DNA breakthrough solves a crime | Forensic Files

[Music] Brembo vadas opera is a small and picturesque town seven kilometers or four miles northwest of the city of
Bergamo in northern Italy about an hour's drive from the line the province of Lombardy covers the cities of Milan
and Bergamo including the small town of Brembo Tidus opera with its close proximity to Lake Como enter the Swiss
and Austrian borders it is a popular stopover for tourists the area is dotted with ancient villas and Palacios
it is a humble town not modernized to the extent of nearby Milan many homes still use wood-burning stoves raised
chickens and grow their own vegetables postcards of the snow-capped of Bergamo Alps sitting shop displays and the views
from the small town are a reminder that things don't change at a fast pace in rural leaderly the town has a
traditional historic center classic church steeples and winding paths and Gardens it still feels like an Old Town
with old traditions and values every year the small town hosts a street parade where towns folk and others from
the area come together to dress in Harlequin fancy dress and make traditional wooden floats to parade the
streets like many old areas of the country family values are deeply rooted and people are fiercely loyal with
around 8,000 residents brembo Tidus Opera is a quiet close-knit rural community a safe environment for a young
family a place where a thirteen year old girl walking to a nearby Sports Centre alone in the late afternoon was not
given a second thought [Music] in November 2010 Winter was sitting in the days were cold averaging around
seven degrees Celsius or 45 Fahrenheit and then the nearby ski resorts were gearing up for the season 13 year old
Yarra gambit ratio was passionate about gymnastics enjoyed school and delivered with a happy family she always wore her
dark curly hair out except while doing gymnastic training or competitions where it would be pulled straight back tightly
off her face her father Fulvio an architect was a solid man with thick glasses his wife and Yara's mother mara
was a teacher they were a grounded family who were active in the community their families had been in the area for
generations Fulvio and Mara had four children the eldest was daughter Kiba aged 15 Yara who was 13 and then two
younger sons gnihton and Jia Li on Friday the 26th of November 2010 yarrow was gearing up for a gymnastics
competition the following weekend after spending the afternoon with her family at home she left about 5:15 p.m. she
told her mother she was going to the local Sports Centre where she trained to return the stereo to her gymnastics
instructor Sylvia Brenner Yara left the house in black leggings a Hello Kitty t-shirt and a black bomber style jacket
the short type with knitted rib bands of the hem and slave cuffs the Sports Center was only 700 meters
from her family home yarrow was at the Sports Centre often and usually got there by walking on her own there was a
large sports building much like a school with a big gate many entrances sports courts a running track and a swimming
pool Yara briefly greeted her instructor and saw some of her gymnastics friends before she did a little training she
left the building just prior to 6:44 p.m. at 6:44 p.m. Yara sent a text message to her gymnastics friend Martina
confirming they would meet the following Sunday at 8 a.m. it was the last contact
Yara had with anyone her mother Maura didn't expect her to be gone long and she kept a close watch on
the clock by 7:00 p.m. she was worried at 7:11 p.m. she found Yara's phone but the call went straight to voicemail
20 minutes later Yara's father Fulvio called the police the call was put through to the Public Prosecutor's
Office in Bergamo where the prosecutor on duty was Leticia Ruggeri Roux Gerry was 45 years old a tough former police
woman who had earned respect within the force working against the Sicilian Mafia
in Sicily southern Italy brew Gerry didn't waste time and within 5 minutes of receiving the call had dispatched
both state police officers ended the Carabinieri military police to their village the family was fraught people
came out of their houses to help search for Yara the fire department walked the banks of the river police and volunteers
searched nearby fields abandoned buildings and asked passers-by if they had seen euro the entire Sports Centre
was searched inside and out Walton Brambilla who is the manager of the Centre said that at midnight the night
Yara disappeared they were still searching the centre in case she was trapped or hiding as snow started to
fall that evening Yara's gym instructor Silvia Brenner confirmed the yarra had made it to the gym but she hadn't seen
her since laticia Ruggeri was the chief investigator on the case she called in tracker dogs a breed of Italian
bloodhounds to try to track the path where Yara had gone the tracker dogs didn't follow the path back to Yaris
home instead they trailed off towards map hello a small hamlet three kilometers or 1.8
miles in the opposite direction by then the team had been able to analyze the last signals from Yara's mobile phone
her phone had shown a signaling map ello at 6:49 p.m. the evening of her disappearance only five minutes after
Yara had sent the text message to her friend Martina as she left the Sports Center the police realized that it was
very likely Yara or at least her phone had traveled by car to where it was last pinged in Marbella
over the next few days rue Geri and her team questioned every member of the Gambino family looking for signs of
