Fresh forensic leads revive Italy’s infamous Garlasco murder mystery

By Crispian Balmer

ROME, May 6 (Reuters) – Nearly two decades after 26-year-old office worker Chiara Poggi was found dead in her home in the small northern town of Garlasco, a case that once seemed closed has been reopened, reviving doubts about one of Italy’s most scrutinised murder investigations.

The case has become a closely followed psychodrama in newspapers and on television, highlighting a potential failure of the Italian justice system, and is back under the spotlight as the man convicted of the crime nears the end of his sentence.

Poggi’s student boyfriend, Alberto Stasi, was definitively convicted of her killing in 2015 and sentenced to 16 years in jail, apparently bringing the curtain down on a tragic story that had captivated the country from the start. 

But prosecutors are now pursuing a new theory focused on Andrea Sempio, a friend of Poggi’s brother, raising the possibility that one of Italy’s most infamous murders may yet have another, very different ending.

On Wednesday, Sempio was called in for questioning after prosecutors revealed they now suspect that he was solely responsible for Poggi’s death — something he has denied.

His car was met by a scrum of reporters and shown live on television as it arrived for questioning in the city of Pavia. His lawyers said he would exercise his legal right not to respond to the investigators.

“(The case) has captivated Italy because the whole thing was clearly a travesty of justice,” said Gianni Riotta, a veteran Italian journalist who was head of state broadcaster RAI’s flagship news programme at the time of Poggi’s killing in August 2007.

“The trial was a circus. There were so many holes in the case, and yet they got a conviction,” he told Reuters.

DISPUTED DNA, PERCEIVED INVESTIGATIVE FAILINGS

The case has echoes of the infamous murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia in November 2007, for which two of the prime suspects, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted but ultimately acquitted and released on appeal.

Both cases revolved around disputed DNA evidence and highlighted perceived failures in the police procedures.

It was Stasi who called the police to say he had found Poggi’s body. He quickly became the focus of the investigation and was eventually charged.

He never confessed, the murder weapon was not found and no clear motive was established. Instead, the police case centred largely on forensic traces and disputed timelines about Stasi’s movements on the morning of Poggi’s death.

He was acquitted at his first trial and then again when the prosecution appealed. But Italy’s top appeals court ordered a retrial and he was ultimately convicted, dividing Italy in two over whether or not he was truly guilty.

Fast forward 11 years, and a new team of prosecutors has reopened the case after fresh forensic work raised questions, including a renewed focus on traces of male DNA found under Poggi’s fingernails, which investigators said was compatible with Sempio. Sempio had been cleared in earlier phases of the investigation, and he denies any involvement.

Police are also looking into allegations that Sempio’s family paid money to a prosecutor to help remove his name from the list of suspects — an accusation the family denies.

“People here keep on saying Italy has the best justice system in the world. Well, if that is true, how come we have ended up with this mess,” Riotta said.

(Reporting by Crispian BalmerEditing by Keith Weir)