http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/05/world/europe/italy-triple-suicide/index.html


He was a clerk at a shoe company, though he hadn't worked for some time. She was a retired artisan. Together, they had no more than 500 euros a month, from her pension, to live off of.

On Friday, they were dead.

In Italy, a country in a deep economic malaise and political disarray, there's no shortage of people struggling nowadays. Even then, the suicides of Romeo Dionisi, 62, and Anna Maria Sopranzi, 68, struck a nerve -- triggering an outpouring of disbelief and sorrow not only in their seaside eastern Italian community, but around the nation.

"The tragedy of Civitanova Marche leaves (me) shocked and speechless," said Pier Luigi Bersani, leader of the center-left Democratic Party that narrowly won the most votes in February's election. "We all have to convince ourselves that, out of the spotlight, there is a real and dramatic social emergency."

Dionisi and Sopranzi lived in an apartment in the same building as Ivo Costamagna, the president of Civitanova Marche's municipal council, according to the state-run ANSA news agency.

Costamagna had spoken with the couple and invited them to talk to social service workers. But they said they would not, ANSA reports, because they were ashamed about their inability to keep up financially.

"They couldn't even pay the rent," neighbors said.

Their garage door open, the couple had left a note asking forgiveness and directing people to a room in the back of their building, ANSA reported. That is where they were found, having hung themselves.

Police told reporters there was "no doubt" Dionisi and Sopranzi committed suicide out of desperation.

Adding to the tragedy, Sopranzi's elderly brother threw himself into the Adriatic Sea soon after the news broke about his sister. He was recovered, ANSA said, but attempts to revive him failed.

Na wa oo

bro do you live in italy