problems arguments or secrets although sure from the enormous media presence that had descended on their quiet street
they seemed like a happy close family with nothing to hide the family shared some photographs of Yara with the media
in the days after her disappearance the outter queuing to take communion doing gymnastics a photo of her in an Italian
football shirt and a few others but no one came forward with any useful information
a few people told police they thought they may have seen Yara talking to a couple of people near a red car but it
was a false lead with no sign of Yara investigators concentrated their efforts on tracking down people whose mobile
phones have been used to near where she disappeared approximately 15,000 phones were found to have been in the area that
day police commenced the enormous task of tracing each phone to its owner hundreds of phones were wiretap and what
would be a record for any investigation in Italy's history tens of millions of phone calls were intercepted crime news
dominates Italian TV often playing out on television like a soap opera reports can be dramatized and people involved
hounded for their story not since the murder of Meredith Kercher in 2007 had Italian TV Vince
captivated by an investigation the gambia ratio family lowered their shutters and hid from the prying eyes at
the national media they refused the torchlight vigil the town hoped to have to raise awareness for Yara's
disappearance and instead accepted the offer from nuns who taught at yaris school to come and pray with the family
a Mass was held instead of the vigil and the family pleaded with the public for privacy
Yara's father Fulvio was criticized for not being out there with the volunteers constantly searching the similar thing
can be said for many missing persons cases worldwide but people deal with disappearances in many different ways
and the era's father couldn't face the thought of being the one to come across his daughter's body he occupied his mind
with video poker games and taking care of his other three children as part of their investigation
the policeman bugged at the house of fou vo and Maura to track their conversations while intercepting a phone
call from one of the handsets known to have been in the area on the day an interpreter working for the police
overheard an alarming call while in mid conversation a Moroccan man Mohammed Fikri was overheard saying forgive me
God I didn't kill her at the time of Yara's disappearance Vickery had been working in a builder's yard in my pillow
but by the time the call was intercepted three days later vicki was on board a boat beyond for ten GS three days later
in early December Italian police intercepted the boat and Fikri was arrested while searching the van he had
been using police found a blood-stained mattress the blood was tested but what looked
like to be a promising inquiry quickly fizzled out the blood was found to have nothing to do with the case and shortly
after news broke that the words overheard by the translator had been mistranslated Fikri was cleared of any
involvement Rougerie later stated people liked him as the guilty party because it
was foreign no one wanted to believe that someone from their quiet and peaceful part of the country could be
responsible for Yara's disappearance surveillance video footage was released showing a vehicle driving past the
sports center there was a small white utility vehicle with an open back tray this vehicle was captured driving past
the sports center around the time of Yaris disappearance the same vehicle was also shown to pass several times on
other days leading up to her disappearance no registration plate was able to be seen on the footage so police released
images of the vehicle in the hope that either the owner would come forward or someone else who recognized the vehicle
would come forward a few days after Christmas almost a month since their daughter had disappeared the gambit
Accio family desperate made a public televised appeal they looked extremely awkward and uncomfortable in front of
the media Morrow was so uncomfortable she was unintentionally rolling her eyes Fulvio nervously read a plea open the
door that separates her from her freedom please give us our daughter back we are
a simple family a household whose unity is based on love respect sincerity and the glow of our peaceful existence for
the past month we've 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 do not seek to know we are not tormenting ourselves trying to
understand we're not pointing the finger at anyone we just want immensely fair our daughter to return to her world to
her village to her home to the embrace of those who love her we begged the compassion of the people who have taken
yara we ask them to find some spark of love in their conscience look her in the eyes and open the door or gate that
separates her from her freedom we beseech you to give us our daughter back help us to peace our daily lives back
together again help us to rebuild our normality people know us we have never done all we steal on anyone
we have always shown we're an open transparent family ready to help others we do not deserve to continue our life
without Yara's smile thank you rumors started the flyer that this may have been a retaliation abduction the
media started to report that Yara's father had testified against a mafia member in Naples but it wasn't long
before these rumors were confirmed to be completely false on the 25th of February
2011 three months after Yara went missing a middle-aged man named Ilario Scotty found an open field in the small
