Ricin murder in Pietracatella: female teacher questioned for four hours in Campobasso
The female teacher who is a friend of Gianni Di Vita was heard for almost four hours by the Mobile Squad. Further summonses are planned in the coming days.
Ricin case: new questioning in Campobasso, teacher heard for four hours
The mathematics teacher who is a friend of Gianni Di Vita returned this morning to the offices of the Mobile Squad of Campobasso, where she remained for almost four hours. According to what Repubblica reports, the woman arrived at the Police Headquarters around eight and left shortly before midday, heard as a person informed of the facts in the context of the investigation into the death of Antonella Di Ielsi and her fifteen-year-old daughter Sara Di Vita, who died from ricin poisoning in Pietracatella, in the province of Campobasso.
This is a new summons less than a month after the hearing on 20 August, when the teacher and Gianni Di Vita had been heard simultaneously for approximately six hours by the prosecutor of Larino Elvira Antonelli and by the head of the Mobile Squad Marco Graziano. The basis of that confrontation were discrepancies in the statements given to investigators.
A new cycle of statements
The teacher is not the only person called to give evidence in these days. Yesterday afternoon another cousin of the former mayor was heard at length, while on Friday Laura Di Vita, a cousin of Gianni, had been summoned for approximately three hours. The new hearings would be linked to the need to verify conflicting versions provided by some witnesses regarding circumstances considered crucial by investigators. Further summonses are planned in the coming days.
The dinner on 23 December and the two deaths
The case began on 23 December 2025, with a dinner at the Di Vita family home in Pietracatella. At the table, according to investigators' reconstruction, there were among other things leftover mussels from a lunch, cured meats and a vegetable medley. In the following days Antonella, Sara and Gianni experience nausea, vomiting and severe abdominal pain. Mother and daughter go to the accident and emergency department of the Cardarelli hospital in Campobasso several times, where initially gastroenteritis or food poisoning is suspected.
Sara, 15 years old, dies on 27 December. Antonella, 50 years old, dies the following morning. Gianni Di Vita survives. The eldest daughter Alice, 19 years old, had not participated in the dinner.
The toxicological breakthrough and the role of ricin
For weeks the cause of the deaths remains unexplained. The breakthrough comes with toxicological tests: after having screened approximately 1,500 substances, specialists from the Maugeri Poison Centre in Pavia identify ricin in the blood of Antonella and Sara, a highly potent toxin extracted from the seeds of Ricinus communis. Histological tests confirm organ damage consistent with poisoning.
No trace of the substance is found in the blood of Gianni Di Vita. Subsequent tests conducted by the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin also exclude the presence of antibodies that could have indicated previous contact with the toxin — an element relevant because Di Vita had reported experiencing gastrointestinal disturbances in the same days in which his wife and daughter had fallen ill.
What appeared to be a tragic case of food poisoning thus became an investigation into double premeditated murder.
The contradictions still to be resolved
Since then investigators have reconstructed meals, foods, gifts received by the family and movements in the days before Christmas, hearing dozens of people and acquiring electronic devices. The objective is to clarify two central aspects: how the ricin arrived in the Pietracatella house and why only Antonella and Sara ingested it.
Almost nine months after their death, the new summonses of these days — and in particular the long four-hour questioning of the teacher — indicate that the Mobile Squad is working to resolve the remaining contradictions in the reconstructions gathered in the previous months. The main question remains unanswered: who brought the ricin to that table and why.
Source: la Repubblica