Apice's grief after the massacre of the three brothers

In Apice, the grief is shared, even though the three Licciardi brothers are being paid their last respects separately. Three separate funerals, punctuated by the timing of the autopsies and the instructions of the Prosecutor's Office, for a family and an entire community still reeling from the tragedy that unfolded last Tuesday.

Yesterday afternoon, the town gathered around the family of Franco Licciardi, 61, a married father of two, for the first of three funeral rites.

Today, Monday, at 11:30 a.m., the funeral of Donato, 56, will be held, while on Wednesday it will be the turn of Gianni, the eldest of the brothers, the one who grabbed a 9mm pistol and opened fire on Franco and Donato, before turning the gun on himself and taking his own life.

"The funeral arrangements followed the order in which the bodies were released by the magistrate," explained Father Enzo Rotondi, parish priest of the Church of Santa Maria Assunta, who conducted the first farewell. After the autopsy, Franco's body was transferred to the Apice funeral home, from where the procession to the church departed yesterday.

Accompanying Franco on his final journey were his wife Gabriella, his sons Gabriele and Simone, and other family members, including Gianni's two sons. Their presence made the moment even more dramatic, marked by the pain of a tragedy that shattered a family in a matter of minutes and left an entire community questioning the reasons for such extreme violence.

The words of the parish priest and the call for harmony

In his homily, Father Enzo drew inspiration from the day's Gospel readings, which focus on relationships between siblings, to emphasize the value of family ties and the role the Licciardis had played in Apice's life.

The priest recalled the three brothers' commitment to the community, including through their restaurant business and the organization of Christmas markets, initiatives that over the years had helped make the family hotel-restaurant a landmark in the village.

Hence the appeal to the community, now called to rally around the victims' families, but also to reflect on what happened. An invitation to seek harmony, to prevent misunderstandings and conflicts from turning into irreparable rifts.

A simple yet dramatically timely message after a massacre that, according to investigators' reconstruction, stemmed from a family dispute. "Let's work together," the parish priest's appeal, so that tragedies like the one that shocked Apice never happen again.

Mayor Angelo Pepe, members of the city council, and numerous city councilors attended the funeral. After the ceremony, many residents stopped to express their sympathy to Franco's family, while others gathered at the funeral home to gather around Donato's family, where his wife Maria Elvira and children Gianfranco and Angela are keeping vigil.

Autopsies and investigations

Meanwhile, on the judicial front, the investigations ordered by the Benevento Public Prosecutor's Office are continuing to reconstruct the precise dynamics of the massacre and to verify Gianni's physical and mental condition at the time of the attack.

Last Friday, Deputy Prosecutor Carmine Pignatiello assigned the autopsy to medical examiner Francesco La Sala and toxicologist Raffaella Petrella. One of the objectives of the investigation was to determine whether Gianni had taken any drugs before he grabbed the gun and fired at his brothers.

The examinations on Franco and Donato's bodies were carried out on Saturday. The work will be completed on Tuesday with the autopsy on Gianni's body. The lawyers and consultants appointed by the families are also involved in the proceedings: Gianni's son, Crescenzo, is assisted by the lawyer Angelo Leone and the medical examiner Monica Fonzo, while the relatives of Franco and Donato are represented by the lawyer Vincenzo Bocchino.

The massacre born from the rift over the sale

The tragedy occurred late in the morning of Tuesday, September 1st, when a shooting took place inside the facility run by the family, costing the lives of the three brothers. Investigations were launched immediately by the Carabinieri of the Benevento Company, who are working to reconstruct both the sequence of events and the motive that led to the escalation of a family dispute into a massacre.

According to evidence gathered by investigators, the rift between the brothers was centered on the sale of the hotel-restaurant that the Licciardis had run for over forty years.

The decision to put the business on the market was initially shared by the three brothers, so much so that the sale procedures were initiated about a year ago. In recent months, however, Gianni's position has progressively changed, to the point of objecting to the way Franco and Donato were conducting the negotiations.

The disagreement deepened just as the sale seemed nearing completion, with meetings already scheduled with accountants. According to the investigation, Gianni did not agree with the terms of the transaction nor, it emerged, the identity of the interested parties, who worked in sectors other than the restaurant business.

A symbolic structure of the country now closed

The hotel-restaurant was supposed to be sold for just under a million euros. A financial transaction that, instead of marking a new phase for the family, became the breaking point in a relationship between the brothers that had culminated in bloodshed.

Today, that facility is closed. For the first time since its construction, its doors are no longer open to customers, and its future remains unclear.

It's an image that has taken on an even more painful meaning in Apice: that hotel-restaurant, owned by the Licciardi family for decades, had also become a sort of calling card for the town, a place known and frequented by generations of citizens.

Now he's silent, as Apice accompanies the three brothers, one by one, on their final journey. Three funerals, three coffins, one tragedy, and a community forced to grapple with a question that remains unanswered: how can a family conflict, in a matter of moments, erase a life built together over decades?