A little less than a month after Tonino Pireddu's murder, Carabinieri officers from the Nuoro and Ottana provincial command returned to the crime scene for further technical investigations. On Tuesday morning, the rear of the house and the surrounding area on Via Su Gutturu Vetzu in Orani were placed on lockdown. The technical investigation was carried out in the area the killer reportedly used to escape after firing a shot into Pireddu's back. The nature of the investigation, which has not gone unnoticed in the village, is being kept under wraps. It appears to be more than a mere formality. They are working on a specific detail that emerged after witness statements were gathered and several interviews were held in recent weeks. The feeling is that the Carabinieri officers have pieced together several clues that they are now verifying in the field to try to establish a clear lead and give a face and a reason for the crime, with the hope that the killer made a mistake in planning what seemed like a perfect ambush.
The killer
The killer went into action at 9:30 PM on February 18th. Heedless of the security cameras installed by Pireddu a few weeks earlier, on December 18th, someone had burned his Audi A7 and the Renault Captur of his girlfriend, Manuela Porcheddu, damaging a neighbor's Volkswagen. The fire seemed unusual, given that Pireddu, a 38-year-old laborer, had no criminal record. The attack took place on Via Su Gutturu Vetzu, a side street off the main entrance of the residence on Corso Italia, the alley that leads to the back entrance of the house. His girlfriend, a hairdresser from Bonorva, had already returned home when he, after a brief stop at a bar at 9:30 PM to buy some ginseng for her (a detail well-known to many and a daily gesture of concern for his partner), walked up the external stairs to the first floor and onto the terrace leading to the apartment he had shared with her for five years. The perpetrator was waiting for him, perhaps hidden in that narrow street, sheltered by the darkness and the house's perimeter wall. The shot was fired from below, when he was an easy target, illuminated by the entrance spotlights. The range was no more than six meters. The buckshot struck him in the back, while others damaged the front door.
The clues
Carabinieri from the Operations Unit, the Nuoro Investigative Unit, and the Ottana Company had already collected various evidence the day after the murder, sending it to the RIS in Cagliari. This new activity will begin on Tuesday, hopefully leading to a clearer path for the investigation coordinated by Prosecutor Riccardo Belfiori.
Fabio Ledda
