The evidentiary hearing related to the investigation into the death of Manuela Murgia , the sixteen-year-old found dead in the Tuvixeddu Canyon, has concluded before the preliminary investigations judge Giorgio Altieri.
The position of the only suspect, her ex-boyfriend Enrico Astero, is greatly eased, given that the RIS expert report has excluded the presence of his biological traces on the young woman's clothes and underwear , recovered thirty years after the autopsy.
The question of sexual assault, or at least intercourse, prior to the death has been highly debated. According to defense consultant General Luciano Garofano , there is no evidence to suggest that it was not only connected to Astero but to any other male subject.
The family's medical examiner Roberto Demontis has a different opinion, according to whom sexual violence is far from excluded .
«For me a nightmare is coming to an end - he commented to Astero at the end of the evidentiary hearing - I'm starting to see the light» .
The case is now back in the hands of Public Prosecutor Guido Pani, who will have to decide whether to continue the investigation or proceed with a third dismissal, following the first two, which also suggested the girl's suicide. It seems likely, however, that the deputy prosecutor will request a further forensic medical report that will then definitively establish how the sixteen-year-old died.