Haunting last photo of husband kissing his wife hours before he ‘killed her – then called her mum with chilling message’
THIS is the haunting last photo of a husband kissing his wife hours before he killed her then called her mum with a chilling message.
Mum-of-two Donatella Miccoli, 38, posted the tender snap on Instagram hours before being stabbed to death by her husband Matteo Verdesca, 38, at their home in southern Italy.
Donatella's post was eerily prescient and included a caption of the song lyric 'And together we are the end of the world' from 'La parte piu bella di me' ('The Most Beautiful Part of Me') by Anto Paga.
And her profile picture on Facebook showed a snap of the whole family, under which Verdesca had commented "I love you" and to which Donatella had replied: "We love you too".
The couple had been married for nine years and had a daughter, 7, and a son, 2.
Verdesca also had another son, 18, from a previous relationship.
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On the night of the crime, the family had gone out for a walk in the village of Novoli before Verdesca took the children to their grandparents' house for a sleepover.
He then returned home with Donatella.
Neighbours then reported hearing a violent argument, which is said to have ended when Verdesca grabbed a knife and killed his wife just before 2am on Saturday, June 18.
When first responders arrived on the scene, they pronounced Donatella dead.
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It was Verdesca's own mother who reported him to the police after he called her to say "I screwed up".
His charred body was found inside his burnt-out Renault Clio on the outskirts of Novoli hours later in what's believed to have been a murder-suicide, according to .
It's not clear what drove the murder but those who knew the couple described Verdesca as "very jealous, sometimes pathologically".
Novoli Mayor Marco De Luca said: "I am a mayor, but I am above all a man, a father of a family, and this morning I am literally shocked by the news of this tragedy."