After turning the spotlight on Gianni Di Vita's computers, investigators are now turning their attention to the school in Riccia, a small village just under 20 km from Pietracatella, attended by people who had relationships with the ricin victims, Sara Di Vita, 15, and her mother, Antonella Di Ielsi, 50, who died from ricin poisoning last December. A few days ago, searches were conducted at the offices and new home of the former mayor, father and husband of the victims, but now an even more extensive operation is planned. "IT inspection" is what Larino prosecutor Elvira Antonelli called it, ordering the searches that will be carried out Tuesday morning inside the agricultural school, where the husband of a friend of Gianni Di Vita, also a teacher but at another school, works as a lab technician. Both, moreover, have already been questioned at the police headquarters.
The police will check all electronic devices in the school, over 70, to determine whether any of them were used to search for ricin. Investigators want to determine the source of the poison used to kill Sara and Antonella, whether it was purchased online, and how it was prepared and administered. During the investigation, in previous months, searches and queries on web platforms deemed "worthy of investigative interest" by currently unknown individuals had emerged, targeting the words "poison," "ricin," and similar. This is highlighted in the warrant ordering the search.
The Campobasso Flying Squad, led by Marco Graziano, has already acquired data from the school's computer devices, "and it cannot be ruled out," the prosecutor writes, "that these devices were used for web or dark web browsing involving ricin." It has also been learned that investigators are focusing on other terms, including "ammonium sulfate," "sodium sulfate," "castor oil," "castor seeds," "castor oil oil," "deep web," and "dark web." Finally, they are also looking for evidence of any deletions of searches.
Most of the more than 70 devices to be checked at the school are located in the laboratory adjacent to the greenhouse, others in the classrooms. Finally, there are several PCs located on the middle school premises—but used by the agricultural institute itself—and a dozen or so older computers, unused for several years. In recent weeks, the laboratory technician from the Riccia institute, who is also the husband of Gianni Di Vita's longtime friend, has been interviewed several times at the police station. The woman teaches at another school in the province of Campobasso and, in addition to being interviewed several times by the police, was also confronted by Di Vita himself in August.
(Unioneonline)