Killing of Abducted Toddler Roils Italy

Randy Orton

WC's Resident Alchoholic

Killing of Abducted Toddler Roils Italy By FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press Writer
Sun Apr 2, 5:40 PM ET



ROME - The killing of an abducted toddler — apparently because his alleged kidnappers thought he cried too much — left police officers in tears and drew horrified condemnation Sunday from Pope Benedict XVI and Italy's president.

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Late Saturday, state television reported that authorities, guided by one of the alleged kidnappers, found the body of 17-month-old Tommaso Onofri buried near a stream close to his home outside Parma in northern Italy.

Nicola Vitale, head of Parma police special operations team, told The Associated Press that the two suspected kidnappers and a female companion of one of them were being interrogated about the March 2 abduction.

Vitale said police were inspecting the area where the body was found. No date had yet been set for a formal hearing, he said.

"I saw police officers cry," Parma's police chief, Vincenzo Stringone, told state radio on Sunday. "Until the end we had hoped that the child was alive."

News reports said the kidnappers told authorities the boy was killed about a half-hour after he was kidnapped.

The reports said the kidnappers, with the child between them on the seat of a motorbike, fell over as they rushed from the boy's house. When the toddler started crying, they tried to strangle him, then hit his head with a shovel until he went silent, newspapers quoted investigators as saying.

State radio said Sunday that the kidnappers, who had done remodeling on the family's house, knew that the boy's father was in charge of a local post office and hoped to demand about $1.2 million in ransom, presumably from funds from the post office, where many Italians have savings accounts.

Benedict told pilgrims in St. Peter's Square on Sunday: "We are all touched by the case of little Tommaso, barbarously killed."

In a statement, President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi said the death had touched every Italian family.

"Since last night, when we learned the terrible news, my wife and I have felt a bone-chilling horror that took our breath away," Ciampi said.