Naples, the mystery of the third man and the victim's cell phone: the hidden truths about the Grivano murder.

Naples – There's a precise point where the defense's reconstruction of the impromptu escape of killers Maurizio Maddaloni and his wife Immacolata "Eliana" Brunetti collapses under the weight of the evidence. It's the morning of July 6th, forty-eight hours after Alessandro Grivano's execution.

A man whose identity is still unknown shows up at the offices of a rental company. He doesn't have the black Honda T-Max he used on the night of the crime, but merely hands over a ticket: a parking ticket for a paid parking lot on Via Arenaccia, where the scooter was left.

A procedural anomaly that prosecutors consider to be the ultimate proof of a safety net: Maurizio Maddaloni and his partner Immacolata "Eliana" Brunetti, both in prison for two weeks, were not alone immediately after the shooting. Someone covered for them, took possession of the scooter, and handled its return while the two traveled to Rome.

While investigators are closing in on the identity of this intermediary, the hunt for the murder weapon remains open: a 7,65 caliber pistol that Maddaloni fired, which vanished into thin air along the axis of the historic center's neighborhoods.

Shadows of the Night and the TikTok Reel Deception

To understand the sequence of events that took place on the night of July 3rd and 4th, we need to rewind. At 22:30 PM on July 3rd, Eliana Brunetti and Maurizio Maddaloni left their home after leaving their minor children with their paternal grandparents. A few minutes earlier, the woman posted a TikTok reel of herself and Maddaloni: a seemingly irrelevant detail that would prove crucial in analyzing the footage. That same evening, the two dined at a restaurant in Piazza Sannazaro until 23:30 PM.

Then, according to the account given by Brunetti during the interrogation, a sequence of events described as a fortuitous escalation begins.
The woman claimed that, around midnight, near Borgo Sant'Antonio (near the Magistrate's Court and a church), the couple accidentally encountered Alessandro Grivano. Grivano insulted the woman and tried to push her off her scooter, prompting the pair to flee.

Maddaloni later drove her home so she could use the restroom while he went to get gas, and then picked her up 15 minutes later. At 00:30 a.m., on Corso Garibaldi, the second encounter occurred: Grivano, riding his own scooter, allegedly pulled up alongside the scooter, slowed down, made a gesture as if he were taking something out of his pocket, and even attempted to ram it.

At that point — Brunetti claims — Maddaloni, frightened and without his partner knowing that he was in possession of a weapon, fired one or two shots aiming downwards and to the side.

The denial of the videos: an execution from above

This reconstruction was shattered by the visual confirmation from video surveillance systems. The footage recorded in the area between Piazza Volturno and Vico Pergole shows a completely different dynamic: there was no preemptive flanking, much less an attempted ramming, or any provocative gestures by the victim.

The images show the scooter driven by Maddaloni approaching from behind at high speed along Corso Garibaldi. Maddaloni extends his right arm, pointing it perfectly horizontally at Grivano's torso. Hit by the bullet, Grivano attempts a desperate dodge maneuver to the right to take refuge in an alley, while people flee in terror around him.

Mortally wounded, the man barely managed to drag himself to Piazza Sant'Anna a Capuana, where he called for help before collapsing semi-consciously to the ground.

The escape plan and the performance of Rome

Eliana Brunetti's alleged unawareness was also rejected by the investigating judge. If she had truly been unaware of the gun's presence and had witnessed her partner's sudden and reckless act, she would have dissociated herself or called for help. Instead, the couple's behavior followed a preordained script: immediately after the shots, without luggage and without returning to say goodbye to their children, the two reached the bus station and at 2:00 a.m. departed for Rome.

In the documents, Brunetti justified the sudden trip by explaining that it was a long-planned trip "to visit the Trevi Fountain and spend a few days together." She claimed she learned of Grivano's death only several days later via social media and that she had been in shock at a B&B before deciding to return to Naples on July 8th to turn herself in to the police station. This alibi, investigators consider, was merely a cover for a hasty escape.

A Year of Terror: The Victim's Wife's Story

The immediate aftermath of the attack was based on statements made by Grivano's partner. She reported that on the evening of July 3rd, she was having dinner with her partner and her youngest daughter. Around 00:20 a.m., Grivano had walked her home without getting in, saying he was going for a quick ride. Shortly thereafter, the woman heard the shots from the street. Receiving no answer to her phone, she ran out into the street, unfolding a dramatic scene: the crowd was already talking about Alessandro's attack near the Church of Sant'Anna.

Arriving at the scene, with her partner lying on the ground, the woman immediately named Maddaloni, revealing that clear rumors had been circulating for weeks—confirmed by Grivano himself—that “Ernesto” (Maddaloni) wanted to kill him because of the victim’s past relationship with Eliana Brunetti, a relationship that lasted two years and ended about twelve months earlier.

The woman reported incidents that testify to an escalation of threats that lasted for months.

The ambush under the house and the shots at the window

About three months before the crime, two men on a scooter had arrived at her home. One of them, his face uncovered, was clearly identified as Maddaloni. Brandishing a gun, the man insulted the woman and fired several shots into the window. The Carabinieri officers who responded noted the bullet wounds, and the woman identified him as Maddaloni through photo identification, but did not file a complaint due to terror.

The embassy of “O Chicc”

What put a damper on the complaint was a warning delivered to Grivano by Brunetti's brother, Manauel Brunetti, nicknamed "O Chicc," a former leading member of the notorious "Paranza dei bambini" gang of Forcella and in prison since 2013 for the murder of a security guard. Brunetti made it clear that if he reported the matter to the police, a "war" would break out.

The stabbing threats and the taunting of the fourteen-year-old: Brunetti subsequently followed Grivano's wife down the street, staring at her intently, and then reported to Grivano (who had told his partner) that she intended to stab her. Just a few days before the murder, her fourteen-year-old daughter had been approached by the couple in their black T-Max and publicly mocked.

The previous gunshot in the square

On July 7, Grivano's wife provided further evidence, learned from the victim's brother, Vincenzo Grivano. Between one and two years earlier, Eliana Brunetti had approached on a scooter in Piazza Santa Maria la Fede and, after Grivano had asked her to move away, had pulled a pistol from her waistband and fired a shot at chest height. Grivano had only escaped by ducking between two parked cars. This incident is currently under investigation.

The technical investigations and the blocked cell phone

Given the accusations leveled by Brunetti during questioning—who described Grivano as a violent individual, a drug user, and a past assaulter—the Prosecutor's Office notes the complete lack of evidence or any formal complaints filed by the woman.

The investigation is now focusing on the physical evidence to close the circle of evidence. The Motorola cell phone used by Alessandro Grivano, found at the crime scene still on but with its screen locked, has been sent to the forensic labs for a thorough computer inspection.

Messages, phone records, and chats will be analyzed to reconstruct the victim's final hours and the contacts he had in the lead-up to the attack. At the same time, the validation of the seizures of blood samples, clothing, and footwear from Grivano, combined with the examination of shell casings and bullets found between Piazza Volturno and Vico Pergole, will serve to definitively crystallize the trajectory of the bullets and confirm that there was no argument that night, but rather a planned ambush.