Murder is forever

 

The more you read about some people, the more you can't believe most people.

You heard about these two young Americans who went to Italy for a good time and wound up in hell. Finnegan Lee Elder was 19 in July, 2019, when he and his old high school buddy Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth, then 18, tried to purchase cocaine on a Roman street corner. Big surprise, they got burned, so they robbed the guy who had steered them to the drug dealer. They took his backpack and demanded 100 Euros and a bag of cocaine if he wanted it back.

Natale-Hjorth, left, Elder, right

The man agreed, and also notified the police. Italy's Carabinieri paramilitary police force got in on it, and in the early morning of July 26, 2019, Carabinieri Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega, 35,  and his partner met the two American idiots near their swanky hotel.

The police were in plainclothes. Next thing you know, they all four were fighting, and Elder allegedly stabbed Cerciello Rega 11 times with a 7" combat knife that he wisely packed for his big trip (remember this fact!). Meanwhile Natale-Hjorth was busy belting Cerciello Rega's partner repeatedly, according to prosecutors. 

Cerciello Rega had just come back to the job after his honeymoon. He died at age 35 from his wounds.

The two young Americans were sentenced to life in prison.

Two years later, here come Ethan and Leah Elder, parents of the man who killed a policeman, to tell "Good Morning America" that they are concerned about their son's mental health behind bars.

The Elders

"We just want Finn to be able to survive this," Leah Elder said. "He has a noted history of attempted suicide, and we're really worried and really concerned. He was utterly devastated by the verdict, just devastated. It was completely unexpected for him."

(He went to a foreign country and killed a cop and he didn't expect to get sent to prison.)

During the trial, Elder's mother testified that he had attempted to commit suicide several times in the past.

"He struggles with anxiety and depression, and his current situation is really perilous," she said.

(Knowing this, she sends him off to Italy, rather than making sure he gets treatment.)

Elder's parents told the morning show that he is "incredibly kind, incredibly sensitive" and "painfully honest."

"He does not see a reason to lie," Leah Elder said of her son. "From the moment Finn was detained, he has not changed his version of that night one iota."

(Simply telling the truth does not relieve one of the burden of guilt.)

Elder, the incredibly honest young man, and Natale-Hjorth were seen on surveillance video running away from the murder, still holding the backpack they had ripped off. A block away, at their hotel, police found their bloody clothing and the murder weapon stashed in the ceiling.

Elder and Natale-Hjorth were questioned by police and confessed.

Natale-Hjorth testified that the amazingly kind and sensitive Elder told him to hide the knife he had just used to kill a newlywed policeman.

Elder's parents said that their boy was "illegally interrogated" by police "without a lawyer present."

(But he was always honest.)

"We raised Finnegan, as I’m sure many other parents do, to tell the truth and things will be okay," Ethan Elder said. "And part of his utter devastation at this verdict is he has told the truth from the very moment he was being illegally interrogated."

("I admitted to killing the man, so why do I have to be punished?")

In Italy, an accomplice in murder can also go up on murder charges, so both Elder, now 21, and Natale-Hjorth, now 20, were found guilty on all five identical charges and received life sentences. That is the toughest penalty in Italy.

Elder's parents, who seem immured in a world that keeps reality away, told ABC  they were "shocked" that their son's sidekick was charged and convicted the same.

"My heart breaks for that entire family," Leah Elder said.

(Heartbreak for the policeman's wife? Nope.)

Elder's parents said they feel their son's sentencing was too harsh, given his mental health issues and young age, and that they plan to appeal the ruling.

(But he was old enough and mentally sound enough to traipse across Europe, killing people.)

"He feels like he has been sentenced to something worse than the death penalty," Leah Elder said of her son.

"I understand that a man's life was lost that night, I understand that Finnegan should serve some time," she added. "I would like Finnegan to have some sort of sentence that’s proportionate and something that helps at least acknowledge his mental health issues."

(What's proportionate for taking the life of another man? A week in jail and a strong talking-to?)

The parents said their son's new reality -- his life as a prisoner -- is at times "too painful" to think about.

(They are not thinking of the policeman's widow.)

"This tragedy that happened, it's changed us all," Ethan Elder said. "Watching your son mature in prison is very hard."

(Attending your husband's funeral is harder.)