A woman was hit and killed as she was crossing the road with her dog in Marzocca di Senigallia (Ancona), in pouring rain.
The dead dog was found at the scene, along with a walking stick.
The mistress's body was found 8 km away, in via Podesti, in the town of Senigallia.
The victim was an 81-year-old of German origin, residing in Marzocca.
An ambulance, the Carabinieri, the traffic police and the local police attended the scene.
Rescuers intervened called by a motorist who noticed the mangled body of the woman on the roadway.
The body was transferred to the morgue of the Torrette di Ancona hospital.
Notified the deputy prosecutor on duty.
The traffic police are interviewing the driver of a van, who allegedly admitted to having run over the dog.
The hypothesis is that the van hit the dog and the woman, dragging the latter for kilometres.
The other possibility is that the owner was run over by another vehicle while rescuing the animal.
With the help of the cameras, the investigators are trying to reconstruct the episode more accurately.