Poisoning in Pietracatella: nurse re-questioned, investigation at critical stage
The inquiry into the deaths of Sara Di Vita and Antonella Di Ielsi, poisoned with ricin, enters its decisive phase. Re-questioned is the nurse who administered the intravenous drip in December.
Pietracatella, investigation at crossroads: nurse recalled, awaiting registration of suspects
The inquiry into the deaths of mother and daughter poisoned with ricin in Pietracatella after the Christmas holidays is now in its most delicate phase, ANSA Cronaca reports. Investigators have gathered thousands of pieces of information by questioning over one hundred witnesses and aim to close the net with the registration of one or more names in the suspects' register.
Three steps remain to be completed: the search for traces of ricin in the Di Vita family home, the analysis of data extracted from the telephones and other electronic devices seized, and the filing of the autopsy reports on the bodies of the victims, expected by the end of the month.
New week of questioning at police headquarters
At police headquarters in Campobasso, meanwhile, another round of interviews has resumed. The Mobile Squad, led by Marco Graziano, questioned some relatives as witnesses in the morning. In the afternoon, the nurse who had administered an intravenous drip in December at the home in Pietracatella where Sara Di Vita and her mother Antonella Di Ielsi lived was recalled; both died a few hours after admission to Cardarelli Hospital in Campobasso.
The man, a family friend and employee of a healthcare facility in the Molise capital, had previously been interviewed. The new summons was issued at the request of the lawyer of one of the five doctors being investigated in the initial phase of the procedure for culpable homicide — that is, before the investigative breakthrough with the discovery of ricin and the opening of the inquiry for premeditated double homicide. Having left police headquarters after more than an hour of questioning, the nurse made no statements.
The lawyer: "Impossible to diagnose with ordinary instruments"
Pietro Terminiello, lawyer for one of the doctors involved, spoke instead, reiterating his client's uninvolvement. "With the ordinary instruments available to an accident and emergency department," he said, "it was not possible to understand that type of poisoning; with ordinary diagnostic instruments it was excluded, and this is an important aspect. Moreover, even if, absurdly, it had been understood that it was ricin poisoning, there was still no antidote, and this is the most important aspect."
Next focus: new questioning of Laura Di Vita
The attention of investigators is now focused on the upcoming interview of Laura Di Vita, cousin of Gianni Di Vita, husband and father of the victims, scheduled for the coming days. In parallel, investigations continue into the online chats that circulated for months on the subject of ricin.
Source: ANSA Cronaca