town of chignon de Sala to fly a remote-controlled aeroplane he had just bought the town is ten kilometres
southwest over Brembo tied to sopra and is surrounded by industrial estates spare Lots fields and scrub as he flew
the remote-controlled aircraft Ilario discovered it wasn't working properly so he landed it amongst some
tall grass as he walked over to pick it up he saw what he thought was some rags and rubbish on the ground that was until
he saw the pair of shoes it was Yara's body her body was frozen but showed some signs of decomposition as deep parts of
her clothing this particular field had already been searched in the days after Yara's disappearance the police
speculated that the killer had dumped her body after knowing they had already searched that she appeared to have been
attacked with a very sharp cunning object and there were several cuts on her body
some were deep Chief Inspector who Jerry had spent that day skiing with her daughter and was on the drive home when
she got the call that a body had been found she dropped her daughter off at home and went straight to the crime
scene in a way Rougerie felt relieved she told a journalist the era's disappearance had really disturbed me on
the mother tube and the only thing worse than the death of a child is the disappearance of a child the scene was
filled with state police officers Carabinieri military police members and crime scene investigators near the body
they found Yara's iPod and house keys they found the SIM card and battery for her LJ phone but the phone itself was
missing forensic evidence was found at the scene and swabs were taken there had been many
days of snow in the three months since Yarra went missing and the freezing temperatures had helped to preserve some
of the forensic evidence that may have ordinarily been destroyed the autopsy was conducted by Italy's most famous
forensic pathologist professor Christina cataneo she discovered traces of line-in
Yara's respiratory tract into the presence of a vegetable fiber used to make a rope on Yaris clothing she
suffered a head injury possibly inflicted with a rock and several blows to the body she had also been stabbed in
numerous times but it was determined that she didn't die from the lacerations or from loss of blood
it appeared Yara had died from exposure to the cold weather after she lost consciousness it was noted in the report
that the presence of lime and the rope fibers suggested that the killer might be in the building trade two months
later in April the commander of the scientific investigations department in Parma foundry Gerry I've got good news
he told her this murder has a signature we found male DNA on the underwear of Yara he reported it was likely that the
murderer had himself been wounded in the struggle leaving his DNA on Yara's underwear this led them to the theory
that it was likely the attacker had attempted to assault Yara but she had given a good fight and stopped him or
maybe his intentions were interrupted in some other way there was no sign of sexual assault it was confirmed that
Yara had likely been dumped unconscious and died of exposure on the 28th of May three months after the discovery Yara's
body was handed back to the gamba dasya family for her funeral on that hot morning thousands lined the streets
leading up to the sports center she had disappeared from as the hearse slowly drove by and on lookers saw the white
coffin topped with a huge bouquet of white flowers there wailing cries turned into loud cheers as the community gave
Yara an emotional send-off the funeral was held by the Bishop of Bergen a message was read out from the
president of the Italian Republic and outside those who couldn't fit in the gymnasium lying to the carpark and
straight to watch the memorial on a giant screen the RO was buried between her two grandparents in a cemetery just
across the road from the Sports Centre there's no date on her headstone just a signature next to a photograph of her
friends have left mementos like Tim's shoes metal flowers rag dolls plastic angels into little bracelets after the
funeral police gave a statement and that was not just intended to put yaris family and the public at ease that they
would find the killer but it was also intended to scare the person responsible scare them so that they knew the
investigators had good forensic evidence they said despite exposure to the wind rain and snow
those two DNA traces were excellent and we were able to exclude saliva and sperm
so that leaves blood it was a message to the killer that they had a solid piece of DNA and they would spare no expense
in both time and costs to hunt him down the killer was given a nickname unknown one into the investigation to find
unknown one kicked into overdrive the search for unknown one included alongside Ruggeri a select team of eight
special agents who despite huge media pressure maintained utter silence throughout the investigation the media
were like vultures over this case and if they weren't prepared to risk any leads
getting out the largest DNA dragnet in Italy's history was about to unfold they continued to tap the phones of thousands
of people and called for the public's help the volunteered DNA samples to catch Jared's killer
classmates families of classmates friends and members of the community came forward grew jere felt lucky she
didn't have to get any court orders to obtain DNA from any person as everyone they contacted was willing it is
believed that up to 22,000 people from the area volunteered their DNA this raised a few eyebrows across Italy
with people believing the investigators were haphazard and had no focus in their
