Elderley couple murdered in Wolverhampton

A DEVOTED elderly couple found murdered in Wolverhampton were killed in their own bed, their grieving grand-daughter revealed.

Guiseppe Massaro, 80, and wife Caterina, 77, were discovered in the bedroom of their ransacked home.

Police believe burglary may be the motive for the horrific double killing because their car and TV had been stolen.

Cops described the murders at Woden Road, Park Village, as `a particularly nasty incident’.

Yesterday (SUN), grand-daughter Lindsey Booth, 22, paid tribute to the `inseparable’ couple and said: “My grandparents were wonderful and loving people who worked hard all their lives and did not deserve to die like this.”

Guiseppe Massaro, 80, and his wife Caterina, 77, may have been dead for more than 24 hours before their fully-clothed bodies were found slumped in their bedroom on Friday night.

There were no signs of blood or that the couple had put up any resistance. Mrs Massaro’s body had been covered by a duvet, the couple’s horrified grand-daughter Lindsey Booth said.

The 22 year-old told a local newspaper: “I went round with my mom because my auntie had visited earlier in the day and was getting worried that they had not been in touch.

“When we got inside it was clear that they had been burgled. The house had been turned upside down and I feared the worst when they didn’t respond.

“When I got upstairs I opened their bedroom door and saw my grandad lying still on top of the mattress”

I screamed to my mom to stay downstairs and walked over to touch the body but it was cold and clearly dead.

“That’s when I noticed my gran lying next to him. Her body had been covered by the duvet.

“They were both still in their day clothes and I didn’t see any blood or signs that there had been a struggle.

“The bedroom had been completely ransacked and everything moved around, including the bed.

“A television set is missing and their car had been stolen.”

She added: “My grandparents were wonderful and loving people who worked hard all their lives and did not deserve to die like this.

“Why did someone have to kill them? They were old and defenceless and would not have been a threat to anyone.”

Mr Massaro moved to Woden Road in Wolverhampton from the village of Sant Angelo D’Alife, near Naples, in 1960 and worked at the GKN factory in the city all his life.

He and Caterina, who worked at Marshalls factory, had two daughters and a number of grandchildren.

Mr Massaro’s tearful sister, Louise Mastroborno, said she had gone round to see him on Friday morning with some food she had made for the Easter break.

She said: “I last spoke to him on Tuesday night and told him I would come round Friday with some traditional Italian food that we make for the Easter festival.

“There was no answer at the door and the car was not parked outside, so I placed the food in the recycling bin outside for them to pick up later.
When I got home I kept calling every half and hour or so, but there was no answer.

“At about 6.40pm I called my niece to tell her to go round and check on the house.”

Mrs Mastroborno said the couple had been burgled about 10 years earlier when thieves had taken out a pane of glass to gain entry.

“I was always telling my brother to move out of that area because there are a lot of burglaries and muggings that happen,” she said.

“But Pepe, as we called him, liked it there and he was popular with the neighbours who would always see him walking. He was very fit for his age and tried to walk everywhere.”

She added: “He was enjoying life and had only just celebrated his 80th birthday a couple of months ago.

“He was always very wary of strangers and was very security-conscious, this has come as a complete shock to all the family both here and back in Italy.”

Superintendent Mark Payne, who is leading the murder hunt, said the couple were last seen alive at 8pm on Thursday night and urged people to come forward with information.

“The community holds the key to his investigation,” he said. Anyone who saw anyone coming in or out of hat house, whether they recognise them or not, should contact police.

“We have lots of very experienced police officers and detectives dealing with this. We will find the person or people and bring them to justice and make them account for their actions.”

Supt Payne refused to be drawn on the exact details of the deaths but described it as a “particularly nasty incident.”

He said that the couple’s car, a black Peugeot 307 bearing the registration number PK56 VRW had been stolen, and was later found a few streets way in Tithe Croft.

The car was described as having two distinctive features, an orange air tree air freshener and a sticker of the Virgin Mary on the left-hand side of the windscreen.

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