Man, 53, turns himself in after fatal stabbing of girlfriend in Varese home

A 53-year-old plumbing and heating technician has been arrested after confessing to killing his 36-year-old partner in their rented apartment in northern Italy and then driving more than 700 kilometres to surrender to police.

Marco Panichi is accused of the murder of Grey Noralba Sanmartin Villalba, a Colombian-born woman who lived in the Ancona area and was the mother of two young children. The killing took place on the morning of Thursday, 22 October, in Cuirone, a quiet hamlet of Vergiate in the province of Varese.

According to investigators, the pair had been in a relationship for less than a year after meeting through social media. Panichi, originally from the Avezzano area in Abruzzo and previously in a long-term relationship, had rented the ground-floor apartment in a rural courtyard for work contracts in the region north of Milan. He updated his relationship status to “officially engaged” on Facebook and Instagram in mid-July and posted affectionate photos of the couple, including one embracing her just days before the killing.

Neighbours reported hearing raised voices from the apartment that morning. Panichi later told authorities the argument began after Sanmartin Villalba discovered photographs of other women on a second phone of his. He claimed she became extremely jealous, insulted him, attacked him physically and came at him with a kitchen knife. He said he disarmed her and used the weapon in self-defence, striking her multiple times. Medical examiners counted at least 15 stab wounds, many concentrated around the neck. A kitchen knife with a blade of approximately 33 centimetres was found near her body in the bedroom.

Panichi, who sustained cuts to his arm and hand that later required treatment, washed himself, left the apartment and drove south without stopping for medical help or alerting authorities. After speaking with his father in Abruzzo, he walked into the Carabinieri station in Avezzano late that evening and stated that he had killed his girlfriend. Officers in Lombardy were immediately alerted; they forced entry to the sealed apartment and discovered the body.

Panichi has been held in custody on suspicion of femicide, an offence that can carry a life sentence under Italian law. His lawyer, Leonardo Casciere, has argued that the attack was initiated by the victim and that any force used amounted to self-defence or an excess committed in the heat of the moment.

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Investigators are examining the account, the phones recovered from the scene, and the results of an autopsy. A validation hearing for the arrest was scheduled for Monday.

Sanmartin Villalba, known to friends as Grey or Nikky, had lived for years in the Marche region, worked in beach establishments near Ancona, and was described by acquaintances as warm and smiling. The small community of Vergiate has already paid public tribute, dedicating a mural in her memory. Local officials described every femicide as a wound to society.

The case continues under the direction of prosecutors in Busto Arsizio, with coordination between forces in Lombardy and Abruzzo.