investigation Ruggeri was publicly called incompetent and some even asked for her to be replaced as the head of
the investigation she wasn't your expected lead investigator but she was tough and she was like a dog at a bone
amongst all the backlash she kept it cool she reassured the community she knew what she was doing she divided up
the responsibilities amongst the team the first person to give DNA samples were family members then H owner of the
phone numbers who had made or received calls or messages to Yara were tracked down and DNA was requested from them the
net then moved outward into the community the DNA matching was slow work it took different geneticists in Parma
pavia and Rome a minimum of six hours to transform just a few samples of DNA into
something which could be read and compared the costing materials and manpower made this investigation one of
the most expensive manhunts in Italian history as the investigation continued police placed hidden cameras at Yara's
grave site in case her killer visited they then turned their sights to a nightclub in the estate nearby to where
Yara's body was found called La Ceiba mo Billy for quick sin luckily for the investigation managers of the nightclub
had a policy of creating membership cards for anyone who entered complete with phone numbers
investigators work through all of the people who had visited the nightclub around the time of the era's
disappearance they request the DNA samples and we're in luck they found one of the people who volunteered had DNA
closely resembling the prime suspect unknown one the owner of the sample that resembled unknown one was a twenty year
old man named Damiano quarry Oni he was quickly excluded as the suspect as he'd been in South America when Yara
disappeared and his DNA wasn't an exact match but what was clear was that he was
a close blood relative of unknown one brew Gerry and her team were ecstatic they felt it would only be a matter of
days before they would have the murderer behind bars it didn't take long for the
team to track down dummy owners family Ruggieri was shot to find that damiano's mother Aurora had actually worked for
Yaris family for ten years as a housemate Aurora lived nearby and had been at Yara's house twice a week since
she was a baby Aurora Yara were very close to Yara always asked Aurora issued what to do
gymnastics routines and Aurora who was very protective of Yara was forever telling her to be careful when
investigators questioned Aurora she said that it was the worst thing that had ever happened to her she was distraught
police didn't tell her that her son Damiano had been identified as being a close blood relative of the killer
police had Aurora and Damiano followed they bugged their house and tapped their phones but after months of surveillance
in the summer of 2011 the investigators realized they weren't connected to the murder
this didn't alter the fact that damiano's DNA was so similar to unknown one dummy Ono's father joseph was one of
eleven one by one the investigators spoke to each of damiano's uncles and aunts and retrieved two DNA samples one
of dummy Arno's uncle's his father's brother Giuseppe had died in 1999 after clearing through the rest of the family
police still needed to rule out the family of they contacted the widow of Giuseppe
Laura she showed them a box of documents that had belonged to her husband in the
hopes that they could find something to gain his DNA from considering he had died many years before Yara's murder
Laura didn't feel too worried in the box they found an envelope with a stamp on it
they also found a postcard he had sent to his family they knew there was a high chance he had licked the stamps meaning
they would have his DNA they were able to confirm it was Giuseppe who had licked the stamps enter the DNA sequence
was an even closer match to unknown one than his nephew dummy honours this meant
Giuseppe was the father of the cure the team started to build the picture of Giuseppe and his family Laura and
Giuseppe seemed to have had a conventional marriage Giuseppe had been a local bus driver who also enjoyed
playing the accordion at local festivals together they had three children the daughter and two sons the investigators
focused on the two sons as they knew the killer was male but DNA checks showed that neither man was unknown 1 and 2
neither of them had children of their own the forensics team was convinced that Giuseppe was the father of unknown one
so that left only one possibility somewhere out there was the illegitimate son of Giuseppe in order to make
absolutely sure investigators had to have his body assumed from its vault in the local
cemetery and another DNA test was performed that was confirmed again Giuseppe was the father of unknown one
police were near making a complete u-turn in their investigation instead of searching for a man they were searching
for a woman the killer's mother a woman possibly in her sixties who had had an affair with Giuseppe decades earlier got
pregnant and went on to have Giuseppe son who then went on to kill Yara the team got to work investigating the bus
routes Giuseppe used to drive a fellow bus driver remembered him and told the police yes he was a ladies man lots of
young women on his bus to work one at least he got into trouble another bus driver said he was a man
with a capital M News ended up getting out that police were searching for the mother of unknown one who had had an
affair and the media lost it it turned into a soap opera in all the media excitement police reminded the public
that amongst all the speculation finger-pointing and gossip a young girl had been murdered in the summer of 2013
