Uxoricide: beaten to death

Intrafamiliar violence, especially gender-based within a couple, is a very frequent phenomenon, not dependent from age or social status, and adopts different forms of aggression,: from emotional to physical violence. It is most common in societies or age-groups were women are assigned an inferior economic, social, cultural and emotional position as compared to men. In our region – Northern part of Italy (Lombardy) - in the last years a high percentage of intrafamiliar murder were registered (2005: 44,4% North Italy; 13,9% Lombardy) On a march afternoon a 66 y.o. man called the first aid telling to have killed his ex-wife (separated couple). At the arrival, of rescuers and police, the 67 y.o. woman was found dead in the living room (3:00 p.m). The crime scene appears immediately well defined and limited to the living room itself, where, near a prepared table for two and a heater, a woman was lying prone in an ample blood pond partially coagulated, no weapons or knifes were found on place. On the near couch were a pair of female sunglasses and a handbag. On another couch-bed, on a leaflet the motivations of the aggression were shortly annotated and on other leaflets were annotated sums given in loan to his ex-wife. At the external examination on scene (4:00 p.m) the woman was completely dressed in a juvenile matter, with multiple blunt injuries on the face - vast ecchymosis on the forehead and around the left eye - and head – on the right parietal region were two skin discontinuations with exposition of the bony surface. Around the body were some teeth, fragmented and intact. Post-mortem changes: no rigor mortis, no livor mortis; corpse inner temperature: 36.2°C (environmental temperature of 20.9°C). At autopsy a relevant head trauma was confirmed with diffused subarachnoid haemorrhage and multiple facial bones (jaw-bones, nasal bone) and skull fractures (cap and base). Intense blood infiltration around the cervical spine, multiple rib fractures, blood infiltration at