Ricin poisoning in Pietracatella: female teacher interrogated for almost four hours
The educator and friend of Gianni Di Vita re-interviewed at police headquarters in Campobasso. The investigation accelerates with fresh witness statements also over the weekend.
Mystery of Pietracatella: new round of interviews at police headquarters
The mathematics teacher and friend of Gianni Di Vita spent almost four hours at police headquarters in Campobasso on Sunday morning, summoned at 8 o'clock as a person with information on the matter. This is reported by ANSA Cronaca, which has been following the investigation for weeks into the poisoning of a mother and her daughter, killed in December with ricin by someone still not identified.
The professor had already been heard during the Ferragosto period and then again on 20 August, the day on which a direct confrontation with Di Vita also took place. This third summons comes approximately one month after the previous ones. The woman's husband had also been questioned in recent weeks and, according to information that emerged, could be recalled shortly.
The investigation — still lacking formal suspects for the hypothesis of premeditated double murder — has undergone a marked acceleration. Officers from the Mobile Squad led by Marco Graziano, on the instructions of prosecutor Elvira Antonelli, heard a cousin of the former mayor on Saturday afternoon, with the statement concluding late in the evening. On Friday morning, Laura Di Vita, also a cousin of Gianni, father and husband of the two victims Sara and Antonella, had returned before the officers for three hours.
Among the topics at the centre of the interrogations are social circles, personal relationships, email and telephone message exchanges, as well as behaviour deemed suspicious. The line of inquiry favoured by investigators remains that of hidden relationships. Some contrasting versions provided by different witnesses are said to have contributed to accelerating this new cycle of interviews.
Tension among those involved in the case has grown as the investigation has progressed and with increasingly pressing questions from the authorities. Further summonses are expected already in the current week.
In parallel, analyses entrusted to German experts who are collaborating with Italian investigators are continuing in Berlin: the examinations concern traces of ricin in food and items recovered from the residence in Pietracatella, and are not yet concluded.
Source: ANSA Cronaca