Eighteen years after the Garlasco crime, the past comes knocking again with the voices of those who were there. Not new evidence, but testimonies collected immediately after the murder of Chiara Poggi and re-proposed today by the weekly Today. Stories that convey a human cross-section made up of characters, private tensions, misunderstandings. Words that weigh again today, as the investigation into Andrea Sempio enters its most delicate phase.
Chiara Poggi’s character according to her neighbors
Chiara Poggi is remembered as a girl with character docile, but far from submissive. A neighbor says that she could be “aggressive if teased”, especially when aspects that were close to her heart were touched on. An episode that remains in our memory concerns a young girl from the neighborhood who was caught smoking: Chiara reprimanded her firmly, going so far as to tell her that she would inform her father.
Therefore, the image of a fragile girl does not emerge, but that of a young woman capable of imposing oneself and facing uncomfortable situations head-on. At the same time, she is described as deeply in love with her boyfriend, who helped her study and prepare her thesis. A dedication which, reread today, adds a further layer of drama to his story.
Alberto Stasi “lied to her”: doubts about the relationship
From the same testimonies, a detail also emerges that remained in the background for years. According to some inhabitants of Garlasco, Alberto Stasi he would sometimes lie to Chiaratelling her he would stay home and study when in reality he was going out.
“Once we followed him and saw him going towards the highway,” they say. Chiara would have learned of these episodes and discussions would have arisen between the two. He, however, continued to deny it. Fragments of everyday life that today come back to light as clues to a less serene relationship than it appeared on the outside.
The relationship with Chiara and the shadows never clarified
On the relationship between Chiara Poggi and Alberto Stasi, the testimonies collected at the time provide a more complex picture than that which emerged in the first months after the crime. It was an intense relationship, made up of shared study, constant presence, projects. Chiara helped him with his thesis, supported him in moments of greatest pressure, supported him.
Yet, according to some accounts, there was no shortage of tension. Don’t have sensational arguments, but misunderstandings, silences, small daily short circuits. Details that today are reread with different eyes, but which at the time were not considered warning signs.
A normal relationship, in many ways. Precisely for this reason, even today, one of the most difficult aspects of the story remains to decipher: understand what really happened within the walls of a story that seemed stable on the outside.
The new investigation and the return of Sempio’s name
2025 marked a sensational judicial turning point for the Garlasco case. In March, the Pavia Prosecutor’s Office once again registered Andrea Sempio, a friend of Chiara’s brother, who had already been acquitted in 2017, in the register of suspects.
According to the investigators, there are charges against him the traces of DNA found under the victim’s nails and the so-called “footprint 33”found on the wall leading to the basement of the house in via Pascoli. The ongoing evidentiary incident is based on these two elements, destined to become a decisive step.
The prosecutor’s experts speak of a “strong” and “moderate” genetic compatibility, while the defense prepares consultations to demonstrate possible indirect contamination. It is not excluded that the extension of the investigations on footprint 33 will also be requested.
Between testimonies, wiretaps and new evidence
Garlasco’s crime thus continues to move on two levels that intersect without ever completely overlapping. On the one hand, the testimonies, the memories, the words of the neighbors, the emotional dynamics. On the other, science, with DNA, fingerprints, expert reports and clashes between consultants.
Two parallel tracks which, almost twenty years later, continue to generate questions, suspicions and contrasts. And to keep the Garlasco case nailed to the center of Italian news.
