“We were in the hall with Papa. We fell to the ground together, I don’t know if I choked him from behind or from the front. I just remember that I squeezed very tightly ». So Benno Neumair, the 31-year-old fitness instructor in prison in Bolzano on charges of killing his parents, Peter Neumair and Laura Perselli last January 4 and throwing their bodies into the Adige river, confessed to the magistrates before murder of his father and then that of his mother. “After that I sat or lay down in the corridor,” he continued, “I remember that at that moment my cell phone rang and I probably answered.
Then I remember that I got agitated again, hearing the noise of the cell phone and then, immediately after, the noise of the bolt. I moved towards the door, Mom came in. I still had the lanyard in my hand and I felt like doing the same thing, without even saying goodbye ».
Benno’s story is contained in the minutes of the two interrogations that took place in prison, at the young man’s request, after the discovery of Laura Perselli’s body in the Adige river on 6 February. Until that moment Benno had always denied any involvement in the crime: “I am innocent and sooner or later they will understand it,” he had made it known through his lawyers. But when the divers pulled his mother’s body out of the water, it collapsed.
The two interrogations were desecrated in recent days by the Bolzano Public Prosecutor’s Office, which in doing so requested a new probative incident aimed at ascertaining the mental conditions of the young man. His story is thrilling.
“Daddy accused me that I was worthless,” Benno explained to the investigators, “the subject of my responsibilities and my sister came out. I felt so cornered, so with no way out. I take refuge in the room and I am pressed even if I want to be in peace, I can not find peace. I just wanted silence ».
Benno explained that the discussion started because his father had asked him to take his grandmother’s dog out, which just that afternoon would be leaving the hospital. Mother Laura had, in fact, gone to get her. “My father reproached me that I had to help more at home,” said the young man, “I went to my room so as not to have to argue, as often happened.”
He went into his room, turned on the computer, lay down on the bed. He fell asleep. But then his father came and woke him up, and the fight started again.
“A discussion about money broke out: I have always given 350 euros for the rent to my parents, ever since I returned to Bolzano,” Benno explained, “my father wanted me to take the apartment downstairs, otherwise he would have asked 700 euros starting in January, or one third of the rent because it said that we are three adults in the house. I replied that it wasn’t fair. My father insisted that I had to leave the house, that my sister, on the other hand, paid for herself an apartment in Germany. I felt bad inside ».
The discussion continued in the corridor, it degenerated. “I shut him up,” Benno said, “I took the first climbing rope I found from the plastic basin where I have the tools. We were in the corridor. We fell to the ground together, I don’t know if I choked him from behind or from the front. I just remember that I squeezed very tightly ».
The killing of his father. Then her mother’s, which happened before the woman could find out what had happened while she wasn’t there: “She came in, I still had the lanyard in my hand and I came to do the same thing, without even saying goodbye ». A dynamic, the latter, confirmed by the autopsy on Laura Perselli’s body: the examination showed that the poor woman was really strangled with a rope, and that she had no chance to defend herself.
“Mum’s cell phone had fallen to the ground, I was scared,” Benno continued, “I put on my pants, went out with my mum’s cell phone and that of my dad, which had a chipped screen. I put on the blue jacket, I went out on foot. Then I went home, I took the bike, I started pedaling up to the Rome bridge, where two South American acquaintances greeted me and I stopped. I realized at that moment that I was cold. I asked South Americans if they had marijuana. I had no money, so I didn’t buy anything. I threw my mobile phones from the bike path, between the wooden bridge and the Roma bridge, towards the river. But I don’t know if they ended up in the river, or if they stayed on the bank. ‘ According to the magistrates, however, the young man would not have thrown away his mother’s cell phone, but would have hidden it along the embankment in an attempt to sidetrack the investigation. In fact, after the crime had been committed, Benno, after having thought of an escape even to India, immediately set about building an alibi.
He came home, he went in. “There was Mom’s body at the entrance. I went to the bathroom, I turned on the stove to warm up », he explained,« there were the pants I had worn previously, with my phone inside. I phoned Mom. I was glad that the phone was ringing, because it could mean that I had dreamed of everything. I told myself I had to try to be normal. I called my friend, informing her that I would arrive ».
The friend is Martina, a girl Benno has been dating for some time. Before going to her, the young man got rid of his parents’ bodies: he carried them on his shoulders first one and then the other from the house to inside the car, he went to the Ischia-Fizzi bridge south of Bolzano and threw them into the water. Precisely on this bridge, in the following days, the Ris carabinieri found some traces of Peter Neumair’s blood and became suspicious, focusing their attention on Benno who, on January 5, that is, one day after the murders, pressed by his sister who was unable to get in touch with his parents, went to report their disappearance and then made himself available to the search groups who for days searched the paths that the couple used to travel in the mountains.
Having disposed of the corpses, Benno drove to Martina’s house. “I tried to behave in a normal way, I absolutely didn’t touch the parenting point with her, I wanted to be as far away from everything as possible”, he said. As soon as he arrived, he asked to take a shower. Then he left her clothes for her to wash. At dawn the next day he returned home. «I didn’t want to go in, it took me some time to convince myself to open the door», he said, «then I saw the white reflux at the entrance to the apartment again, I think it was vomit. At the entrance to the library there was a patch of dad’s blood. I quickly cleaned the blood at the entrance with the Cif. I couldn’t stay home. I took the car and went with the dog to Renon ».
The rest is a known story: the lies told to the investigators who were looking for his parents, the arrest in a car wash where Benno was about to clean up the car in the company of a girl other than Martina, the discovery in the trunk of a pack of hydrogen peroxide usually used by hunters to erase the traces of blood of the prey, the search and analysis of the Ris in the Neumair house and, finally, the arrest on January 29th. “I’m innocent,” Benno repeated for days. He lied knowing he was doing it.
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
