Paola Bettoni dies after 40-year search for justice in Lidia Macchi murder

Paola Bettoni, the mother of Lidia Macchi, has died at the age of 83 following a long illness. For nearly forty years, Bettoni campaigned for justice following the 1987 murder of her 21-year-old daughter, a university student.

Lidia Macchi was killed with 29 stab wounds in the Cittiglio area, near Varese, during the night of January 5-6, 1987. Despite decades of investigations and legal proceedings, a definitive judicial truth regarding the identity of the killer has not been established.

Bettoni became a symbol of the search for truth, famously stating, “I want the culprit, not a culprit,” to emphasize her demand for certainty rather than mere legal conclusions. One significant legal development involved the trial of Stefano Binda, a former classmate who was acquitted with the formula “for not having committed the fact.” Bettoni passed away without seeing the case resolved.