Breaking point in the investigation into the death of Manuela Murgia, the sixteen-year-old found lifeless in the Tuvixeddu canyon, in Cagliari, in February 1995.
The Public Prosecutor's Office of Cagliari has entered a name in the register of suspects: that of Enrico Astero, the victim's ex-boyfriend, who is now 54 years old (defended by the lawyer Marco Fausto Piras). The charge is voluntary homicide.
Today the prosecutor Guido Pani notified him of the notice of non-repeatable technical investigations regarding the examination of the clothes found 30 years later in the former Forensic Medicine office of the Policlinico.
The exams will be held in Rome, on June 4, at the headquarters of the Central Scientific Police Service. All parties involved will have the opportunity to participate with their consultants.
Manuela Murgia's family turned to geneticist Emiliano Giardina. "He is the man who discovered Unknown 1 in the Yara Gambirasio case, a case that seemed almost impossible to solve," explained lawyer Bachisio Mele, who is defending the sixteen-year-old's family together with Giulia Lai and Maria Filomena Marras.
THE RECONSTRUCTION
The sixteen-year-old was found lifeless in February 1995 at the bottom of the Tuvixeddu canyon, an area then frequented by vagrants and drug addicts. She had left the family home in Is Mirrionis on the morning of the 4th and had not returned. Her body was found the next day. The investigations of the Flying Squad, after the first interrogations, focused on one lead: suicide. According to the investigators, Manuela had decided to take her own life. A reconstruction that had never been shared by the family, who had always maintained that the 16-year-old girl had no reason to decide to end it all. The investigators, however, had decided to close the case.
Even though already in those days someone had said they had seen Manuela get into a car, the very morning she most likely died. Even though she had left her cell phone on the table, so perhaps she had been called and for this reason she had left without giving explanations. The “even ifs” were many.
The family members – especially the sisters and brother – have never forgotten. Only after many years, in 2023, did they come into possession of all the documents of the proceedings. And they were able to see those scuff marks on the shoes, which suggested that Manuela's body had been dragged. And they had discovered that the first autopsy had revealed that there was soup in the sixteen-year-old's stomach: where had she ingested it? Not at home. And again: the clothes had marks that suggested violence. And the fatal wounds were not compatible with a fall from about 25 meters.
The family insisted, they sowed doubts. Until the case was reopened. The girl's clothes, which were thought to be lost, resurfaced from the forensic medicine warehouse of the Policlinico.
And from the new expert reports it has emerged that Manuela could have been hit by a car, intentionally. And then, only afterwards, thrown into the canyon.
Torchlight processions, appeals for the truth, while the (reopened) investigation for voluntary homicide continued. Until today's sensational turning point.