Elderly woman tied up, abandoned and frozen to death: son arrested

There is a turning point in the investigation into the death of Igina Fabbri, 71, the woman who died of cold last February 6 in a house near Arquata Scrivia in the province of Alessandria, in Borgata Pessino, after being tied by the wrists: the carabinieri have arrested her son, Mauro Traverso, 46, on charges – according to initial information – of murder and kidnapping. The woman had been found by emergency workers from the 118 service in an abandoned house, surrounded by snow that had fallen heavily in the previous two days, in the town on the border between Piedmont and Liguria. It was her son who raised the alarm, who said he had found his mother with her wrists tied, semi-conscious, lying on a camp bed near the entrance. The autopsy certified that the woman had died of cardiac arrest due to hypothermia. Traverso told investigators that he had accompanied his mother to the house that had been uninhabited for some time and was up for sale because she wanted to clean it up. It was the early afternoon of Monday, February 5. She, his son said, would then return on foot or would have been accompanied by acquaintances. In the evening Traverso returned to his home, falling asleep and, as he said, without realizing that his mother was not at home. Only the next day, February 6, in the late afternoon, he returned to Pessino to see if his mother was still there. He said he found her with her wrists tied, at the end of her life, wearing a light T-shirt and without shoes. It was winter, it was snowing, the temperature was around zero degrees and the house had no light or heating.

A version that has never convinced the investigators. Starting from the fact that, from the control of the telephone utilities, the last time the woman used the phone was Sunday, February 4: since then, both the home phone and the cell phone, rang without anyone answering. The son then said that he had fallen asleep early on the evening of February 5 but his cell phone was used for several more hours. Again, it was he who asked an acquaintance to get him cable ties like those found on his mother's wrists. And, above all, it was he who, on Monday, using the Bancomat card, drained his mother's bank account. Also supporting the investigation are images from municipal surveillance cameras that filmed him at times that are not compatible with those of his version.

The truth, according to investigators, is that the woman was taken to the house in Borgata Pessino on Sunday, February 4, where she remained “imprisoned” in the cold. The motive is unclear. The fact is that Traverso, unemployed, after separating from his wife had returned to live with his mother who took care of paying all his expenses. The woman had decided to sell the old house in Pessino, where she had originally lived with her husband, with Mauro himself and her ex-daughter-in-law and with her other daughter who lives outside the region. After her husband's death, Fabbri and her children had moved to the center.