Ex-footballer throat cut, dissolved

(ANSA) - Milan, December 15 - Former Serie C footballer Andrea La Rosa had his throat cut and was partially dissolved by his two killers, a mother and son, police said Friday. La Rosa, 35, sporting director of lower-tier side Brugherio, was allegedly killed by Antonietta Biancaniello, 59, and her 35-year-old son Raffaele Rullo, from the rundown and crime-ridden Milan district of Quarto Oggiaro, after a row over a loan La Rosa had given the son. La Rosa went missing on November 14. His partially acid-eaten body was found in the boot of Biancaniello's car when she was stopped on a highway near Milan Thursday.
    Police said the pair decided to kill La Rosa because they did not want to pay back the loan he had given Rullo, who had become a friend of his.
    Rullo lured La Rosa into his cellar on a pretext and cut his throat, police said, and his mother was an accomplice to the murder.
    The pair bought acid to dissolve the body but only partly succeeded because they did not have enough of it.
    Biancaniello was reportedly on her way to get some more when she was stopped by police.
    Police said Rullo, an IT expert, looked up on the Internet how mafia boss Giovanni Brusca dissolved the 14-year-old son of an informant, Giuseppe Di Matteo, in acid in November 1996 after 25 months of captivity.
    The mother and son have been charged with premeditation in the murder, judicial sources said.
    The pair intended to dismember La Rosa's body and then dissolve it in the acid, police said.
    They had bought a chain saw for this purpose, said.
    Police also found in their home several phials of anesthetic they presumably used to knock la Rosa out before cutting his throat.