Mummified spouses, loneliness even after death: no relative has claimed the bodies

Marco Steffenoni, 75, and Maria Teresa Nizzola, 76 years old, were found mummified in their villa between the municipalities of Verona and Negrar almost a month ago. They lived in a solitude that began before, had been died for at least four months at the time of the discovery, and continued after almost thirty days after the discovery of the bodies no relative showed up to claim them. To take charge of the funeral and burial of the spouses will be the Municipality of Verona.

The bodies of the two spouses, reports it the Corriere del VenetoI am still at the Institute of Legal Medicine at the Borgo Roma hospital. Here on March 21, the autopsy was performed that established the heart attack as the cause of the death of man, found in a corridor. The causes of his wife’s death is still to be clarified: a month will serve for the results of the toxicological exams. They also serve to understand who of the two spouses also died first because this changes the hereditary axis. We will have to see even if there are valid testaments. The two had no children. The former dentist had a brother with whom he hadn’t had for years with years.

From Gene Hackman to the couple of Verona found Mummified, the director of the Master on death: «Why do you die alone? We have not created sufficient solidarity ties alternative to the family “

Ines Testoni has been studying the themes of death and social management of the elderly for years. The increasingly frequent cases of death in solitude tell of a lack of evolution of society after the end of the patriarchal family

The choice of loneliness, which had been their alive, continues. In the house the last bill found dates back to October 2024. The bodies were found by boys who make “Urbex”, urban exploration of uninhabited buildings. After them the carabinieri and thieves entered the house when the news became public domain.

Are given to be linked directly to the evolution of the family and the companyabroad, but also in Italy. The Veronese spouses had chosen to isolate themselves from the world, the same had made Gene Hackman and his wife. Often even people with close relatives lose contacts with them and do not cultivate friendships. How do these solitudes are created? Ines Testoni is the director of the first Master in Italy in Death Studies and End of Lifeat the University of Padua. “From the second half of the twentieth century, the company has undergone changes, even very positive, but with respect to which there has been no work of collective awareness. The decline of patriarchy, still not finished, is a blessing, a positive evolution of western society, but has led to The nuclearization of families and the elementaryization of family relationships. There is no longer the Patriarch who dominated two generations on an extended family with all the aberrations and suffering that were in this system, in particular for the exploitation of the female figure. However, the nuclear family can no longer count on intergenerational solidarity bonds. There has been the autonomization of the younger generations and women above all, even if the care work still falls much on them, and We have not created sufficient solidarity ties alternative to the previous model».

Here the complete interview with Professor Testoni.