Femicide in Bruzzano: Ex-partner on trial after 18 years of abuse

The trial for the femicide in Bruzzano, a neighborhood of Milan, has officially begun. Luigi Morcaldi, 64, has been ordered to stand trial by judge Luca Milani for the aggravated murder of his former partner, Luciana Ronchi, 62, with premeditation. The woman was killed with at least 14 stab wounds to the face and throat on October 22, 2025, in broad daylight on the street, outside her home on Via Grassini.

The judge accepted the request of prosecutors Giovanni Tarzia and Leonardo Lesti, rejecting the defense's motion to exclude the aggravating factor of premeditation. The indictment is not limited to the murder but also includes all the years of mistreatment, violence, and abuse suffered by the woman from 2004 to 2022, while the couple lived together. The man, deemed capable of understanding and willing, faces the risk of a life sentence.

The feminicide in Bruzzano is the culmination of a long 18-year history of domestic violence. Luciana Ronchi and Luigi Morcaldi, former partners who share a child, lived together for many years, during which the woman endured a continuous regime of beatings, insults, harassment, stalking, and sexual abuse, in what the court documents describe as "painful living conditions."

The situation escalated despite Luciana Ronchi having left her tormentor three years earlier, in an attempt to escape the violence. However, Morcaldi continued to stalk her. On the morning of October 22, 2025, after at least three days of lying in wait to monitor her associations, the man ambushed her outside her home, attacking her while screaming: "This is my house, you have to leave." The assault, captured by surveillance cameras, was so violent that Morcaldi himself initially told prosecutors he did not believe he had inflicted all those stab wounds.