Garlasco, tests at Chiara Poggi's crime scene: "The DNA of the unknown suspect 3 was contaminated during the autopsy."

Another dramatic turn of events in the Chiara Poggi case in Garlasco : the Pavia Prosecutor's Office believes that the unknown DNA found on gauze used 18 years ago by the coroner to collect biological material from the victim's mouth could be traced to contamination from previous autopsy tests. The same Prosecutor's Office has entrusted new investigations to anthropologist and coroner Professor Cristina Cattaneo . Therefore, the hypothesis that a third party was present at the crime scene has now been dismissed. Further results are expected in September from tests on the DNA found on Chiara Poggi's fingernails.

"Following the discovery of an unknown genetic profile on a gauze pad ," reads a statement from the Pavia Public Prosecutor's Office regarding the comparative analyses not foreseen in the preliminary investigation, carried out by geneticists Carlo Previderè and Pierangela Grignani in the new investigation. "The gauze pad was used 18 years ago by the coroner to collect biological material from the victim's mouth. The Pavia Public Prosecutor's Office, believing it to be contaminated by previous autopsy tests, has ordered specific investigations ."

The results of the tests "showed a concordance of the alleles in relation to the subject identified by the anonymous code 153E." Cattaneo, in charge of "new investigations into the causes of death," also handled the case of Yara Gambirasio . "To ensure a more comprehensive evaluation of the evidence collected, both at the forensic examination of the victim and at the crime scene, the Prosecutor's Office," the statement continues, "has appointed Professor Cristina Cattaneo, Full Professor of the Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health at the University of Milan, a leading figure in the fields of anthropology and forensic medicine, as an additional consultant to the Public Prosecutor."

Poggi was killed on August 13, 2007. Her boyfriend at the time, Alberto Stasi , was definitively convicted of that murder. For the latter's lawyers, Giada Bocellari and Antonio De Rensis, the discovery of DNA contamination on the gauze used in the autopsy on Chiara Poggi's body is one of "these extremely serious facts" that "fundamentally compromise the assessments made in the trial against Stasi and are already in themselves sufficient to obtain a review of his conviction."

For Stasi's lawyers, these findings are "in themselves sufficient to obtain a review of his conviction," and at the same time, they welcome Cattaneo's appointment as confirmation "once again of the absolute seriousness of the ongoing investigation and the willingness of the Pavia Prosecutor's Office to review every single aspect of this tragic affair." The gauze used was apparently not sterile; it belonged to a man whose body had been autopsied before that of Chiara Poggi. Andrea Sempio , a friend of the victim's brother, is currently under investigation.

FROM

Web Editorial Staff