As police forensic specialists
carefully searched the home of a young murder victim, the lawyer
for his mother defended her Thursday against allegations she
mislead the police about events before her child was strangled.
"The child was brought school, as his mother said he was
brought to school," said lawyer Francesco Villardita,
representing Veronica Panarello, whose son Loris Stival, 8, was
found dead on Sunday dumped in a canal near his town.
"She is not being investigated and she is an injured party
in a murder investigation," the lawyer said.
The parents of the child told a Sicilian newspaper that
they have endured "lies" and in a published report Thursday
demanded "full respect for a family in need".
Panarello and Dadide Stival, a 29-year-old truck driver who
was out of town when his son disappeared, were reported as
telling newspaper La Sicilia that they have "full confidence in
the judiciary".
Panarello originally told police she dropped Loris at his
school in the town of Santa Croce Camerina, near Ragusa, early
Saturday morning, but the school says the boy did not actually
show up.
Surveillance-camera images near the school and near the
family apartment suggest that Loris was not in his mother's car
that morning, and did not get out of his mom's car in front of
the school as his mother told police, investigators in the case
said Wednesday.
The video footage suggested that the child instead went
back home with his mother.
Informed sources said CCTV footage from cameras along the
way between the Stival home and the school show Panarello
driving both her children to school at 8 a.m. Saturday.
Fifteen minutes later, her car is seen apparently
depositing Loris back at the family home and driving off once
more.
After another 15 minutes, Panarello's car is seen returning
home and parking in the garage, which is below the victim's
bedroom.
Meanwhile, police also searched the home of Orazio Fidone,
the hunter who found the child's body.
Authorities have said the man is under investigation for
the kidnapping and murder but only as a matter of routine.
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