The war was over, but the Bracci family Tranquility still seemed like a luxury. After escaping the bombings that hit Rome during World War II, Marta and Terier settled with their six children in Prima Portaa humble neighborhood on the outskirts of the city.
There they tried to start over, although the poverty and the arguments that had been going on for years never disappeared.
Annarellawhose full name was Anna Maria Bracci, was born on December 15, 1937 and was the third of the siblings. In 1949, When she was 11 years old, her father left home. and he took his two youngest children with him. Poverty and constant arguments had broken the marriage.
Without enough money to support the children who were left with her, Marta began to prostitute herself.
It didn’t take long for rumors to spread in the neighborhood, but Annarella always sought to stay away from that environment. He ran errands for neighbors, earned a few coins, and spent as little time as possible inside his house.
There he also had to endure his brotherMariano, who had lost a leg in an accident and had become violentand the presence of Adam Moronithe new his mother’s lover.
The relationship between Marta and her daughter ended up breaking down when Terier denounced his wife for infidelity and Annarella was called to testify to the court. The girl told what was happening at home without favoritism, but her testimony harmed Marta, who began to treat her with resentment.
Annarella would never come back
He February 18, 1950in the middle of the carnival celebration, Marta gave him money to buy pasta, charcoal and oil. Annarella left her house around seven-thirty in the afternoon and first ran into a friend.
Later he saw Leonello Aidi, a gardener 25 years old who had previously lived with his wife in the Bracci basement. He bought her some chestnuts and the girl continued with her errands. He got the pasta and charcoal, asked for some oil at a neighbor’s house and started back. But it never came.
Annarella disappeared. Marta toured the neighborhood and reported the disappearance that same night, but The police believed that the girl had stayed at the celebrations. In addition, the protests that were taking place in Rome concentrated a good part of the agents.
Only the next day did they begin to pay attention to his claim, although for several days they maintained the leak hypothesis.
While the police delayed the investigation, neighbors organized their own search. Leonello was one of the volunteers. The case was formally opened on February 23, five days after the disappearance, when the actions of the authorities were already being publicly questioned.
The first interrogations were of the family. Marta was detained because she could not clearly reconstruct her movements and she had a conflictive relationship with her daughter. Her own son, Mariano, testified about the mistreatment inside the house, but investigators found no evidence linking her to the disappearance.
On March 3, Annarella’s grandfather found her body in a well close to Prima Porta. As he later stated, a dream had taken him to the place.
The autopsy confirmed that the girl had received several blows to the head, had defensive wounds on one hand and they found water in her lungs, an indicator that she was still alive when they threw her into the well.
The appearance of the body turned to direct suspicions against Leonelloone of the last people who had seen her. Marta also revealed that she used to approach her daughter with gifts. Other neighbors claimed that he had similar attitudes with more young girls of the neighborhood.
She was deceived and her murderer acquitted
Under pressure, Leonello confessed. He declared that he had met Annarella again after buying the chestnuts from her and He invited her to walk to a field. There he tried to abuse her.
When the girl resisted and screamed, he hit her with a stick that had a nail in it and then threw her body into the well. Then he returned home and, hours later, helped Marta look for her.
The trial began in November 1951, but Leonello recanted and claimed that the confession had been obtained through police violence. In February of the following year he was acquitted due to lack of evidence.
Shortly after He was arrested again for attacking another young woman during a party and received a three-year sentence. The prosecution appealed for acquittal in the Annarella case and managed to have the ruling overturned.
Leonello was found guilty and sentenced to 26 years in prison.although in 1961 a higher court again overturned the sentence and ordered his release. Some time later he returned to prison for another attack against a woman.
