The images of that terrible Sunday in 1992 are still indelible in the collective memory even almost thirty years later. Neither two months after the Capaci massacre Judge Borsellino was murdered. With him, animated by the same sense of justice, the agents of his escort also lost their lives.
Among them was a very young policewoman, the only woman to protect the magistrate.
Who was Emanuela Loi
Emanuela was born in Sestu, near Cagliari, on October 9, 1967. She joined the State Police in 1989, after six months of training in the 119th course at the Scuola Allievi Agenti in Trieste. After that comes the assignment a Palermo, destined to change her life forever. In the Sicilian capital he holds various positions: guarding at Villa Pajno at the home of the then parliamentarian Sergio Mattarella, the escort to the senator Pina Maisano (widow of Libero Grassi) and the boss’s guard Francesco Madonia.
Emanuela was a smiling and carefree girl, engaged to a boy she wants to marry, perhaps in Cagliari. He hopes to return to his Sardinia, but in the meantime he has to reassure friends and relatives, worried about his work in a land that was the scene of almost daily violence at the time. She had not yet turned 25 when on July 17, 1992 she was assigned to Paolo Borsellino who, as soon as he sees her, like a father, comments:
And should she defend me? I should be defending her.
Unfortunately neither of them succeeded.
The massacre of via D’Amelio
And the July 19, Emanuela Loi has been part of the judge’s escort for just two days. Borsellino at 4.58 pm is in via d’Amelio, where he had gone to visit his mother and sister. Just as Emanuela and the judge got out of the car, one Fiat 126 charged with TNT explodes killing Borsellino and his agents: Emanuela Loi, Agostino Catalano, Vincenzo Li Muli, Walter Eddie Cosina and Claudio Traina. The only survivor of the massacre was agent Antonino Vullo, who was parking another escort car at the moment of the explosion. The roar resounds throughout Palermo, and is the sound of so many lives dedicated to justice that have been swept away.
The memory of Emanuela
The young policewoman was the first woman in Italy to be part of an escort and also the first woman of the State Police to die in a mafia massacre. Even though he was aware of the danger he was running, he loved his job, which he carried out with commitment and dedication. With a posthumous provision, the Gold medal for civil valor for the dedication and courage expressed in the service, up to the sacrifice of his own life. Since her death schools, streets, squares and gardens have been dedicated to her. Although none of this will bring back Emanuela her sister Maria Claudia and the whole family keep her memory alive, fighting for legality just like she did, until the end.