PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Police say a Bucks County woman shot and killed her longtime boyfriend and business partner, then hired someone to dig a hole so she could bury his corpse in the yard. According to court documents, she claims it was all done in self-defense.
Anna Maria Tolomello was arraigned on Wednesday.
The investigation started when a man in Italy got in touch with police, concerned about his father, Giovanni Gallina, who lives in the Chalfont section of Hilltown Township. He said they talk every day, but he had not heard from Gallina for about a week and a half.
According to court documents, when police went to the home Gallina shared with Tolomello, she told them Gallina was away on business, but didn’t say where he went or how long he would be gone.
Tolomello and Gallina own Pina’s Pizza in New Britain.
Investigators soon found out that Tomello had hired someone to dig a hole 7 feet long and 3 feet deep in her yard, because, quoting from the criminal complaint, “she wanted to bury one or more items.” She had also asked someone about how to deal with a skunk in her garage and where to get incense.
After the hole was dug in the yard, police showed up with a warrant to search the house. According to the criminal complaint, Tolomello met them in the driveway and told them she should have called them a week earlier, but she had shot and killed Gallina in self defense, and his body was in the bedroom.
After police found Gallina’s body in the bedroom, they say Tolomello told them she had shot Gallina in the head while he was strangling her.
The criminal complaint says she planned to pave over the hole in the yard to hide the body, and she admitted she had made up the skunk story. She was trying to hide the smell of decomposition.
The 48-year-old is charged with criminal homicide, abuse of corpse, tampering with evidence and related offenses. She is held without bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 19, 2022.
Sourced via CRIMEWATCH®: https://bucks.crimewatchpa.com/da/29567/post/woman-charged-hilltown-township-killing-body-discovered-inside-bedroom