in the nearby city of Rove staff at the hospital chapel came across a confession
in their visitors book usually reserved for the thoughts and prayers of sick loved ones or thanks for the help of
doctors they were shocked to find handwritten inside told the police of Bergamo that the killer of yarrow
ganbaatar Accio was here may God forgive me police stated whether the letter was
written by a compulsive liar or not it is important that we do not stop investigating we have a duty to give
answers to a family that has waited in silence to know the truth by mid of 2013 the life of a young Giuseppe began to
unfold he had moved to villages in the mid-1960s and he drove a public bus for almost two decades where he would drive
numerous women to their jobs in the local textile factories they searched orphanages and homes for single mothers
testing everyone they could find but turned up nothing they realized that there was a high chance that the woman
they were searching for was married to someone else and had the child in secret there were five hundred and thirty two
women listed as possibly being the woman who was a mother of unknown one the team
began the task of tracking down each one as police conducted their hunt for the mother of unknown one the villages
surrounding Bergamo was searched conversations and whispers leading police from one house to the next
one-by-one talking to each woman on their list of over 500 in the small villages older people still lived like
long ago some with home phones some without most were reserved but some openly questioned the tactics police
were using by now it was June 2014 three and a half years after Yara had disappeared the
killer only had to drive three hours and he could be in France Switzerland Austria or Slovenia the chance of the
killer still being in the hilltop villages of Lombardy seemed unlikely but police were persistent and one day they
finally got a name it was apparently given reluctantly in a whisper esta azul fear in the late 1960s esta had been
Giuseppe's neighbor she married a man named Giovanni bisetti from a nearby village Giovanni was the total opposite
testa Esther was fun and outgoing Giovanni was an inward man who kept in tighly to himself he suffered from
arthritis and depression Esther had a job in a textile factory and rode the bus to work every day Esther and
Giovanni had brought up three children twins amend and a woman now in their early 40s and another son brew Jerry's
team checked their records and found that two years earlier in 2012 Esther had actually given her DNA for testing
voluntarily during the sweep of the area police had already done but an error had
been made by geneticists in Rome the lab technician had tried to match esters and presumably others DNA to
Yaris instead of the unknown one therefore the result came up no match they rushed to retest as this sample and
confirmed that Esther now in her sixties was the woman they had been searching for she was the mother of unknown one
she and Giovanni lived in Brembo Tate dis opera the investigation had done a full circle back to the small village
Yara had lived it and disappeared from Esther denied ever having an affair with Giuseppe but the police knew her sons
were born in the right time period one son was quickly ruled out the other who was the male of the twins
Massimo ba city was a 42 year old married father of three he lived in my pillow where the last signal from Yara's
phone pinged he was a bricklayer and had not given a DNA sample during the investigation a slim man who
was once known for his love to party Massimo was nicknamed the animal by his friends he was short and very tenth with
piercing blue eyes and a peroxide at pencil goatee Bru Gerry and her team moved quickly but they had to be careful
they had already made one incorrect arrest and would not be making another they decided not to ask Massimo for his
DNA sample in case he disappeared while waiting for the results they placed him under surveillance and observed these
movements within a few days they decided the best approach would be to set up a roadblock near his house for Rendon
breath testing this way they could collect his DNA without him suspecting anything
Massimo was driving home with his wife and three children when he was stopped by police the officer knew exactly what
he was doing he pretended the first breath test didn't work and so performed the second one the officers now had two
sets of Massimo's DNA and a Massimo had no idea the random breath test was actually a test to confirm if he had
murdered Yara the following day on the 16th of June 2014 rue jury received the call she had
been waiting for massimo bisetti was unknown 1 the results showed 21 compatible markers 16 to 17 are normally
considered enough meaning the forensic experts were completely sure that Massimo was the murderer Esther's
husband Giovanni would learn that his wife had actually had more than one affair Massimo and his twin sister were
not biologically his actual but neither was their third child who was also fathered by another man
Giovanni learned this on the same day he found out Massimo was being arrested for
the murder of euro whose case had captivated the country for nearly four years Laure Giuseppe's widow was shocked that
her husband had fathered children while having an affair during their search for
unknown one police actually unearthed a number of secret affairs and infidelities in the small villages of
the area in two small villages alone five other illegitimate children were uncovered in different households people
