A man confessed to murdering his 80-year-old mother, who was suffering from dementia, after admitting he ‘couldn’t take it any more’ live on television.
Lorenzo Carbone, 50, told a journalist he had strangled his mother, Loretta Levrini, to death on Monday after she was found outside his home in Modena province, Italy.
Carbone wept throughout his confession, telling the reporter with Pomeriggio 5 that he ‘didn’t know why he did it… I couldn’t manage her.
‘Every now and then she made me angry as she kept repeating herself,’ he said. Carbone had been living at home with her for the last 15 years.
The body of Ms Levrini was found in her bed by her daughter on Sunday, local media reports.
Carbone had immediately become a suspect in his mother’s death after she was found, and drones were called in to help track him down.
He told Pomeriggio 5 that he had fled to the nearby town of Pavullo, walking the streets before returning to their shared home in Spezzano di Fiorano.
Carbone insisted he left ‘to do nothing, to get away’. ‘No, I wasn’t hiding,’ he said.
In his candid admission, Carbone said that he had used lace to strangle his mother after trying to suffocate her with a pillowcase and ribbons [shoelaces].
‘My mother would make me a little angry every now and then, but it wasn’t like I went completely crazy,’ he insisted.
‘She just made me a little angry because she always said the same things…
‘I wasn’t getting treatment [for her] anywhere… It just came to me.
‘Instinctively I did it,’ he said, before bursting into tears.
Carbone added that his mother was ‘between dementia and Alzheimer’s and sometimes she said things that hurt me.’
‘I couldn’t take it anymore… I couldn’t handle it.’
Journalist Fabio Giuffrida, interviewing, called police, broadcasting the arrest on Monday afternoon.
Carbone was taken to the police station for questioning and was ‘unable to speak’ when presented with the evidence against him, local media reports.
The body of Ms Levrini was taken for an autopsy late on Sunday. Results have not yet been reported.
Locals told Italian media the family were reserved, that Carbone had been unemployed for some time and that his elderly mother was unwell.
The outlet came under fire for choosing to run the interview.
Gaia Tortora, the deputy director of the TV channel TG La7, wrote on X: ‘This is not our job. Tearing up the code of ethics, we are hitting rock bottom.’
Reporter Myrta Merlino said that police had given her permission to air the interview.
Carbone and his family were not under investigation by social services, per local media.
When approached by Mr Giuffrida he said clearly: ‘I’m the one you’re looking for.’