Cup soccer match between England and Italy. Therefore, he had to whack the wife and kids before the game so that he could watch it in peace knowing that he had improved his chances of winning Miss Sweet’s heart.
4) This brilliant tactician’s fourth priority was arranging the crime scene to make it look like an intruder had burst in, probably to burglarize the place, and had botched the job killing his wife and kids in the process.
With this plan in mind, Lissi began to execute matters, presumably never losing sight of his ultimate goal of overcoming his would be precious angel’s resistance.
His first step was to place his wife, Maria Cristina Omes, in a vulnerable position so that killing her would be easy. This he carried out with aplomb. First, after making sure that the kids were sleeping upstairs, he seduced poor Maria on their living room sofa. Maria was apparently quite willing; they proceeded to get naked then and there and consummated the act.
We don’t know if Lissi was fantasizing about Miss Delicious while he and Maria were having sex on the sofa. What we do know is that once they were through, Lissi suddenly attacked his wife, hitting her repeatedly before stabbing her to death.
He then went upstairs and knifed four-year-old Giulia and 20-month-old Gabriele.
Once they were dead, he washed any blood off his person, got dressed (we don’t if he wore an Italian National team soccer jersey like he might have if he were an American) and drove to the pub, tossing the murder weapon – a kitchen knife – down a storm drain on his way to the pub. (The murder weapon was later recovered.)
According to statements his friends at the pub made later to police, Lissi had been “completely calm” while watching the game (at least as calm as you can be while watching an exciting soccer match), and had cracked jokes and cheered when Italy was victorious by the score of 2 to 1.
It’s unclear exactly when Lissa returned home, but at some point he called police to report that his house had been robbed and his family murdered. When the police arrived, he told them he had returned home at 2 am only to discover a scene of horror — his wife and two children were very dead with their throats cut.
The Italian investigators have reported that after looking around, they immediately became suspicious. Although the house had been partially ransacked and the safe had been opened, there was no sign of any force and there was no sign of forced entry to the villa.
Therefore, like detectives the world round, they began grilling their suspect. It took more than 24 hours (as we know from another case that has been in the news, the Italian investigators are experts at long, intense interrogations) and Lissi, who may well be guilty of the murders, finally allegedly broke down and confessed.
According to the police report, Lissa told law enforcement that he came to consider his wife and children as obstacles standing in his way of his “unrequited love” which is why he murdered them.
Or as the old saying goes, “Love unrequited robs me of my rest.”
Once it was too late and he had allegedly confessed, Lissi asked that he be given the maximum sentence for his crimes, according to prosecutor Gustavo Cioppa.
Nick Squires reports from Rome for The Telegraph:
At the IT company where Lissi worked, colleagues said they were “speechless” and “staggered” when they heard about the triple murder.
A neighbour of the family told the Ansa news agency: “It seems impossible, he was so affectionate as a father. He told me just a few days ago that he was going to put a paddling pool in the garden for the kids.”
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This is plenty damned weird. If this story had not been reported by reputable tabloids (an oxymoron if there ever was one), I would say someone is shucking and jiving us. But it apparently did happen. And as we know from following the crime news, weak minds are snapping left and right all over this whole fallen world. Lissi’s wife and children are dead and he will spend a long time in an Italian prison no doubt dreaming of Miss Delicious and what could have been.
And, if Lissi is very lucky, Italy just might win the World Cup.