Already in 2008, Panorama had highlighted doubts about the scientific investigations that led Alberto Stasi to prison. Today, these uncertainties are amplified by prosecutors investigating Andrea Sempio. And they cast shadows on the infallibility of the work of the white-coated department of the Army. As had previously happened with the Cogne and Unabomber cases
“I don’t remember.” The lapidary formula that Luciano Garofano he repeated to the magistrates is not compatible with the biting maxim of a lifetime: “There is no such thing as a perfect crime, there are imperfect investigations”. Like those that would have led to Garlasco i Ris of Parmathen led by the future general. There Pavia prosecutor’s office formulates the most sensational hypothesis: in the glorious scientific department of the Army it was known that the DNA test on Stasi’s bicycle was negative. And someone would have hidden the results. Among the documents of the investigation on Andrea Sempio for the murder of Chiara Poggithere is also the reconstruction of the scientific investigations that led to the conviction of Alberto Stasi. The doubt, for the magistrates, then becomes striking: was it misdirection? The prosecutor’s office has already heard as witnesses, in addition to Garofano, also the officers who worked at the crime scene.
Even the subordinates of the time have vague reminiscences. PanoramaHowever, he remembers very well. On 20 March 2008 he published an investigation with the prophetic title: All Garlasco’s errors. Eight months have passed since, on a sultry morning in mid-August, Chiara Poggi was found dead in her house with her head smashed. Even then we don’t talk about anything else. Who killed the twenty-six year old? Alberto Stasi, her boyfriend. Magistrates, investigators and newspapers have no doubts. Guilty. “Blood that isn’t blood, strange footprints and a polluted crime scene” we read in the summary of the article. The photos and reports, published exclusively, “tell everything that went wrong in the investigation”.
The scabs on the pedals and the collapse of scientific certainties
The tracks on the pedals, the footprints, the inspections. «Elements that cast heavy shadows on one of the most mysterious crime cases of recent times». These are the same anomalies that today accuse the Ris. There was no need for Maigret. Perhaps it was enough to read the papers without joining the inquisitorial platoon. Starting with the pedals of Stasi’s brown bike. The reconstruction of Panorama starts from 24 September 2007, when the Ris send to Vigevano prosecutor’s office a preliminary report: «It allowed us to obtain a genetic profile that can be traced back, beyond any reasonable doubt, to the victim». Very small red-brownish crusts are discovered on the supports: «Subjected to Combur testfor the generic diagnosis of the haematic nature of the traces, provided a positive result”.
The investigators conclude: there is the girl’s blood on those pedals. The prosecutor of the Vigevano prosecutor’s office is also convinced of this, Rosa Muscio. Stasi is arrested. However, the following day, 25 September 2007, the military’s scientific department sent a technical note on those results, obtained without “proceeding to further investigations”. The conclusion this time seems more nuanced: “The genetic profile relating to the victim” is “with a high probability attributable to blood”. No longer “beyond a reasonable doubt”. Panorama, therefore, adds: «The certainties that brought Chiara Poggi’s ex-boyfriend to prison have disappeared».
The mystery of the Obti test and the test tubes destroyed in 2016
Eighteen years later, the Pavia prosecutor’s office adds decisive elements. The day after the first exam, two new checks are carried out on the pedals. Both are negative. Yet, according to prosecutors, they do not appear in the file. Nobody would talk about those tests. And Garofano knew? He assures the magistrates: “I don’t remember.” That wouldn’t be the only puzzle. In the technical reports signed by the then captain Alberto Marinoit is then explained that the Combur test had given a positive result. But on a sheet of paper recovered from the RIS cabinets the prosecutors found a handwritten note. The same sample had been subjected to a specific test for human blood: theObti test. With negative results. While it would have disappeared from the technical reports, write the consultants of the Pavia prosecutor’s office, the Male DNA found on Stasi’s bike. Latest oddity: in September 2016 the test tubes with the DNA from the Garlasco tests were destroyed, six years before the green light for the Court of Appeal of Milan.
The general commander of the carabinieri, Salvatore Luongoannounces: «Total collaboration, maximum transparency, absolute firmness». If someone made a mistake, they will pay. Garofano swears: «The RIS did not omit, did not hide, did not mislead». Because «Chiara Poggi’s profile on the pedals was there». Whether it was blood or something else, it wouldn’t matter. The difference, however, was substantial. Enough to contribute to the condemnation of Stasi. But in its 2008 investigation Panorama already explained: the blood could be saliva. The magistrates today go further: those samples with large quantities of DNA would perhaps have been confused with the traces on a teaspoon used by the girl for breakfast. A accidental exchangewhich they would then try to remedy.
