A mother has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for going to extreme lengths after her 8-year-old son walked in on her having sex with the boy’s grandfather.
Veronica Panarello, 27, will spend the next 30 years of her life behind bars after being found guilty of murdering her 8-year-old son, Loris Stival, the Daily Mail reported.
Loris’ body was found in a remote canal in Santa Croce, Sicily, on Nov. 29, 2014, The Local reported. A murder investigation was launched soon after.
Panarello first told authorities her son was abducted. She claimed she dropped him off at school and that the boy disappeared when she arrived to pick him up that afternoon.
But surveillance footage did not correlate with Panarello’s story, judge Andrea Reale was told. The footage showed the boy returning home that day and also showed his mother later driving toward Mulino Vecchio, the area where his body was found.
Coroners determined that the boy was choked with an electrical cable tie and left for dead. Panarello eventually confessed that her son was killed, but blamed her husband’s father, Andrea Stival.
Panarello also said at an earlier hearing that Andrea helped to coordinate the murder because Loris walked in on them having sex.
Prosecutors deemed Panarello to be an “egocentric, manipulative liar.” She was found guilty of murdering her son and concealing his body.
Andrea is being investigated as an accessory to the murder. He has denied the allegations and has threatened to sue Panarello for slander, the Italian media reports.