There could never be enough apologies. Miriam was the only child of Lanfranco Schillaci, 35, a math teacher, and his wife, Maria, 33, a literature teacher. In April last year the family brought the little girl to a hospital near their home outside Milan. Examining a large hematoma on her buttocks, one doctor suspected sexual abuse and notified authorities. A court barred the parents from the hospital and, following a tip from a doctor, the press took the case public. Her father was pilloried as the “monster from Limbiate.” One paper even compared him to the Marquis de Sade, when his wife defended him, she was dismissed as the classic incest accomplice. Neighbors who had watched Schillaci play with his child suddenly recalled that he seemed to give her too much attention.
Despite the media trial, the parents were never charged with any crime. Finally a court-ordered medical examination concluded that Miriam’s hematoma was a reaction to suppositories she had been given for the flu, aggravated by careless rectal exams. She returned home. Some doctors remained skeptical and the press continued to hound the parents. The distraught Schillacis fled to their native Sicily.
There doctors diagnosed Miriam’s real problem: a rare form of anal cancer, discovered when the child fell ill again in June. An operation came too late. Miriam’s last year was an ordeal of pain. Earlier this month she asked, to crawl into her parents’ bed; on June 2, she died.