still criticize the hunt for unknown ones mother mainly the length of time it took in the leaks to the press
throughout the search many thought the search should have been kept more closely guarded many felt Massimo would
be unable to get a fair trial as he had already been found guilty by media Italy's privacy watchdog criticized the
way the investigation into the parents of unknown one had been conducted they said in a statement
not even the public interest legitimizes the media frenzy over intimate personal
details such as to create irreparable damage to family life and the personal relations the afternoon after the match
was confirmed the 16th of June 2014 Massimo was working on the second story of a local construction site when a
group of the Carabinieri the military police pulled up they climbed the scaffolding and placed
Massimo under arrest in front of a group of confused two co-workers he was then escorted down to the ground taken away
and charged with the iris murder he had no prior criminal record he denied any involvement and claimed he
was innocent the Italian Minister of Internal Affairs Angelino Alfano announced the arrests on
Twitter saying the murderer of yarra has finally been apprehended misawa's wife made a statement that her
and their young children were at home with Massimo the evening of the murder Massimo claimed that he suffered from
nosebleeds and that someone had stolen his work tools including a knife and a towel possibly blood-stained because of
his nosebleeds in October 2011 while the search for unknown one was still happening doubts had arisen over the
forensic evidence produced in the first trial of Amanda Knox and her boyfriend for the murder of Meredith Kercher this
doubt swayed the jury of two judges and six civilians to acquit them of the murder and they were freed Italy was
reeling in the wake of questionable policing and poor investigation techniques into the entire country was
watching every moment of the yarra investigation the lab who conducted the testing in Yara's case released the
statement the important fact is that this man's DNA is the same as the DNA found on Yara the statement also noted
that the odds of anyone else sharing the same genetic profile was one person out
of two billion of billions of billions or practically non-existent the last piece of the puzzle fell into place when
the investigators matched Massimo's vehicle to the small white utility vehicle that had been spotted on the
security footage surrounding the Sports Centre on the days leading up to enter the afternoon of euros disappearance the
last time the utility was seen in the footage was just a few minutes before Yara disappeared massimo argued that he
just happened to drive by the sports center on his way home from work that they are a disappeared but police
confirmed that he didn't go to work that day investigators used telephone records
surveillance video and testimony from colleagues to rebut his alibi the crime lab took his utility and
pulled it apart for forensic testing Messimer is defense team requests that he be released cryo to trial the court
denied this request and confirmed that Massimo would remain in custody until his trial he remained in jail throughout
his preliminary hearing and by the time his trial commenced on Friday the 3rd of
July 2015 he had been in for over a year the trial was held at the Cordova sizess
of Bergamo Massimo had not moved from his claim of innocence people were surprised that facing such clear DNA
evidence against him he still swore he was innocent his wife testified he was home having
dinner with her in their kids at the time of the murder the trial would include 60 thousand
pages of records of inquiry 120 witnesses were called the testify for the prosecution Massimo's defense
said they had seven hundred and eleven witnesses as well as about 50 experts and consultants the court made them cut
this down to a total of 160 people Silvia Brenner who is Yara's gym instructor face scrutiny at the trial
when she became a focus of Massimo defense team on the night of Yara's disappearance Sylvia's father confirmed
that Silvia cried all night with no explanation she could also not explain why she and her brother had sent text
messages to each other at the time of the era's disappearance which they almost immediately deleted but they
didn't delete any other messages a bombshell was then dropped in the courtroom something that had never come
out before the trial and the reason why Silvia became the defense team's hot ticket the forensic lab noticed what
they called dark halos indicating the presence usually of blood on the slave car for the RS bomber jacket when
testing the stain they discovered that the DNA belonged to Silvia it was confirmed that there was no way for this
DNA to have been left this contact DNA and after three months in the elements it had to have been significant fluid
such as blood Silvia was criticized for answering I don't know to at least ten questions on
the witness stand including how her DNA got on Yara's sleeve cuff Massimo's defense lawyer
also contested the DNA evidence matched to Massimo and the lack of mitochondrial
DNA found in the sample on Yara the crucial piece of DNA evidence collected from Yara's underwear was a clear match
for Massimo SH nuclear DNA but his mitochondrial DNA did not show up in the sample DNA can be divided into two types
nuclear DNA which is the DNA contained in the cell's nucleus and the content is inherited half by the father and half by
the mother of any individual and mitochondrial DNA contained in the mitochondria of the cell that is
