Cold Case, from Garlasco to the crime of the wardrobe, from via Poma to the yellow of the Cattolica, from the monster of Florence to Manuela Murgia: it is the summer of the reopened cases thanks to DNA and footprints: “But it is not always enough to solve them”

The reopening of the Garlasco investigation, with the re -examination of footprints and DNA collected after the discovery of the body of Chiara Poggi, killed on August 13, 2007, seems to have made school: in recent weeks there are several chd houses on which we have returned to investigate or for which new investigative strands are emerging.
In the yellow of the monster of Florence, a DNA test brought the “Sardinian track” to the attention of investigators. Two days earlier, the case of the crime of the wardrobe was reopened, a story dating back to thirty -one years ago, more precisely on April 10, 1994, when the body of the Roman accountant Antonella Di Veroli47 years old, was found sealed in his apartment in via Domenico Oliva 8, in the Talenti district, in Rome. The killer has never been found, but an imprint that today is said, it could prove to be resolutive was found on one door.
In the same hours, the crime of the Cattolica, or the brutal killing of Simonetta Ferrero26 years old, found massacred with forty stab wounds, on July 24, 1971, in Milan, in the university bathrooms. Even his killer has never been found. And also in this case an imprint was found.
And what about Manuela Murgia’s story, the 16 -year -old girl found dead on February 5, 1995 in the canyon of the Necropolis of Tuvixeddu, in Cagliari? After thirty years the case has been reopened and his ex -boyfriend is investigated. Dimente could be a DNA test found on the young woman’s clothes. Even earlier, the Cold Case in via Poma had been reopened (Vanity Fair He had been the first to give news on March 17, 2022), concerning the murder of Simonetta Cesaroni, the secretary of twenty years massacred with 29 stab wounds in the offices of the Italian Association for youth hotels in Rome, on August 7, 1990. “But not all these yellows will be resolved, unfortunately,” says the Organic Marina Baldispecialist in medical genetics.

Dr. Baldi, is a DNA test really enough to solve a Cold Case or is it becoming a fashion reopening old investigations?
“Many of these crimes were committed in an era in which genetic analyzes did not exist – in Italy they were introduced in the mid -90s – or they did not have the characteristics, and the sensitivity of the equipment, now. So if there are still useful traces or finds, it can be worth reviewing them. It is clear, however, that many of these cases will not be resolved, for various reasons. For example, because the finds were taken in a pre-dna era, where there were no necessary precautions and, therefore, there is a greater possibility of contamination. In addition, it is more difficult to contextualize these tracks after so many years ».

In some cases, the DNA exam has been decisive even twenty years later. For example, in the crime of the ingiata: the killer of the Countess Alberico Filo della Torre, killed on 10 July 1991 in his villa in Rome, was identified thanks to a genetic test. It was the Filipino domestic Manuel Winston Reyes, who then confessed.
“Indeed. So, all in all, there is always hope. The DNA was found on the sheet that enveloped the countess’s head. The killer had worked in the Countess villa until a few months earlier, but at the time of the crime he was no longer an employee, so his blood should not have been there. In addition, it was a trace of the size of a one euro coin, therefore consistent. He had wounded a elbow and had dirty the sheet as he tightened ».

If Manuel Winston Reyes had worked in that villa at the time of the crime, would the DNA track would not have been decisive?
«No, because the servant could have left his DNA at any time, for example also the day before or a few hours before the crime. In that case, a contamination could have been talked about ».

On the theme of contaminations there is a lot of discussion in these days, especially with reference to the crime of Garlasco, where a genetic profile has recently been identified in the mouth of poor Chiara Poggi.
«Let’s clarify. There are three types of contaminations: pre-event, contextual to the murder and post event action. The first type can be not referable to the crime. For example, if a person is killed in my bed, where maybe I had slept, and then my DNA is found on the sheets, it can hardly be used as proof of me. Because I may have left him at any time. It is an involuntary contamination, since we all release DNA in our daily activities. Then there are the contaminations that take place at the time of the crime: they are those that affect investigators. The post event can be due to operators. For example, let’s make the hypothesis that a victim did not die immediately. 118 intervenes, the rescuers will try to revive it first. So, they could leave their DNA by touching the body or objects. Or what happened in Garlasco could happen, where in the mouth of Chiara, apart from the profile called “Unknown 3” and still not attributed to anyone, the DNA of the autopsy technician of the coroner has been found “.

