De Munari died on April 24 after being attacked with a machete in her residence four days earlier.

There were no witnesses to the crime.

De Munari has been mourned by community of Nuevo Chimbote, where she served hundreds of poor children.

According to local newspaper Diario de Chimbote, De Munari was attacked in the early hours of April 21 at the “Mamma Mia” home run by Operation Mato Grosso, located in a poor neighbourhood in Nuevo Chimbote, a town on the northern coast of Peru about 400 kilometres north of Lima.

The missionary ran six day care centres or kindergartens and a primary school, where around 500 children were served.

She had worked for the cause for 30 years.

The Diario de Chimbote said the Mamma Mia home provides “free food to minors and low income mothers as well as ongoing social services”.

“The brutal attack on the Italian missionary, very dear to our city, makes no sense,” the publication added.

Operation Mato Grosso was founded by Italian Salesian priest, Ugo De Censi.

The organisation trains young people to work for the poorest of the poor who are given technical and vocational training.

The teachers who lived with De Munari told the Diario de Chimbote that the night of April 20 they all went to sleep at 9:30 pm according to the institution’s regulations so they could wake up for prayer at 6:30 am.

When they noticed that De Munari had not gotten up in the morning, some of the teachers went to her room and found her lying unconscious in a pool of blood with several head injuries. 

According to Italian daily Corriere della Sera, another woman was also attacked.

De Munari was taken to the Eleazar Guzmán Barrón regional hospital, where she was treated for fractures to her jaw, forearm, and neck, as well as several cuts to her head and face.

She was later transferred to a clinic in Lima, where she died on April 24.

The motive for the murder is unknown and Peruvian authorities are investigating the case.

Police believe the attack may have been part of an armed robbery, according to Italian news agency ANSA.

The news of De Munari’s death has also impacted the town of Schio in Vicenza province in Italy where she was born.

“Nadia is a martyr,” her mother told Corriere della Sera. 

Bishop of Vicenza Beniamino Pizziol expressed his sorrow for the death of the lay missionary.

“The bishop, the entire Diocese of Vicenza and all the men and women missionaries of Vicenza in the world join in the grief of the De Munari family, the friends of OMG and the Christian community of Giavenale in Schio, for the loss of the beloved Nadia, lay missionary and volunteer of Operation Mato Grosso in Peru for almost 30 years,” a statement from the diocese said.