Overview
- At the Nov. 3 hearing in the Corte d’Assise di Parma, judges extended Chiara Petrolini’s precautionary custody by three months to accommodate a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation.
- Forensic consultant Valentina Bugelli said the second infant, recovered on Aug. 9, 2024, breathed after birth and likely died of hemorrhagic shock four to seven minutes after the cord was cut.
- Bugelli testified the umbilical cord showed a clean cut by a sharp instrument, with prosecutors hypothesizing scissors that have not been found.
- Regarding the first infant from May 2023, Bugelli said a definitive cause of death cannot be established from skeletal remains, though intrauterine death is considered extremely unlikely for a term delivery without obstetric complications.
- Prosecution psychiatric consultants reported no clearly documentable mental disorder and concluded Petrolini had full capacity to understand and will, describing marked emotional impoverishment and noting her repeated question, “What have I done?”