Fatal oversight in Rome. An 11-month-old baby died last Wednesday in the Cecchignola area due to his father's carelessness. The man thought he had left her daughter Stella in kindergarten, but he forgot her in the car.
"I was convinced that I had taken Stella to the nursery, like every other morning. I also spoke to my wife around eleven to agree between us who would pick her up. I thought I had done it," said Sandro, 45 and policeman, when he was questioned by his professional colleagues. He is being investigated for negligence and a crime of abandonment of minors.
Stella was left abandoned in the car parked at the parent's workplace, in front of the office of the General Directorate of Military Personnel in Cecchignola, located a few meters from the nursery school. The girl remained locked up for seven hours, tied in the baby chair. In the absence of the autopsy, it is believed that she could not bear the high temperatures and the fact of not being fed.
Among his neighbors there is only disbelief and pain. "We are all devastated. Sandro and his wife lock themselves in their mourning, no parent can be prepared for such a tragedy," a neighbor told Il Messagero. "I can't believe it. That mother was overflowing with joy and the girl was so beautiful and joyful... when the couple hung the pink ribbon on the door of their home for the birth of Stella, we all celebrated," adds another, who points out that Sandro, whom he saw grow up, is "very good people."
The father of two other children in a previous relationship, Sandro and his wife had longed for Stella's arrival. "She was so wanted and loved... Sandro cannot rest because of what happened. Nobody believes what happened because he is very careful," explains a family friend in the Italian newspaper.
"What have you done?!" his wife yelled at him as they rescued Stella's lifeless body in the parking lot. The teacher, already in her forties, did not attend her last day of work at a secondary school. "I had wanted that creature so much," adds another person close to the school.
At the door of that kindergarten in Cecchignola, yesterday many left flowers and notes in memory of little Stella: "You will always be our angel", it reads. Nine months after her baptism, her funeral will take place in the parish of San Virgilio.
