A man who has confessed to killing an elderly couple told investigators Friday he didn't know what drove him to commit the double homicide.
"I don't understand why I killed them," 28-year-old Alessandro Lorena said of the grisly attack on his parents' neighbors in a small town near the northern city of Varese on Monday afternoon.
Lorena told police he brought a sledge hammer with him when he dropped in on 80-year-old Martino Ferro and his wife Graziella Campiello, whom he'd known for years. Police say Lorena bludgeoned Ferro to death in the couple's garage, then went indoors, where he accepted a cup of coffee from Campiello before strangling her with an electrical cord he yanked out of a nearby lamp.
He then rifled through the pensioners' home and made off with 100 euros, taking with him the coffee cup and spoon he used and dumping them.
However he forgot the dirty saucer, a clue that set homicide detectives on his trail.
He confessed to the crime on Thursday, and was arrested on charges of double premeditated murder.
Lorena was reportedly unemployed and having trouble paying alimony to his estranged wife.
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