Probe reopens after statue killed Prada manager Chiara Jaconis: ‘Two years have passed and we are still waiting for justice’

A 30-year-old Prada manager died after being struck in the head by a statuette allegedly hurled from an apartment balcony, Italian authorities said.

Chiara Jaconis, 30, of Padua, managed 15 stores across France, Monaco and Belgium for the luxury fashion house, according to her LinkedIn.

She was walking through the Spanish Quarters in Naples when the heavy decorative piece struck her, police said.

The tourist was in the city celebrating her 30th birthday on vacation, according to investigators.

She and her boyfriend, Livio Rousseau, were hauling their luggage through the streets en route to the airport when the object struck, police said.

Jaconis suffered severe head injuries from the impact and died in September 2024, officials said.

The object fell approximately 32 feet from a third-floor balcony before hitting the victim, according to investigating cops.

Cops investigating said the statuette was pushed off the third-floor ledge by a 13-year-old boy. The juvenile was not held criminally responsible, however, because Italian law exempts children under the age of 14 from criminal prosecution.

The boy’s parents were later charged with manslaughter after prosecutors said they failed to supervise him.

Prosecutors claimed the parents failed to strengthen the locks to prevent their son from accessing the balcony, court records show.

The couple was also accused of failing to take appropriate precautions despite knowing about the boy’s tendency to throw items, according to prosecutors.

The youth had previously hurled tablets, clothespins and an air-conditioning remote control from a height, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors accused the parents of criminal negligence for failing to secure the balcony. The boy’s parents, however, have always strongly denied any wrongdoing.

On Thursday, an Italian court ordered the death investigation to be reopened as authorities try to piece together how Jaconis died, La Repubblica reported.

Two years have passed since the fatal incident. No one has been convicted in Jaconis’ death, the outlet reported.

Judges on Italy’s Juvenile Court of Appeals ordered a ballistics assessment to take place, according to court documents.

The court-ordered testing aims to work out what type of statuette was used to kill Jaconis, court records state.

The order came after investigators established that two statuettes fell from a height on the day Jaconis was killed, according to court findings.

One object that fell was a 4.85-pound statuette of Pharaoh Akhenaten, investigators said.

A 10-pound bust of Queen Nefertiti also crashed down from the balcony on the same day, according to authorities.

Two separate statuettes plunged to the street that afternoon. Investigators, however, have remained unable to conclude which object struck the tourist, court documents state.

This week marked two years since Jaconis died, and her mother remains steadfast in seeking answers, Il Gazettino reported.

“Two years have passed and we are still waiting for justice,” Cristina Venturi told the Italian publication.

“We are calling for accountability and for Chiara to receive the justice she deserves,” Venturi told Il Gazettino. “No verdict can bring Chiara back to us, but justice is the only thing left for us to ask for.”

Venturi shared a throwback picture of her daughter online to mark two years without her, according to reports.

“Two years without you… without your smiles [and] without your gestures,” Venturi wrote online.

Jaconis had worked for Prada since October 2022, according to her LinkedIn. She previously worked for the fashion brands L’Oréal, Givenchy, and Christian Louboutin in Paris.

The boy’s parents remain charged with manslaughter while judges await the ballistics assessment, according to court records.