According to the medical examiner, the first newborn was alive at the time of birth. The prosecutor’s psychiatrist: “Chiara Petrolini has no mental disorders, only strong emotional poverty.”
From the new hearing of the trial for the affair of the newborns buried in Traversetolo, increasingly precise elements emerge. According to the medical examiner Valentina Bugellitechnical consultant of the Parma Prosecutor’s Office, it is “unlikely that the first of Chiara Petrolini’s two children was stillborn”. The fetus, explained the expert, had reached term – “at the fortieth week” – and intrauterine death at that stage “is a very rare event, in the order of a one in a million probability”.
All domiciliary exams, including the lung test and the buoyancy testgave positive results. “The newborn was alive at the time of birth,” confirmed Bugelli, who added that the baby could breathe independently.
The second child
Even the second newborn, the one found first in August 2024, would have performed more than one breath. The estimated survival time is 4-7 minutes after giving birth. According to the medical report, the cause of death could be traced back to one acute hemorrhagic shock due to the umbilical cord being cut, “probably with a sharp object”.
No psychiatric disorders
The professor also spoke during the hearing Mario Lovepsychiatrist and consultant to the Prosecutor’s Office, who ruled out any mental pathology for the young accused. “Chiara Petrolini does not have a definable psychiatric disorder, nor an organic mental illness,” he explained. “At the time of the facts he had full capacity of understanding and will, and a good capacity to stand trial”.
“An emotionless girl”
The portrait drawn by the psychiatrist is that of a young woman who is extremely controlled and adapted to the context. “On the outside she appears impeccable, as a babysitter and as a catechist, but on the inside she shows profound emotional poverty. There is nothing alive in her, except the bond with her grandmother and her pregnancies, the only experiences in which her inner world has moved”, declared the consultant.
According to the analysis, Chiara comes from a “normal” family, with parents present and no obvious dysfunctions, but her balance is based on a overadaptation: a life led in perfect appearance, without real emotional involvement.
The context of the investigation
The affair profoundly shook the community of Traversetolo. The two newborns were discovered in 2024, buried in a countryside area. The investigators’ reconstruction continues, but the medico-legal and psychiatric results outline an increasingly clear picture: no premature birth, no mental disorder, but a sequence of tragic events that remains difficult to explain.
