Giorgio Palmieri was arrested on Tuesday night for the murder of three family members at their home close to Turin on January 3rd.

Palmieri, who reportedly knew the family through his partner, went to their home on Friday night to discuss a €500 debt he owed them, Italian media reported on Wednesday.

READ MORE: Italian man confesses to triple murder in Turin

After being welcomed in and drinking a cup of coffee, he allegedly stabbed 66-year-old Claudio Allione with a letter knife.

Palmieri then turned the knife on Allione’s 65-year-old wife, Maria Angela Greggio, he reportedly said in a teary confession to police.

“Afterwards, I tried not to make a sound because I didn’t want the grandmother, who was on the ground floor, to hear me. But I remember that the grandmother opened the door to her room and then immediately shut it,” Palmieri was quoted in La Stampa as saying.

Thinking that 94-year-old Emilia Campo Dall'Orto, Greggio’s mother, had seen him, Palmieri went into her bedroom.

“She was sitting in bed playing cards, as soon as she saw me she said, ‘And what are you doing here’? I approached her and said I didn’t want to do anything and not to scream or move, but she attacked me,” Palmieri said. He then stabbed her, La Stampa said.

“I didn’t want to do it, it broke my heart.

“After I killed the grandmother with the letter knife, I covered her with the duvet and kissed her because I was sorry for having killed her in this way,” Palmieri said.

Police traced him thanks to information provided by Emilia Campo Dall'Orto’s grandson, Maurizio Allione.

The victims’ relative went to police after discovering new evidence, espresso cups and a latex glove close to the house, earlier this week. During a meeting with investigators he told them that a carer at the family home, Dorotea De Pippo, had been dismissed just months earlier after a necklace went missing.

Police were then able to link Palmieri – De Pippo’s partner – to the crime. The former family carer is not being investigated for murder, Italian media said.

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