Rome —

Italian model and entrepreneur Pamela Genini had what many might consider an enviable life. The 29-year-old Milan resident was a successful real estate agent focused on high-commission seaside properties. A thriving influencer who was discovered on a popular reality TV program a decade earlier, she had just launched her own swimwear line with an influencer friend.

In a country where the rate of unemployment and precarious employment for the under-30s is stubbornly high, Genini had broken the mold.

But one evening in mid-October, Genini’s 52-year-old ex-boyfriend Gianluca Soncin is alleged to have entered her apartment and fatally stabbed her. Police were called but arrived to find her dead on her balcony. Soncin was at her side, the investigating judge in the case said.

Soncin, currently in solitary confinement awaiting formal charges, faces accusations of voluntary homicide, cruelty, stalking, and premeditation. His lawyer told CNN he had not yet answered any questions about what happened.

Genini was the 72nd victim of femicide – usually defined as when a girl or woman is killed because of her gender, often by a current or former intimate partner – in Italy in 2025, according to the observatory group Non Una Di Meno (Not One Less), which keeps a tally of such killings. Four more women have been killed since Genini, according to the group, including Luciana Ronchi, 62, and 80-year-old Vanda Venditti. Six more cases are being examined as potential femicides.

Last year, there were 116 cases of femicide, according to Non Una Di Meno, a slight decrease from the previous two years.

Mourners attend