A widow was brutally murdered, butchered and fed to pigs leading to the arrest of eighty-one people in Italy after it was alleged that mafia gangsters were behind the mother’s death.
Maria Chindamo was killed in Limbadi in 2016, allegedly as a result of her trying to rebuild her life and business after her husband’s death, which left her with valuable land that caught the attention of the mafia. On May 6, she was brutally attacked, slaughtered, and her body dismembered using a tractor before being fed to pigs.
A massive operation by Italy’s anti-mafia police force was carried out against the ‘Ndrangheta in Vibo, Calabria, where prosecutors uncovered disturbing evidence of unsolved crimes, including the horrific murder of Maria, a local businesswoman.
Chief Prosecutor Nicola Gratteri, who led the raid, told Fanpage.It: “Maria Chindamo was killed exactly one year after her husband’s suicide, when she allowed herself to post photos with her new partner.”, reports the Mirror. “Two days after the shot, she was killed in an inhuman, tragic way. She killed and fed to pigs, her remains ground up with a crawler tractor to make all traces disappear.”
Gratteri added: “She was killed because she wanted to be a woman and a free entrepreneur.” The prosecutor, who has devoted his life to battling the ruthless Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, stated that she was targeted because she “thought of becoming an entrepreneur, looking after the interests of the land and her children and even enrolled in university”.
The investigation relied heavily on intercepted communications, but detectives also interviewed 18 informants who told officers about their fellow mob members. Regarding Maria’s murder, these witnesses provided police with specific details about the case that hadn’t been widely reported by the media, which solidified investigators’ certainty of their involvement.
Maria’s brother expressed relief that justice had been served in his sister’s case. Vincenzo Chindamo said: “There is a scent of justice in the area. We are waiting to carefully read the documents of this segment of the investigation but I would like to point out one thing immediately: having pursued the search for the truth about my sister’s killing for all these years, I finally have my results.
“I have never stopped believing in the work of the judiciary, even when there might have been some moments of discouragement. And what has emerged today is rewarding that perseverance.”
He added: “The ‘ndrangheta and the ‘ndrangheta subculture are retrograde and losers, while Maria’s beauty and smile, even in the clouds, still shine”.
e recalled when Maria’s car was found saying “I remember her Dacia Duster still running, the radio on and the locks of her hair smeared with blood.”
Gratteri said of the gang: “They did not forgive her freedom and the management of the land she inherited, on which the appetites of a ‘Ndrangheta family rested. And also his new love.
“So Maria, three days after posting the photo with her new partner on social media, vanished into thin air.
“You could not afford – added Gratteri – the luxury of starting a new life, of managing that land in an entrepreneurial way and of being able to take care of and raise your children in a free way and leaving the mafia mentality”.