Anna Maria Tolomello, who owns a local pizza shop in Pennsylvania with her long-time partner, had a very specific need, police say: a 7-feet long, 3-feet wide, 3-feet deep hole dug at her home—for a dog, she claimed.
Tolomello, 48, didn’t need help refilling the hole either, she allegedly told the hired excavators. She claimed she would be doing that part of the job herself, the excavators later told police, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
But on Tuesday, just after Tolomello paid the diggers $350 and the dirt was still fresh, cops arrived armed with a search warrant. When Tolomello saw the Hilltown Township detectives, she allegedly admitted she should have called them a week ago. After a quick search of the home amid an oppressive stench, police say they found the body of her slain boyfriend, Giovanni Gallina.
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Tolomello and Gallina were known in the local community as the co-owners of Pina’s Pizzeria, a small Italian pizza, salad, and calzones shop in Chalfont. Gallina was described on a GoFundMe page as a “funny, kind-hearted and good person all around.”
In a criminal complaint, Bucks County prosecutors say Tolomello, who was arrested this week, confessed to shooting Gallina in their home on March 16, 13 days before his body was discovered. The massive hole, she also allegedly admitted, was not for a dog but was to conceal Gallina’s decomposing body.
According to the criminal complaint, she maintained that she shot Gallina out of self defense, The Morning Call reports. She claimed that she fired the gun into Gallina’s temple as he choked her in the bedroom. According to investigators, the fatal wound is consistent with this account.
But after shooting Gallina, 65, Tolomello began working to hide the crime. Police allege she tossed a blood-drenched mattress into the dumpster behind the pizzeria and cleaned her fingerprints from the .38 caliber revolver she fired at his head.
Gallina’s body was found double-wrapped in a blue tarp and comforter in the master bedroom, the Inquirer reports.
As the days passed, Tolomello asked a friend whether or not burning incense would disguise the stench of a skunk that had slipped into her garage, the complaint alleges.
Meanwhile, Gallina’s son, Phillip, was growing concerned. According to the Inquirer, Gallina and Phillip, who lives in Italy, spoke on the phone constantly. The complaint said Tolomello told Phillip his father had taken a trip without his phone. She didn’t say where he had gone or when he would return.
On Monday, after days of silence from his father, Phillip reported the issue to the local police, who launched an investigation. Employees at Pina’s told police they hadn’t seen their boss “in a while,” prosecutors said. The next day, detectives arrived at the home Tolomello and Gallina shared and discovered what they said was a fresh, makeshift grave and a decomposing body.
Tolomello has been charged with criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, and other related offenses. According to its Facebook page, Pina’s Pizza remains open for business.
