Bonfiglio had already stabbed a woman.

There were not only the previous incidents involving Daniela Zinnanti, the 50-year-old who was stabbed to death on March 9. Santo Bonfiglio had already beaten and stabbed another woman. An article from a local newspaper reveals another piece of history, seemingly ignored or at least underestimated in judicial proceedings.

It was September 5, 2008, and Tempostretto reported on Bonfiglio's assault on his then-partner. He was 49 years old when he went out in his underwear at night in Spadafora, a town on the Tyrrhenian coast in the province of Messina, chasing the woman who was fleeing from him, and after catching up to her, he began to kick and punch her. Stopped by a traffic officer, Bonfiglio returned home, only to come back out, this time dressed, with a knife in hand, trying to stab the woman in the chest, who managed to defend herself with her arm and save herself. Meanwhile, Bonfiglio fled in a Fiat Panda and warned his ex-wife that he was going to Milazzo to see their 6-year-old daughter, claiming he had attempted to stab his partner. The ex-wife then called the police to report everything, and Bonfiglio was shortly thereafter arrested on charges of attempted murder.

This previous incident, which seemingly did not weigh on the decision regarding the precautionary measure after Zinnanti's reports in May and then February, was not mentioned by the investigating judge, Salvo Pugliese, who issued the house arrest with electronic bracelet, a measure he deemed the “minimum adequate”, given the repetition of behaviors.

Unfortunately, there were no electronic bracelets available in Messina, so Bonfiglio remained under house arrest without a bracelet for almost a month until March 9, when he violated it to go to his ex-partner's house and kill her.

"As soon as they close the investigation and we have all the documents, we will evaluate all the appropriate initiatives," comments Filippo Brianni, lawyer along with Gianfranco Briguglio and Giorgio Italiano for the family of Daniela.