The preliminary hearing will be held on January 29th, during which experts from each side will meet in the new investigation into Manuela Murgia , the 16-year-old found dead on February 5, 1995, in the canyon of the Tuvixeddu necropolis in Cagliari. The case was initially closed as a suicide and recently reopened as a homicide. The only suspect is Enrico Astero, 54, the girl's boyfriend at the time .
Cagliari's investigating judge, Giorgio Altieri, set the new date today after specialists from the RIS in the capital, who are investigating Manuela's clothes, requested a further 30-day extension on November 27 to file their final report.
The Carabinieri specialists must analyze a large amount of evidence: more than 40 biological traces were found on the victim's clothing, many of them on her underwear and bra . The RIS must collect all the traces and then compare them with Astero's DNA, collected between September and October, and that of Manuela's family members.
A hair was also found that does not appear to belong to the suspect . At least according to the analyses of former Parma RIS general Luciano Garofano, working on behalf of the lawyer Marco Fausto Piras, who is defending Astero, and the civil party's consultant Emiliano Giardina, a geneticist at Tor Vergata University.
The final reports of Garofano and Giardina (who works for the civil party represented by lawyers Bachisio Mele, Giulia Lai, and Maria Filomena Marras) have already been submitted to the investigating judge. The RIS's conclusions will also be released before January 29th.
Any evidence will then be discussed and crystallized during the preliminary hearing, with the aim of arriving at a definitive interpretation of the case .
(Unioneonline)
