A teenager accused of killing his entire family is said to have been fixated on one particular song before the gruesome event.
Italy is reeling after prosecutors stated that a high school student admitted to murdering his family.
The 17-year-old is accused of attacking his family with a knife at their home in Paderno Dugnano, a town north of Milan, on the morning of September 1.
It is alleged that the teenager stabbed his 12-year-old brother with a 20cm kitchen knife ten times, with the younger sibling’s scream waking their parents.
Unaware that their eldest son, already in the room, was the attacker, father Fabio called out for his help. It is believed that the teen then turned on his parents, attacking his father and mother Daniela.
The son then contacted emergency services, initially claiming to have killed only his father in self-defense and blaming his father for the deaths of his mother and brother, according to AP reports.
When police arrived, they found the boy outside his home, covered in blood, wearing only his underwear, and holding a knife, which he dropped when officers arrived, officials reported.
However, during questioning, the teen’s story began to fall apart, prosecutors say, especially as he had no injuries that would suggest a struggle.
“There is no real reason why I killed them. I felt like a foreign body in my family. Oppressed. I thought that by killing them all I would free myself from this discomfort,” he allegedly told police.
More disturbingly, the teen mentioned he had been listening to The Beatles in the days leading up to the incident, repeatedly playing one line from the song ‘The Long and Winding Road’, local media reported.
He confessed to police that he had been listening to the lines ‘Many times I’ve been alone/ and many times I’ve cried’ on repeat.
The alleged killer also told police: “I realized it a minute later. I understood that it was not by killing them that I would be freed.”
The town’s mayor, Anna Varisco, commented on the shocking incident and the family: “They were a normal, serene family, not followed by social services and described by everyone as not having problems.”
Police continue to investigate the tragic event.