How is it possible that such a thing happened? Shouldn’t gloves use an autopsy?
«The DNA of this technician was on the gauze used to find genetic traces in Chiara’s mouth. Usually gloves are used. But we are talking about a job, the one in the autoptic room, “dirty”. Because, for example, there is a body that emits fluids (decomposition, etc.). Maybe the gloves put them on them, maybe he put a glove with one hand and then the other with his gloved hand, but on the first there was his DNA and left him on the gauze. But there may also be the operator who raises the gauze to be used during the autopsy and leaves a trace. Or, the DNA of those who cleaned him the night before may have remained on the cart. Today nobody touches an object without gloves, even more so the body of a person who must be subjected to autopsy. However, unfortunately, contaminations are frequent. Especially since the systems to detect DNA are so sensitive that very few cells are enough. So today we find contamination that ten years ago we could not see ».

So even “unknown 3” could be a trace deriving from contamination?
“Everything can be. But it could also be the murderer DNA, who may have left him while holding his hand on Chiara’s mouth so as not to make her shout. To settle any doubts and attribute paternity to that genetic profile, comparisons are made with a large number of people, including operators and acquaintances of the victim. If you cannot identify who is “unknown three”, unfortunately there will be no evidence neither that it is the killer nor that it is a contamination “.

It seems that even in the case of the crime of via Poma there are two unknown DNA, never compared. The investigation, reopened a couple of years ago, is still ongoing and the family, in particular the sister of Simonetta Cesaroni, had asked that all the biological finds were reviewed.
«Today we have more powerful means than those used in 2007, when the DNA of his ex -boyfriend was found on the bodice of the victim (Raniero Busco, definitively acquitted because he had nothing to do with the crime, ed). By dabbing the bodice of the young woman you could take a piece that had not been analyzed previously, find new tracks. An attempt can be done. However, on via Poma I think that there will be nothing, because many have been made of attempts and it is not clear of what happened inside the AIAG offices. It is right that the family ask that we investigate. Just as it is understandable that, seeing the reopening of all these cases, the family members of people whose crimes have remained unresolved ask for the reopening of the investigation ».

This is what happened in these days with the yellow of the Catholic. In that case, however, one would like to focus not on DNA, but on an imprint of the murderer’s hand, of which it seems that there is only one photo taken by the investigators. Also for the “crime of the wardrobe” it focuses on an imprint.
«Dactyloscopy has not changed over the years, more or less it is always the same. It is the oldest forensic science. The comparison of fingerprints takes place through the photographs, as long as they are clear enough. You have to see how these photos are and if you can get something about it. Returning to Garlasco, there is also an imprint there that is making a lot of discussion: the number 33. There too the comparison is photographic ».

But in Garlasco the imprint is compared with those of living people. The Catholic crime dates back to 1971, the hypothesis that the subjects to be examined are dead is highly probable.
«Meanwhile, they have this photo. Then they will take the footprints of people who are still alive. In the event that a deceased subject is to be identified, it is not excluded that by re -humoring it, if the body is well preserved, it cannot be traced back to an imprint. It is a job has given results in a small part of cases, even if it is not so simple ».

In Italy we have a database of footprints and DNA from which to draw?
“There is a database with many hundreds of profiles, thanks to which a Cold Case was reopened on which we are still working: the so -called” driver of the drill “, which took place in Genoa on the night of September 5, 1995. The victim, Luigia Borrelli, 42, was a former nurse who, who remained a widow, to cope with the debts. He was killed in a barbaric way. The murderer left his blood on a light switch and a newspaper. Renalizing the finds, a male DNA was found which, inserted in the database, made it possible to trace a man who was in prison for another crime ».