Cassette Arancioni: Help in Ticino following Faido and Leontica

Orange-coloured letterboxes are being installed in Ticino, through which victims of violence can discreetly contact the aid organisation «Mi-ti-ci Against Abuse».

What the «Cassette Arancioni» are meant to achieve

The «Cassette Arancioni» were presented in Losone on Thursday. In the coming weeks they are to be installed throughout the canton of Ticino, at pharmacies, municipal offices, hospitals, schools and supermarkets — places, in other words, that those affected can visit as unobserved as possible.

Anyone who drops in a note with their name, address and a suitable time window for a call-back will be contacted by «Mi-ti-ci Against Abuse». The association of bikers, founded in 2019, says it physically accompanies those affected in everyday life — for example to court appointments or when visiting their children — helps them retrieve personal belongings, and works together with the domestic violence unit of the Ticino cantonal police. The organisation can be reached via Instagram. The «Cassette Arancioni» initiative is co-financed, among others, by «Una Goccia nel Mare».

Wildbeimwild.com supports the initiative

We welcome the «Cassette Arancioni» as a concrete, low-threshold offer of help. Anyone affected by violence themselves, or concerned about another person, can since 1 May 2026 reach the national, free and round-the-clock victim support number 142. In an acute danger situation, the police emergency number 117 continues to apply.

When violence from the high seat comes home

The case joins a series of incidents that we document in our «Crime & Hunting» section: access to weapons and familiarity with lethal violence collide with personal crises, with consequences that reach far beyond the hunting season. Our analysis of the psychology of hobby hunting in Ticino shows how these patterns emerge. Faido is thus not an isolated case, but further evidence that the privileged legal status of hobby hunters regarding access to weapons and silencers can, in the worst case, become a lethal danger to people, not only to animals.

Faido as the third femicide in Ticino

Faido and Leontica do not stand alone. According to RSI, the femicide of 9 July 2026 was already the third in the canton of Ticino since the start of the year, following a case in Gnosca in February, and the 17th in Switzerland. The feminist collective «Io l’8 ogni giorno» demonstrated on 21 July in Bellinzona in the name of all three cases and called for a national femicide register. The «Cassette Arancioni» were presented on 10 September without reference to any single case, as a general response to «il fenomeno» of domestic violence in the canton.

On 9 July 2026, a 56-year-old woman was found with a gunshot wound to the head on the grounds of a rehabilitation clinic in Faido. She died shortly afterwards in Bellinzona hospital. Authorities identified her 59-year-old ex-husband from the Leontica area as the perpetrator.

On the evening of the following day, a severe explosion occurred in a building in Leontica. Three police officers were injured in the process. Emergency services found human remains in the rubble, which were later identified as belonging to the wanted 59-year-old. According to the reconstruction presented by the Ticino cantonal police at the media conference on 13 July 2026, the man had deliberately lured emergency personnel into the building before triggering the explosion. A second, unexploded charge of around two kilograms was later found. He himself was killed in the detonation.

In response to a written enquiry, RSI confirmed, based on the same media conference, that the man was a hunter. Wild beim Wild therefore refers to him as a hobby hunter. As of that point, key questions remained open regarding the origin, legal status and authorisation of a silencer allegedly used. According to the Ticino criminal police, the absence of audible gunshot noise suggested that the weapon used was likely fitted with a silencer. We have already provided more on the chronology and these open questions here.