A week after the tragic discovery of the newborn in the Cradle for Life at the church of San Giovanni Battista in Bari, the prosecutor’s office, which until now was investigating on the assumption of the crime of child abandonment by unknown persons, has entered the parish priest in the register of suspects , Don Antonio Ruccia, and the technician who has been responsible for the maintenance of the thermal cradle in recent weeks. The hypothesis is manslaughter and was formulated after the investigators listened to both suspects in recent days and acquired further elements. The results of the autopsy will be fundamental for reconstructing what happened and any responsibilities.
In mid-December, perhaps due to some brief blackouts that had affected the parish, the intervention of the technician, who is now under investigation, had become necessary. From the beginning, the parish priest declared that he had not received any alarm calls on his cell phone as had happened on the previous two occasions. Normally, in fact, placing a newborn baby in that crib activates the heating and triggers a phone call to the priest’s cell phone. The alert system, however, contrary to what is written on the church website, is not connected to the Bari Polyclinic.
In recent years, in that very same cradle for life, two children entrusted to the community had found shelter and salvation (and not abandoned as the parish priest has reiterated several times): little Maria Grazia in 2023 and a little boy in 2020 who had a ticket next to him. “This is Luigi, tell him that we will love him forever”. It is now up to us to understand what happened and why the story of a third child who came into the world, and was not discarded by his mother, did not have the same happy ending.
Closed in silence, Don Ruccia makes no statements. He told those close to him that he is saddened and very saddened even though he knows that the prosecutor’s decision is a necessary action. Maintenance of the thermal cradle had been carried out on December 14th. In the Bari community, some inconsistent statements made by the undertaker regarding the thermal cradle close to the discovery are raising doubts. The priest received messages of sympathy from local and national clergy.
