An Italian court has ordered the investigation into Chiara Jaconis’s death to be reopened as her mother marks two years without answers.
The Juvenile Court of Appeals in Italy issued the ruling Thursday, calling for a new ballistics assessment to determine which of two statuettes killed Jaconis, 30, in Naples in September 2024. The fashion manager from Padua was struck in the head while walking through the Spanish Quarters with her boyfriend, Livio Rousseau, hauling luggage toward the airport after celebrating her birthday in the coastal city.
Investigators have long faced a central puzzle: two objects fell from height that day. One was a 4.85-pound statuette of Pharaoh Akhenaten. The other, a 10-pound bust of Queen Nefertiti. Neither police nor prosecutors have been able to establish definitively which piece delivered the fatal blow from roughly 32 feet above.
The object had been pushed from a third-floor balcony, according to police. A 13-year-old boy was identified as the one who hurled it, but under Italian law, children under 14 cannot be held criminally responsible. That legal threshold has left the family without a direct conviction for the killing itself.
The boy’s parents, however, have been charged with manslaughter. Prosecutors allege they failed to supervise their son and neglected to strengthen balcony locks that could have kept him from accessing the ledge. They also accuse the parents of ignoring a documented pattern of behavior, noting the boy had previously thrown tablets, an air conditioning remote control, and clothespins from heights.
The parents have consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Cristina Venturi, Jaconis’s mother, has spent the intervening years pressing for accountability. “Two years have passed and we are still waiting for justice,” she told Il Gazettino this week. “We are calling for accountability and for Chiara to receive the justice she deserves.”
“No verdict can bring Chiara back to us,” she continued, “but justice is the only thing left for us to ask for.”
Venturi also shared a photograph of her daughter on social media with a message of grief: “Two years without you… without your smiles [and] without your gestures.”
Jaconis had built a career in luxury fashion since moving to Paris. She joined Prada in October 2022 as a manager overseeing 15 stores across France, Monaco and Belgium, according to her LinkedIn profile. Earlier positions included stints at L’Oréal, Givenchy, and Christian Louboutin.
The reopened probe now turns on forensic specifics that could reshape the case. The ballistics assessment ordered by the appeals judges aims to match the fatal injuries to one of the two statuettes, potentially clarifying a central evidentiary gap that has stalled resolution.
No one has been convicted in connection with Jaconis’s death.