A killing so brutal that it sent shockwaves across the world featured crime scene photos in court that made the judge feel ‘physically sick’ as savage details from the case emerge
During the global pandemic, Christopher Puglia lost his job at a car dealership. As he struggled to get back on his feet, he moved from Sydney to stay with his parents in Brisbane, Queensland. It was 2020 and Franco and Loris Puglia, both 59, didn’t hesitate to welcome their son into their home. Franco was an insurance assessor and Loris worked for Guide Dogs Australia. The couple lived in a large detached property where they also ran a popular B&B.
They had a reputation for being kind and helpful to their guests, but they were also looking forward to their retirement years together. They had dreams about travelling to Italy and were excited about the possibility of being grandparents one day. While Franco and Loris always put family first – including Puglia’s younger brother, James – it wasn’t long before there was friction in the house. Puglia, then 31, had moved in promising his mum he was going to find work, but he wasn’t actively searching and remained unemployed. He also wasn’t helping around the house with chores, and hadn’t organised any benefit payments.
His parents were getting frustrated. They kept giving him “one chance after another” but Puglia, who was a well-built gym goer, could be aggressive and his quiet parents were at a loss. In one instance, Puglia put Franco in a tight bear hug when he attempted to grab his son’s belongings.
Another time, Loris was pushed to the floor when she tried to touch Puglia’s phone. At one point, there was an altercation, and the police were called. Puglia agreed with the authorities that he would make more of an effort. And his parents gave him a deadline to find alternative accommodation.
Puglia had only been living with his parents for two months and the trio were struggling with the arrangement. On 16 May, Puglia and his parents visited Franco’s parents for afternoon tea. Puglia told his grandparents he hated living there. They suggested he get a job and move out.
The next day, on 17 May, relatives arrived at the house to celebrate Loris’s 60th birthday, which was a few days later. They were horrified to find her and Franco dead. They had been bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer.
Their badly beaten bodies were inside the home with the sledgehammer and a wheelbarrow nearby. There were drag marks across the floor.
Prime suspect
With Puglia on record as having caused tension in the home, he was the prime suspect, but he was on the run. He’d packed some things and taken his dad’s car.
After a police hunt, Puglia was apprehended the next day in New South Wales, around 900km from the murder scene. When interviewed by the police, he denied hurting his parents. He said that on 16 May, he had gone for a jog and returned to find several doors of the home wide open and his parents dead on the floor in pools of blood.
The smoke detector was ringing and there was a burning towel in the bathroom.
Puglia said he’d checked his mum for a pulse and had got himself covered in blood. So he’d taken a shower and changed his clothes before leaving. When asked why he hadn’t called the police, he said he had fled because he thought his parents’ killer was still at the property and had been in shock.
Investigators determined that Puglia had killed his parents on 16 May. Loris had been inside while Puglia was helping his father in the garden. Puglia had struck Franco over the head with a sledgehammer then he had attacked his mother. Neighbours heard screams around 6pm.
Puglia had partly dragged his dad’s body into the house and had also tried using a wheelbarrow.
Puglia had packed his things, including food and alcohol, and jumped into his dad’s car. He drove to a town near the Gold Coast, where he spent the night, then the following day he headed to New SouthWales. There had been plenty of opportunities to hand himself in. Puglia was charged with the murder of his parents.
Early this year, Puglia was about to face trial, but he pleaded guilty before he was due in court. The prosecution said he had been increasingly aggressive with his parents, but his final act came after his grandparents suggested that he move out.
“The defendant struck both of the deceased couple multiple times to the head and face with a sledgehammer, causing several large lacerations,” the prosecution told the court. They described his increasingly aggressive behaviour before he had snapped and committed the horrific act.
In March this year, Puglia, 35, was sentenced. Bizarrely, he stretched and flexed his muscles throughout the proceedings, as the family of Franco and Loris shared their unimaginable pain.
Disturbing images
Photos from the crime scene were sealed and marked “disturbing images” – only to be opened by the judge at sentencing. The judge revealed they were “enough to make me sick” and he said he had to go for a walk afterwards to compose himself.
He spoke to Puglia, who kept interrupting proceedings and had to be told repeatedly to be quiet. “Having killed your parents, and realising the enormity of your crime, you did not call an emergency number, you did not cry out to neighbours. To say you were resentful, ungrateful, uncaring and selfish does not begin to explain the enormity of your actions.”
Puglia’s brother James said the murders will continue to impact the family for years.
“I have suffered more mental and physical pain than you can imagine, yet I still stand strong in front of you today,” he told his brother in court. “I don’t choose to understand why or what you have done because it’s not worth my energy. Because I have wasted enough energy on you. You have lost the right to call Frank and Loris your parents.”
The judge said: “These were callous, brutal murders, where death came from several blows, delivered with deadly force. They are not explained by some developmental or psychiatric condition, or exposure to violence or sexual abuse or some other severe trauma as a child.”
Puglia was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 30 years. Under Queensland laws, the non-parole period rises from 20 years to 30 years when more than one person has been murdered.
Franco and Loris had worked hard so they could grow old together, but they were robbed of that chance by their own son. While many families were drawn together during the pandemic to support each other, Puglia turned into a killer.