Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / The Yara Gambirasio Case - Missing in Italy Part 3
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Yarra's funeral occurred on a warm morning in late May
- 0:04twenty eleven. Spectators applauded the white casket adorned with a
- 0:09large bouquet of white flowers, as the hearse made its
- 0:13way slowly towards her gym. The service was held in
- 0:17the sports hall, where she had dedicated countless hours to
- 0:20training and where she was last seen alive. Outside, a
- 0:26large crowd gathered to watch the funeral on a massive screen,
- 0:31listening to the condolences from Giorgio Napolitano, the President of
- 0:36the Republic. At the time of the funeral, investigators had
- 0:40collected thousands of DNA samples, but were still without any
- 0:45solid leads. Near the area where Yarra's body was discovered,
- 0:49there was a nightclub named Sabi Mobili. Quicksand Rugari understood
- 0:55that perpetrators often dispose of bodies in familiar locations, so
- 1:00despite the slim chances, in the spring of twenty eleven,
- 1:04investigators began collecting DNA samples outside the club on busy
- 1:09Fridays and Saturdays. Sabimobili had a reputation for violence. A
- 1:15young man from the Dominican Republic was killed outside its
- 1:19premises on sixteenth January twenty eleven. Yet the club maintained
- 1:24helpful records. Patrons needed a membership card for entry, making
- 1:30it easier for authorities to identify regular visitors. Brugeri experienced
- 1:36a breakthrough when a sample from Sabimobili appeared to match
- 1:40the suspect ignotto I. The individual who provided the sample.
- 1:45Damiano Gerinoni, was ruled out as a suspect due to
- 1:50his whereabouts in South America during Yara's disappearance. However, geneticists
- 1:56believed he was closely related to the murderer. As Ruggeri
- 2:00and her team delved into Guerinoni's family history, they uncovered
- 2:05a surprising connection. Guerinoni's mother, Aurora Zani, had worked as
- 2:10a domestic helper in the Gambaracio household for a decade. Zani,
- 2:15who had a strong bond with her employers, recounted memories
- 2:19of Yara's childhood and expressed shock at being implicated in
- 2:23the murder investigation. Despite intense scrutiny and surveillance, Ruggeri eventually
- 2:30concluded that the link was merely a coincidence. The team
- 2:35abandoned the domestic help angle and focused on the similarity
- 2:38between Damiano Guerinoni's DNA and that of ignoto I one.
- 2:45A year after Yara's murder, Rugeri's team faced mounting pressure
- 2:49to identify the perpetrator. Thousands of individuals underwent DNA testing,
- 2:55and some residents who had not been approached for samples
- 2:59expressed to them the media that the investigation appeared disorganized.
- 3:04Politicians launched personal attacks against Ruggery, with Northern League politician
- 3:10Danielle Bellotti publicly criticizing her capabilities. In January twenty twelve,
- 3:17he penned an open letter to the Minister of Justice
- 3:20urging for her replacement by someone with proven experience. In response,
- 3:26Ruggery filed a libel lawsuit against Bellotti on April twentieth,
- 3:31twenty twelve, particularly objecting to his description of her as
- 3:35possessing a low technical and moral profile. Underlying these criticisms
- 3:41was a significant element of sexism. What chance did this
- 3:45woman have of solving such a complicated case? Ruggery was unconventional.
- 3:53She was a single mother, with long salt and pepper
- 3:56hair and five earrings in her left ear. She played
- 4:00classical guitar commuted on an old vesper and held a
- 4:04black belt in karate. Rugary believed she was also being
- 4:08targeted for her decision to drop the case against the
- 4:12Moroccan laborer Muhammad Vikri. Many people thought I had made
- 4:16the wrong choice, Grugary recounted, and they held it against me.
- 4:21The backlash was intense. I found it extremely challenging. Grugary
- 4:26chose to focus on her most promising lead, the Guerinoni DNA.
- 4:31Her team dedicated months to reconstructing the Guerinoni family tree.
- 4:36During my visit to her office last year, Rugary presented
- 4:39a folder containing hundreds of names, each meticulously annotated with
- 4:45birth dates, birthplaces, and familial relationships. The investigators had successfully
- 4:52traced a complete genealogical tree back to eighteen fifteen, with
- 4:57some branches extending as far back as set seventeen sixteen.
- 5:01The origins of this family tree lay in the quaint
- 5:05village of Gorno, located just a forty five minute drive
- 5:09north of Bergamot, up the winding Seriana Valley. It feels
- 5:13like a different world altogether. The journey involves navigating a
- 5:18series of hairpin turns leading you into this serene locale.
- 5:23Rugeri's team swiftly assembled information regarding Giuseppe Guerinoni and his family. Giuseppe,
- 5:31a robust individual with a weathered visage, had worked as
- 5:34a bus driver and entertained at village festivals by playing
- 5:38the accordion. If Ignoto one was indeed the son of
- 5:42the deceased Giuseppe Guerinoni, the only plausible explanation would be
- 5:47the existence of an illegitimate child. It became, Rugari notes,
- 5:53an investigation within an investigation. She was now in pursuit
- 5:58of a woman, likely in her middle to later years,
- 6:01who had engaged in an affair with a married man
- 6:05now deceased, and had given birth to a son who
- 6:08ultimately committed the murder of Yarra Gambiracio. Massimo Bossetti. DNA
- 6:15was an exact match with Ignoto I.