inherited only by one's own mother who in turn got it from her mother and so on mitochondrial DNA mutates very very
slowly much slower than nuclear DNA this means that it is nearly identical to that of your straightline maternal
ancestors who lived thousands of years ago and because of this it can match many others including sisters aunts and
grandparents this type of DNA which can be extracted during DNA tests is not necessarily restricted to a single
individual like a nuclear DNA years captain stains and Fabiano gentile who carried out the genetic analysis on
unknown one spoke at length on the DNA in a report of almost 1300 pages they proved the validation of the nuclear DNA
they defined at the sample as a perfect and complete profile with no margin of error they also showed that the lack of
mitochondrial DNA present was not important and it wasn't just the DNA evidence the prosecution was relying on
there was other circumstantial evidence which tied in Bru Gerry and her team examined Massimo's computer after his
arrest what they found painted a picture of a man who was interested in young girls
Massimo regularly hung out around Yara's house and the Sports Center where she trained he was seen on security footage
circling the gym on different days parking nearby on some occasions he was also seen on footage eating at a
pizzeria at the end of Yaris Road he visited a tanning salon nearby to the Sports Center twice a week and his phone
was found to have been in the area many times in the lead-up to Yaris disappearance and also nearby on the
afternoon she disappeared Massimo had switched his phone off at 5:45 p.m. the day yarra disappeared and he did not
switch it back on again until 7:30 4:00 a.m. the next morning they also had the footage of him driving past the entrance
of the Sports Center just minutes before Yara went missing and that the fibers found in Yara's wounds were compatible
with the fibers on the seats found in Massimo's vehicle the argument from Massimo that his tools have been stolen
along with the bloody towel was thrown out as it was discovered that he had actually reported his tool stolen two
years after Yaris murder a local woman testified that around 7:00 p.m. on the day yara disappeared she was
taking out the garbage at her home near boy she saw a vehicle matching Massimo's
dropped by at high speed she saw a young person inside but she was unsure if it was a boy or girl she heard screaming
coming from the vehicle and it was cut off mid scream as she looked up she had gone to police and given them this
information as soon as she heard of Yaris disappearance three witnesses came forward who contradicted Massimo's claim
that he only ever spent his evenings with his wife and children on the first of July 2016 the Assizes
Court of Bergamo reached their verdict masa mobile city was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison for the
murder of yara gamba Rocio the court also ordered compensation amounting to 1.3 million euros be paid 400,000 euros
to each of Yara's parents 150,000 euros for each sibling not euros and 18,000 euros for lawyers the day after his
verdict was read Massimo received a visit from his wife in prison she went alone without their children the gambia
ratio family meanwhile remained as quiet and as private as they had always been they presented a gymnastics trophy in
Yara's name shortly after Massimo immediately filed an appeal almost three months after he was sentenced the
Bergamo Court of Appeals denied his appeal and published an explanation for the sentence they had originally placed
the entire document is 158 pages part of it reads Yara's killing was a homicide of unprecedented gravity that took place
in the context of a series of sexual advances which the girl likely rejected unleashing a violent and sadistic
reaction the physical torments inflicted on the victim and the moral and subjective cruelty with which the
defendant appeased is drive to cause pain in absence of feelings of compassion and pity are indicative of
his evil spirit the presence of the defendants DNA is what proves his guilt that fact which is the void of any
ambiguity and cannot be read in any alternative way has not been disproved or placed into doubt by any evidence
gathered by the defense the murder of Yara Gambier Osseo turned on its head the lives of many families Giuseppe's
widow and their children learned that he had been unfaithful and had fathered other children one of whom was a
murderer not long after the reclusive Giovanni learned that his wife of over 40 years esta had numerous of his his
three children were not his own one of those children had brought up was a convicted murderer he was diagnosed
with terminal cancer Esther still denies she had an affair massimo beset e's marriage didn't just
suffer the effects of a husband and father convicted of murder but two people came forward and claimed they had
had affairs with his wife máximos twin sister was beaten up twice following the trial although sylvia
Brenna's DNA being found on Yara's cuff was an explosive development and something the defense relied heavily
upon to try and create reasonable death police played it down and stated silvia was never a suspect she was looked at
thoroughly and cleared it's unclear if she ever gave an explanation to police about the DNA or how exactly she was
cleared but she walks Yara's family were surprised to learn it was Aurora their housemaid and friend
for over a decade who was one of the first links in the long and winding trail to locate unknown one and justice
for their daughter [Music] you

