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08 February 2021 "Gruesome scenes at the Tropea cemetery, with the destruction and suppression of corpses and the violation of tombs".

The investigating judge of the Court of Vibo Valentia reveals macabre details in the order that brought the municipal cemetery custodian, Francesco Trecate of 62, a municipal employee, of his son Salvatore (38), already known to the police and Roberto Cintartese (53), clean record, all from Tropea. 



The three would have carried out numerous extumulations of corpses from the cemetery where they worked, probably to make money on the free places that thus became available for new burials, and by burning or throwing the remains removed from the niches into the waste bins. 



The Guardia di Finanza has managed on some occasions to film the crushing of coffins with an ax and a pickaxe, in other cases the dismemberment of corpses with bare hands and then with the use of saws and knives, with subsequent incineration of the remains placed in some black buckets.

The corpses were stripped, dissected and in one case the head of the deceased was cut off "and - underlines the investigating judge - shown as a trophy".



The day after the destruction of a body with flammable liquid, it was found that the tomb was used to bury a new body.

In another case, a professional from Tropea never found his grandfather's tomb, finding the empty niche.

The investigations made it possible to ascertain that the wife of the suspect Contartese was then buried there.



A witness of justice denounced the disappearance of the bodies in the cemetery of Tropea and the demand for money by the cemetery custodian, Francesco Trecate, to proceed with the burial of the bodies.

And to think that the Trecate last September received a public merit from the mayor of Tropea, Giovanni Macrì, for "dedication to work".  



For the three, the charges range from conspiracy to commit a crime, violation of the tomb, destruction of dead bodies and illegal disposal of special cemetery waste and embezzlement.

Crimes that would have been committed within the cemetery itself.



"The Guardia di Finanza - explained the prosecutor in charge - became aware of the existence of these conducts, and therefore we placed a camera that allowed us to reconstruct at least a dozen of this type of conduct, but we have reason to believe that this activity would last damage. The first complaints we received place it in July 2019 ".



But it does not end here "it seems the secret of Pulcinella, because they were conducts that lasted for some time and it seems they were also known in the environment, but no one had ever reported them".

But this, concluded the prosecutor, "is only the tip of the iceberg".