Modena, September 8, 2026 – “We are confident and hope that the investigations will restart immediately, because all we are asking for today is the truth that has never come to light. We ask for justice not only for Marina, but for all the girls killed at the time.”
Trusting in justice in light of the recent start of investigations into the so-called ‘Monster of Modena’ is Stefano Balboni, cousin of Marina.
Her body was found lifeless in Carpi, on November 1, 1987. The young woman, then 20 years old, was strangled with a scarf that night. Before leaving the house, she confided that she was afraid of ‘those people’, feared for her safety, and feared ending up like Donatella Guerra.
“My cousin perhaps knew who the killer was”
“We don’t know if there really is a ‘monster’; perhaps multiple crimes were committed by a single hand and with my uncle, Marina’s father who passed away a year ago, we often talked about it. He often wondered who could have killed his daughter, such a young girl who had decided to leave the scene. It was thought that she, my cousin, knew the name of who had killed Donatella Guerra and precisely for this reason was taken out of the way.”
Donatella’s body, in fact, was found on September 12 of the same year in San Cesario, near the quarries. “The evening before leaving the house, that night, my uncle invited her to stay home – continues Stefano Balboni – He told her: you are detoxing, you are doing well, don’t hang out with those people anymore. My cousin replied that she was afraid of those people but was forced to go. At that point, my uncle showed her the newspaper, where the murder of Donatella Guerra was mentioned. Marina then said: ‘Let’s hope they don’t make me meet the same fate,’ implying that she knew her. If the investigations had been done differently back then, maybe she would have been saved, who knows.”
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Balboni: “Many relatives of the victims are afraid”
According to Balboni, at the time of the heinous crimes, between 1985 and 1995 the people under scrutiny were not thoroughly investigated. “We hope that today we can start again from there: what we expect – he emphasizes – is that with the current evidence, which seems to be in good condition, it will be possible to exclude or include the people who were under scrutiny back then. Also because many relatives of the victims are afraid: whoever committed these crimes could still be around.”
Finally, Balboni adds: “Our hope is that the investigations really restart. What gave us hope was lawyer Barbara Iannuccelli, who fights alongside us. We know that the prosecutor’s office is working – he continues – and that there is evidence that could be analyzed with a scientific method. We want to seek the truth, understand what really happened. I always keep my aunt, Marina’s mother, informed. Her health conditions are not good, but she has a lot of faith that things this time can ‘turn around’. My uncles no longer had faith in the institutions, but she, first of all, today told me that she would like to get to the truth. She keeps wondering who could have killed her daughter: she was just a twenty-year-old girl.
Lawyer Iannuccelli states that it is necessary to start from one case, solve one, and maybe see if it connects to the others in order to really get to the truth and we, today, trust in this.”
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