Cold case files
Read our cold case file and see if you correctly predicted the killer’s identity…
It was the evening of Friday, 26 November 2010 and Yara Gambirasio should have been home. The 13-year-old had gone out at 5.15pm to go to her local gym in her hometown of Brembate di Sopra, an hour north of Milan, in Italy – she was a dedicated gymnast and preparing for a display the following Sunday. But she shouldn’t have been long, so when it reached 7.30pm and her mother, Maura, couldn’t get through to her daughter on the phone, her father, Fulvio, called the police. Magistrate Letizia Ruggeri answered the call and immediately sent out both state and military officers.
It was quickly established that yes, Yara had made it to the gym and had left again, presumably to head home. She’d texted her friend Martina at 6.44pm to arrange to meet up. After that, the young girl had simply vanished.
Foul play was suspected. Despite a swift response, the investigation went nowhere. Tracker dogs were called in, but rather than following Yara’s expected route home, they led to a small hamlet, Mapello, nearby. Ruggeri put wiretaps on the phones of hundreds of suspects and suspicions focused on a Mohammed Fikri, who was heard saying ‘Forgive me God, I didn’t kill her’ during a phone call and had a bloodstained mattress in his van – but he was quickly cleared.
Yara’s family, desperate for answers, shared pictures of the teenager and, when she still hadn’t been found, Maura and Fulvio made an emotional appeal after Christmas.
‘ We are a simple family, a household whose unity is based on love, respect, sincerity. For the past month, we have been asking ourselves endless questions about who, what, how, when and why all this is happening to us. We are not looking for answers… We are not tormenting ourselves trying to understand… We just want, immensely, for our daughter to return to her world… We beg the compassion of the people who have taken Yara… We beseech you to give us our daughter back… We are an open, transparent family, ready to help others. We do not deserve to continue our life without Yara’s smile. Thank you.’
Tragically, the family’s hope
that their daughter was still alive was shattered in the new year.
Exactly three months after she had gone missing, on 26 February 2011, Ilario Scotti, a middle-aged man, was flying a radio-controlled plane in an area of wasteland in Chignolo d’Isola, five miles south of Yara’s home. When he first saw clothes, he believed someone had been fly-tipping. But then he saw shoes. Then a body, stabbed and decomposing.
When she arrived at the scene, magistrate Ruggeri recognised the black bomber jacket and Hello Kitty sweatshirt that Yara’s parents had described immediately. With the battered body were the teenager’s iPod, her house keys and the SIM card and battery for her phone, although the mobile itself was missing.
An autopsy showed that despite being stabbed multiple times, Yara had died of exposure. She’d been dumped, injured but still alive, and, unable to get help, had passed away, alone and abandoned.
Despite the shattering news, the police finally had something to work with and in April, they got their first real lead – the scientific investigations department discovered male DNA on Yara’s underwear, despite there being no evidence of a sexual assault. Finally, the team had a solid clue.
By the time Yara’s funeral took place the following month, the police had tested thousands of willingly volunteered DNA samples from locals who lived in the area, but nothing had matched. Ruggeri then focused her attention on Sabbie Mobili (which means ‘Quicksand’), a nightclub next to the wasteland where Yara’s body was found.
Working on the theory that murderers tend to dump bodies in areas they are familiar with, Ruggeri and her team started taking DNA samples from clubbers on busy weekends. The diligent work paid off. A man, Damiano Guerinoni, had DNA extremely similar to that found on Yara’s underwear.
Yet, Damiano had a cast-iron alibi – he’d been in South America on the day of Yara’s disappearance. With public pressure mounting for a conviction and the sample being too similar to ignore, the police decided to look at his relatives. Officers laboured painstakingly over a detailed family tree, which led them to a small village, Gorno.
There, they discovered that Damiano Guerinoni’s father had had a brother – Giuseppe. Going to his house, police found two stamps on letters that he’d licked. After sending it off for testing, the DNA was again strikingly similar.
There was, unfortunately, only one problem. Giuseppe couldn’t have killed Yara. He’d been dead for 10 years…