Loris funeral set for Thursday, student procession from school

(ANSA) - Ragusa, December 17 - The funeral of Loris Stival, the eight-year-old boy strangled to death last month near his home in Sicily, has been scheduled for Thursday but his mother will not be released from custody to attend, her lawyer said Wednesday.
    Veronica Panarello, the 26-year-old mother of Loris, has been detained by police in the probe and is a suspect in the murder of the child whose body was found thrown in a canal.
    The funeral, scheduled for 3 p.m. local time at the church of St. John the Baptist in the town of Santa Croce Camerina, will include a procession of students and teachers from Loris's school.
    Giovanna Campo, the principle of the school, said the boy's class will lead the procession of elementary and middle-school students and teachers.
    The bishop of Ragusa, Monsignor Paolo Urso, is expected to preside at the funeral. Campo added that students plan to dedicate subdued Christmas festivities to Loris, who disappeared and was found dead on November 29.
    Francesco Villardita, lawyer for Panarello, said she continues to state her innocence but will not be permitted to leave jail for the funeral.
    Panarello reportedly sent a letter on Tuesday to her husband Davide Stival, claiming her innocence and questioning his support.
    "How can you believe I killed our child," she wrote in the letter seen by reporters and sent on the birthday of the couple's youngest child.
    "I feel alone and abandoned by all," wrote Panarello.
    Her father Francesco Panarello said that he believed in her innocence in the child's murder, calling Veronica "his princess". Prosecution documents seen by ANSA recently alleged that Panarello killed the boy "via strangulation with a plastic cable tie", and naming cruelty as an aggravating circumstance.
    The document also pointed to inconsistencies concerning Panarello's movements before and after she said she dropped Loris off at school the day of his death, adding that her account "clearly conflicts" with evidence provided by video surveillance cameras.