Family dinner was held night before girls’ deaths, Sorella trial hears

‘Nothing seemed out of the ordinary,’ brother testifies

The night before Adele Sorella’s two daughters were found dead, the family gathered for a Sunday dinner at her home. According to her brother, Enzo Sorella, nothing seemed out of the ordinary that night. Enzo and his father had driven over after work, as they did every evening, to spend time with Sorella and her mother, Teresa, who had moved in with her in Laval. Sorella had been suicidal and depressive, but seemed to be doing better in recent weeks, including that evening. Her two daughters, Amanda, 9, and Sabrina, 8, were also present. “The kids were happy, joyful,” Enzo, 41, testified in court Wednesday. “They even did a dance show for us, as usual.” Sorella, 52, is on trial on charges she murdered her two daughters the next day, March 31, 2009. Her two brothers have told the court Sorella’s mental health deteriorated after her husband, Giuseppe De Vito, went on the run in 2006 after being targeted in a lengthy police investigation into organized crime. As Enzo put in Wednesday, De Vito “just disappeared.” Sorella’s other brother, Luigi, told jurors the family was “shocked” when it found out De Vito was possibly involved in criminal activity. The couple had known each other since elementary school and were “high school sweethearts.” During cross-examination on Wednesday, he was asked if he had ever questioned his sister over what she knew about De Vito after he went into hiding. “She said she wasn’t aware,” Luigi said. “She was as shocked as I was when the information came out.” Both brothers said Sorella was never the same after her husband fled the home. In addition to being depressive, she became “paranoid and delusional,” thinking someone was out to get her or her family. She could become “zombie-like” and “stare into the abyss” while people tried to speak with her. They spoke of “three or four” suicide attempts, including one where Sorella tried to jump off the Pie-IX Bridge and another where she tried to overdose on Tylenol. “She was going through hell,” Luigi said, adding that he tried to get his sister the help she needed, including hospitalizing her, but “nothing was working.” “The hospital would just release her,” he said. “We felt the system itself was letting us down.” The two brothers found their nieces on the floor in the playroom in Sorella and De Vito’s home. They had rushed over after Sorella left Luigi an alarming voice-mail message. There were no obvious signs of violence on the girls’ bodies, and a cause of death is yet to be established during the trial. Police seized and examined a hyperbaric chamber found upstairs. The jury has been told it was used to treat Sabrina’s juvenile arthritis. While testifying, both brothers said that to their knowledge, it was De Vito who would use the machine with Sabrina. The trial will resume at the Laval courthouse on Monday.

The hospital would just release her. We felt the system itself was letting us down.