A 35-year-old man drove the body of his 21-year-girlfriend to the local police station in the northeast Italian town of Palmanova on Tuesday, reportedly telling police: "I've strangled my girlfriend, her corpse is in the car."
The man claimed to have killed the woman late on Monday near the Adriatic resort of Lignano Sabbiadoro and driven around all night with her body.
Local daily Il Gazzettino named the man as Francesco Mazzega and his girlfriend as Nadia Orlando, reporting that Mazzega allegedly killed Orlando after persuading her to get into his car and talk over some issues.
Mazzega, from Spilimbergo, and Orlando, who was from Dignano, both worked for an orthopedic implants company in Lima di San Daniele in the surrounding Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, the daily said.
Police in the nearby city of Udine have opened an investigation.
