Costa Volpino Mourns as Murderer Confesses to Brutal Killing of Sara Centelleghe
Costa Volpino, Italy – April 10, 2025, 2:24 AM PDT
The quiet town of Costa Volpino, nestled along Lake Iseo in Bergamo province, remains in shock as new details emerge in the savage murder of 18-year-old Sara Centelleghe. On October 26, 2024, the vibrant student—days shy of her 19th birthday—was found dead in her third-floor apartment, stabbed dozens of times with scissors by her 19-year-old neighbor, Jashan Deep Badhan. In a chilling confession reported by Italian media, Badhan admitted to the crime, stating, “I was struggled, I killed her to scissor,” a phrase that has baffled investigators and deepened the mystery surrounding his motive.
The horrific events unfolded late Friday night at 142 Via Nazionale. Sara had been spending the evening with a friend, planning her upcoming birthday and Halloween festivities, when the friend stepped out around 1:15 AM to grab a drink from a nearby vending machine. In that brief window, Badhan—known as “Deep” to locals—entered the apartment. According to the autopsy, he inflicted approximately 70 scissor blows, primarily to Sara’s face and neck, in an attack forensic doctor Matteo Marchesi described as “alarming ferocity.” The scissors, found bloodied at the scene, were not brought by Badhan but taken from within the home, casting doubt on premeditation.
Badhan, an Indian-origin warehouse worker with a minor drug-related record, lived in an adjacent building connected by shared garages. After the killing, he fled barefoot down the stairs, leaving bloody footprints and a trail that led carabinieri directly to his door by 8:45 AM Saturday. Initially offering partial admissions, he fully confessed by Saturday evening before prosecutor Giampiero Golluccio, saying, “I don’t know why I did it.” His lawyer, Fausto Micheli, told Adnkronos, “He’s distraught, remorseful. It started as a struggle, then spiraled out of control.” A hand wound, possibly from gripping the scissors, further incriminated him.
Investigators have pieced together a timeline from phone records and witness accounts. Badhan had been texting Sara’s friend that night, arranging a possible drug exchange—hashish for cocaine—asking at 12:49 AM, “Are you downstairs?” As the friend left the apartment, leaving the door ajar, Badhan entered, perhaps expecting to find her. Instead, he encountered Sara, who reportedly asked, “Who are you?” before the fatal confrontation erupted. Judge Alessia Solombrino, in the arrest warrant, suggests Badhan may have been rummaging through a backpack for drugs when surprised by Sara, triggering his violent reaction.
The community reels from the loss of Sara, a student at Ivan Piana’s Socio-Sanitary Institute in Lovere, remembered as “kind and full of dreams.” Her father, Vittorio, voiced his anguish on RAI 1’s Storie Italiane: “Something must be done—this can’t keep happening.” Her mother, who lived with Sara, arrived too late to intervene, finding neighbors attempting CPR in vain. A minute of silence was held at her school, where classmates still grapple with grief.
Badhan, now in Bergamo’s Via Gleno prison, faces charges of aggravated voluntary manslaughter with cruelty and minor-defense aggravants, potentially carrying a life sentence. As the investigation closes, with a preliminary hearing pending, questions linger: Was this a drug-fueled impulse, or something darker? For Costa Volpino, Sara’s death is a wound that won’t soon heal, her killer’s cryptic confession—“I was struggled, I killed her to scissor”—a haunting echo of a night that shattered a town.