The precedents from Cogne to the Unabomber up to the phantom appraisal
The difference of opinion is reminiscent of the Cogne case. For the Ris the one found on the slippers of Anna Maria Franzoni it’s blood. For other experts, just sweat. The investigation into the death of Samuele Lorenzi they give Garofano perpetual fame. The work of the Parma RIS, even then, was contested by the defense and by various consultants: conflicting expert reports, incompatible reconstructions, furious controversies. Franzoni’s sentence then becomes final. But the clash over scientific evidence still reverberates. More controversial is the investigation on Unabomber. On a sheet of metal recovered from a bomb, RIS findings indicate traces compatible with the scissors seized from Elvo Zornittawho becomes the prime suspect. But it was later discovered that the exhibit had been modified by a forensic police technician. The case remains unsolved. «It left us with a bad taste in our mouths» admits Garofano.
Regarding Garlasco, however, no regrets. Yet, it seems like the bottomless pit of Italian justice. After that relationship on the pedals of his bike, the “blond with the icy eyes” ends up in prison. September 27, 2007 Francesco Maria AvatoStasi’s technical consultant, sends his observations to the prosecutor’s office: the Ris analyzes do not demonstrate “the presence of hemoglobin”. It’s not blood, the professor clarifies. Stasi was released from prison the next day. The investigating judge of Vigevano, Giulia Pravonconsiders the evidence collected to be “insufficient”.
But now the monster has been splashed on the front page. A cold Bocconian, incapable of pining for his murdered girlfriend. The profile does not only emerge from reconstructions of the time, but also from a document found among the files recently delivered by the Ris to the prosecutor’s office. Thirteen undated pages: the heading is the psychologist’s Alessandra Bramantewho however assures that he never wrote them. It’s one psychological evaluation of Stasi: cold, calculating, manipulative, narcissistic, over-controlled, with «contradictions regarding sex». However, that document was never filed. Who gave the mandate, then? And did those conclusions serve the police to confirm the guilty thesis?
The pollution of the house and the military shoes on the scene
The Pavia prosecutor’s office continues to investigate. The murderer would not be Stasi but Sempio: the friend of Marco PoggiChiara’s brother. The controversial judicial certainties, already undermined by the acquittal of the “blond boy” in the first and second degree, are wavering further. As well as the checks of the Res. The media-heavy Garofano, after leaving the force in 2009, also worked for the defense of the man accused of murder in the new investigation. The Evening courier he asked him if going from investigator to consultant wasn’t a “bad sign”. He clarified: «Since I am certain that that DNA cannot be attributed to Sempio, I felt like intervening. I couldn’t allow a certain scientific result to be distorted.” However, the Pavia prosecutor’s office has strong doubts about this conclusion.
Even Panorama, way back in 2008, listed the inconsistencies. Among the obscure points of the investigation, even then, were the fingerprints. Starting with the digital ones. In the part of the technical consultancy of the RIS dedicated to fingerprint tests we read: in addition to Stasi, “all the remaining fingerprints were attributed to the victim, his family, a worker”, but also “the personnel who made the first access to the crime scene”. THE police of Vigevano. «Numerous traces of blood deposition» are then found on the living room floor, in the direction of the corridor. They are shaped like the Greek letter lambda. They may refer to “the first activities at the crime scene, when the victim’s blood was not completely coagulated”. Who left those traces? The mystery still remains today. The pollution of the crime scene, meanwhile, seems a certainty. Even the sofa, adds the Ris report, is moved with little care. And even after the intervention of the military’s scientific department, it seems that things have not improved.
The right palm mark found on the door is Marco Pizzamigliodeputy commander of the department. And the men under his command apparently do no better, the article reveals. Other footprints in the entrance and corridor “exhibit a characteristic tank sole, typical of heavy footwear, as well as military ones”. Traces that “must reasonably refer to the action of carrying the footwear of the personnel of this department”. An abundance of tracks that clash with yet another paradox. On 20 August 2007, a week after the crime, Chiara Poggi’s body was exhumed. The RIS technicians must take fingerprints on the body. Someone had forgotten to do it. “There is no such thing as a perfect crime, there are imperfect investigations.” Never has the general’s investigative adage rang truer.
