Yara Gambirasio, the story of the most famous crime and investigation in Italy

He was 13 years old Yara Gambirasio in November 2010. She was in her eighth year of middle school and loved rhythmic gymnastics, her sport. Yara Gambirasio was born on May 21, 1997. She lived in Brembate di Sopra, in the province of Bergamo. She disappeared from here on November 26, 2010. She did not return home from the gym. The search was immediate and went in vain for months, until her body was found on February 26, 2011. This 13-year-old was killed: but by whom? To find the culprit, investigators are using a method never before applied on such a large scale in Italy: DNA tests are being performed on 25,700 people.

Disappearance

Around 5:30 PM on Friday, November 26, 2010, Yara Gambirasio goes to the sports center in Brembate. It’s not a training day, she has to deliver a stereo to the teachers. She stays at least until 6:40 PM according to the witnesses. The video recordings, however, do not film her. There are messages exchanged with a friend between 6:25 PM and 6:44 PM. There is the path of the phone reconstructed through the cells that connect between Ponte San Pietro, Mapello and Brembate di Sopra. The last contact is here at 6:55 PM. The phone will never be found, unlike the SIM.

The research

The mamms tries to call her at 7:11 p.m. The phone rings in vain. Immediate appeals and searches. The girl is young and has never shown signs or said she wants to leave home. All of Italy is worried about her. The rhythmic butterflies make an appeal. After the complaint, a file is opened for kidnapping. Molecular dogs are used.

The first track

The first person arrested in relation to Yara’s disappearance is Mohammed Fikri: he is a twenty-two-year-old Moroccan worker. They stopped him on a ship heading to Tangier. He works in a shipyard in Mapello where the molecular dogs would have detected traces of Yara. What brought him to the register of suspects was the wrong translation of an intercepted phone call. His position will be archived.

The discovery

Yara Gambirasio’s body was found on February 26, 2011. Three months had passed since she disappeared. The girl’s remains were found by chance in a field in Chignolo d’Isola, about 10 kilometers from Brembate di Sopra, an area searched several times. A model airplane enthusiast found it by chance when he recovered a toy airplane. However, the forensic medical report says that the assault and murder occurred here.

The body

Yara is wearing the same clothes as the day she disappeared. Her bra is undone and part of her panties are cut. There are blunt object wounds on her body. She has a head injury, a deep neck wound and at least six stab wounds. Among the hypotheses is that Yara died of cold after the attack. There are no signs of rape on her body.

Funeral

Three months pass before the funeral held on May 28th in the sports center where Yara trained. There are thousands of people. The bishop of Bergamo Francesco Beschi celebrates it.

Unknown one

A DNA is found on the hem of Yara’s underwear: the investigators call it unknown one. To identify him, the test is done on 25,700 people. It is found to be comparable to that of Massimo Bossetti, a bricklayer with no criminal record from Mapello who was arrested on June 16, 2014.

There are many steps. The first, through an uninvolved person who did the test, leads to the identification of the father of Unknown 1. This is Giuseppe Guerinoni, a bus driver from Gorno who died in 1999. His two children are not involved in the facts. There must be a third. The other half of the DNA is that of Ester Arzuffi, with whom Guerinoni supposedly had a relationship. She is the mother of Massimo Bossetti. To confirm that he is Unknown 1, his DNA is taken in a fake roadside check. The confirmation is further confirmed by the fact that the street surveillance cameras of Yara’s gym allegedly filmed Bossetti’s van passing by the sports center. His phone connects to the same cells as Yara’s.

The defence

Bossetti immediately declares his innocence, contesting the DNA evidence. He says that he was transferred by some tools that were stolen from him, stained with his blood due to nosebleeds, from which he suffers. His wife says that he was with her at home the night of Yara’s disappearance.

The process

On April 27, 2015, the first-degree trial opens in Bergamo. The charge is aggravated voluntary homicide and slander against a colleague. On July 1, 2016, the Court of Assizes of Bergamo sentences Massimo Giuseppe Bossetti to life imprisonment for the homicide and acquits him of the charge of slander. The Court recognizes the aggravating circumstance of cruelty and revokes Bossetti’s parental responsibility for his three children.

On July 17, 2017, the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Brescia confirmed the first degree judgment. On October 12, 2018, the Court of Cassation did the same.

The defense’s main objection concerns the fact that they were never able to carry out analyses on the evidence, but only on paper material. In the murder, there would be no motive other than a hypothesized sexual assault.

All subsequent attempts by the defense to reopen the case will be rejected.