Fifty million old lire: that’s how much the lives of Gaetano and Salvatore La Placa, father and son killed on October 14, 1992 in the countryside of San Biagio Platani in Agrigento, were worth. A double murder commissioned by close relatives and paid that amount through the collection of one of the victims’ investment bonds. The breakthrough in the investigations of a real Agrigento cold case occurred after a plausible reconstruction of what happened. After 32 years from the double murder, however, no one has been arrested. At least for the moment. The Agrigento prosecutor’s office yesterday morning registered three people as suspects: the sisters Carmela and Rosalba La Placa, 56 and 67 years old, and Luigi Costanza, 77 years old, from Comitini. They are the daughters of Gaetano and nieces of Salvatore, who was the grandfather. All are accused of murder aggravated by premeditation and acting against an ascendant.
The two women, together with their mother Rosalia Guadagnano (now deceased), would have been the masterminds of the murder of their relatives, which was carried out in a climate of bitter family disputes. According to the accusation, they could not bear the father’s abuses and his decision to distance the son-in-law from the house. So, instead of reporting the harassment, they would have commissioned the murder to Luigi Costanza, at the time a clothing salesman and a family friend of the victims.
It was the wife and daughters, according to the reconstruction, who warned the killer as soon as Gaetano La Placa, with Salvatore, left the house to go to Contrada Mandralia where the double murder took place.
San Biagio Platani, delitti La Placa: dalle figlie l’ordine al killer
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