Vicenza, elderly people in hospital with overdose: caregiver Paola Pettinà suspected of 4 deaths

And homocide aggravated voluntary, three suspicious deaths e five attempted murders. The death list weighing on the head of Paola Pettinà, 46 years old from Sandrigo (Vicenza), is getting longer fake caregiver who between 2022 and 2024 assisted some elderly people to whom he administered massive dosesand in one case lethal, of Xanax, Tavor, Lorazepam and Trittico, all barbiturates potentially deadly. The investigations, contained in the 77 pages of the order of precautionary custodyare a very long list of serious crimes. The picture of the accusation is shocking when the name of the company cohabitant, that Pettinà he would have tried to poison making him believe he is taking a multivitamin, and that of madre of him, who died under suspicious circumstances. «Maybe I exaggerated with benzodiazepines, but I saw the agitated elderly peopleI didn't want to hurt them.” These were the woman's statements to the police who carried out the order on Wednesday evening. Now Pettinà is in Montorio prison, according to the investigating judge the woman could commit other crimes. «Pettina – writes the investigating judge – is radical brought at the lie».

Up to 100 drops of Xanax in one day

From what emerged the forty-six year old, who with the families of those assisted, yes he was pretending o a healthcare worker smart or a nurse specialist at San Bortolo, would also go so far as to administer to her “patients”. 100 drops of Xanax per day dissolving them in the water o in the coffee. This quantity of psychotropic drugs, today considered equal to substances narcoticstook the elderly to have some problems Of salute never before recorded as numbness, stunningdysarthria, difficulty standing up, up to actual «overdosi» which forced them to be urgently admitted to hospital. And, at worst, they led to death of an 81 year old woman, Imelda Stevan. The overdose of these drugs found in the hair of the survivors to whom she provided assistance, would be the evidence that pushed the prosecutor's office to define «voluntary» the murder of which she is accused: Pettinà he couldn't help but be aware that that amount of benzodiazepines could be lethal. And when the victims' families realized that the ailments were due to these substances the fake health worker was able to deceive them indicating the elderly as «drug addicts» blaming them for taking excessive doses without his knowledge.

Accusations of drug dealing

It should be remembered that the suspect is a regular consumer Of Xanax and that in the months in which she worked as a carer she managed to procure them many boxes used even with those who didn't have no indication by the attending physician. From the investigations carried out during the investigation it emerged that the woman had purchased 272 boxes between 2021 and 2024, (more than double those permitted with a prescription) an average of 14 packs per month against the 3 regularly purchased with a prescription every 30 days. The forty-six year old is in fact also accused of dealing of medicines (he bought Xanax and then sold it to third parties), robbery e self-laundering. He would have committed these last two crimes at the time he did stunned one of his clients with the usual overdose method, rubandole some jewels and selling them in “gold buying” shops for a total value of 3.000 euro. This is the only episode in which the fake caregiver allegedly used the drugs for profit.

The motive unknown

In the rest of the cases the motivefor the prosecutor's office and for the investigators there is no clear criminal plan that could have pushed her to kill. And on Friday, during the hearing to validate his arrest, Pettinà did not clarify his position: before the judge for preliminary investigations, Matteo Mantovani, she exercised her right not to respond. In the meantime, the forty-six-year-old remains locked up in a cell in the district prison Montorio (Verona), despite his lawyer Roberto Busa requesting house arrest. She probably won't be released from prison anytime soon, given that at the moment there wouldn't be a suitable place for her to serve her house arrest while awaiting trial: the woman, on paper, appears homeless. In recent months he lived with the company (completely unrelated to the facts) in an apartment in the Padua area. After 9 months of investigations, interceptions and stalking collected in 7 huge folders, Wednesday evening was stop by the carabinieri of the Vicenza investigative unit as she got into her car: she had just left one pharmacy in which he had purchased, without a prescription, two bottles of Xanax.

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December 21, 2024 (changed December 21, 2024 | 07:34)

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