Case 47: Yara Gambirasio

Brembate di Sopra is a small and picturesque town 7km or 4 miles north-west of the city of Bergamo in Northern Italy. About an hours drive from Milan. The province of Lombardy covers the cities of Milan and Bergamo including the small town of Brembate di Sopra.

With it’s close proximity to Lake Como and the Swiss and Austrian borders, it is a popular stopover for tourists. The area is dotted with ancient villas and palazzos…

CREDITS

Narration – Anonymous Host Research and writing – Anna Priestland Production, scoring – Mike Migas Additional scoring – Andrew Joslyn

SOCIAL LINKS

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RESOURCES

For all credits and sources please visit https://www.casefilepodcast.com/case-47-yara-gambirasio

Brief Summary

The episode covers the murder of Yara Gambirasio and the investigation leading to Massimo Bisetti's arrest and conviction.

Key points

The Disappearance of Yara Gambino. Yara, a 13-year-old girl, goes missing after leaving for gymnastics practice.
A Community in Search. The small town rallies together to search for Yara after her disappearance.
A Heartbreaking Discovery. Yara's body is found months later, leading to a deep investigation.
The Emotional Funeral. Yara's funeral draws thousands, showcasing the community's love and loss.
Aurora's Heartbreak. Aurora expresses her devastation over the investigation's impact on her life.
The Search for Giuseppe's Son. Investigators uncover the existence of Giuseppe's illegitimate son, a key to the case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

We just want our daughter back.

Fulvio Gambino's emotional plea for his missing daughter Yara.

11:07WatchNov 19, 2018

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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