Gianni Di Vita was questioned again two days ago by the Flying Squad.
According to investigative sources, the interrogation —always as a person with knowledge of the facts— conducted in the strictest secrecy at the Police Headquarters. It was a fairly lengthy deposition, lasting at least four to five hours.
Di Vita, father and husband of the two Pietracatella women who died from ricin poisoning , is an injured party in the premeditated double homicide proceedings.
The story
A little over a month has passed since the word ricin, previously unknown to most, became one of the most searched terms online. The case of two women, a mother and daughter, poisoned to death in Pietracatella, Molise, has shocked and sparked conversation across Italy. This month, since the investigation was opened into the premeditated double murder of fifteen-year-old Sara Di Vita and her mother Antonella Di Ielsi, the investigation has continued unabated. Indeed, it has accelerated in recent days, since a report from the Maugeri Institute in Pavia confirmed the presence of the poison in the victims' blood. It is not out of the question that magistrates may request a new analysis of the blood samples taken from the people involved in the case.
Meanwhile, from Bari, where histological slides containing samples taken during the victims' autopsies were examined today, further confirmation of the compatibility with ricin has arrived. On the investigative front, nearly a hundred people have been interviewed at the Campobasso Police Headquarters, primarily family members and acquaintances. The investigation is particularly focused on possible past romantic relationships, as well as possible tensions between one of the two victims and a relative. Investigations are also underway into the "world" of Alice, the 18-year-old sister and daughter of the two deceased women, whose smartphone was seized and is now being investigated. Alice and her father, Gianni, are also expected to be questioned again; both could be reinstated in the coming hours. Meanwhile, a new search of the seized house appears increasingly crucial to the investigation, this time with a specific search for traces of ricin.
Meanwhile, attention has also shifted to Bari. At the Policlinico, Dr. Benedetta Pia De Luca, the doctor who performed the autopsies, summoned the lawyers and consultants of the suspects and injured parties to examine under the microscope the fragments taken from the organs of the two women during the autopsies.
"There are alterations in the liver and pancreas consistent with acute intoxication," he said, "but there are no specific signs for one substance or another. Only the combined toxicology, histology, and autopsy results will allow us to determine the cause of death." "The slides," Pietrantonio Ricci, one of the doctors under investigation, said afterward, "have revealed no evidence that contradicts the main hypothesis currently being discussed."
Ricci also emphasized that these initial findings significantly downplay the role of the doctors under investigation. They were initially accused of manslaughter for their handling of the two women during their initial visits to the emergency room at Campobasso's Cardarelli Hospital, but now that the ricin lead has emerged, their lawyers are preparing to request a dismissal of the case. Dr. De Luca will now have to assess whether the autopsy results, which she will submit by the end of May after requesting a further extension, are compatible with ricin . This will also be a crucial moment for the investigation, along with all the other tests, including technical ones, that the police are still carrying out alongside the numerous interrogations.
Two days ago, the mystery within the mystery arose, involving the trip the previous day of Larino prosecutor Elvira Antonelli and several police investigators to Pavia. Qualified investigative sources had reported earlier that day that one of the reasons for the meeting at the Poison Control Center was the assignment of a new assignment by the Molise prosecutor's office to the Lombardy experts, but the director, Carlo Locatelli, later announced that he had not received any further assignments.
(Unioneonline)
