Albanians shocked by immigrant family’s tragedy

TIRANA, March 10 – Wide media coverage both in Italy, where they lived, and in Albania, the parents’ native country, has shocked people with the news that a 37-year-old mother stabbed her three daughters to death before trying to commit suicide herself.
Edlira Dobrushi was said to be in a confused state as she was detained and taken to a hospital. She is being treated for wounds to her wrists and neck.
Officers and paramedics called to the scene spoke of seeing “rivers of blood” as they tried to help the three girls aged, 13, 10 and 4 but they were all declared dead at the scene. Neighbors called emergency services after being woken by blood-curdling screams in an apartment block in Lecco, a town in northern Italy near Milan.
The woman had separated from her husband and father of the children, and he had left her on Friday to travel back to his
native Albania. He was traced to a relative’s home close to the country’s second city Durres where he was confronted with the shocking news.
A police spokesman said that all three girls had suffered multiple stab wounds and they had died in their own bedrooms but all the bodies had been taken to the mother’s bed.
Lt. Col. Rocco Italiano of the Carabinieri police force said: “The whole apartment was covered in blood. There was nothing
that could be done for the victims – they were all dead with multiple stab wounds from a kitchen knife. The woman herself was also covered in blood and in a very confused state. She kept screaming that she had killed her children. … They had financial difficulties but that is no excuse for the level of violence on three innocent children.”
Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said “We will not let whoever committed this terrible crime get away with it.”
The woman was being held in custody accused of murder and was expected to appear before an investigating magistrate after confessing to the killings while being questioned by police.
A funeral service was held for the three girls in the Italian town where they lived. Their bodies then, accompanied by the father, Bashkim Dobrushi, travelled for burial to the Albanian city of Kukes, the birthplace of their parents.