Who Else Could Be Responsible? New doubts emerge in 2007 Italy murder case

A suspect in a case that has baffled and horrified Italy for nearly two decades has been called in for questioning by prosecutors, a move that could reveal one of the nation’s gravest judicial errors and release the individual who has spent more than ten years behind bars for the offence.

Andrea Sempio is accused of murdering Chiara Poggi, a 26‑year‑old economics graduate, at her residence in Garlasco, a small town near Milan in northern Italy, on 13 August 2007, allegedly after she rebuffed his sexual overtures.

Sempio, who has repeatedly denied the charges, is due to appear before prosecutors in Pavia on Wednesday. His lawyers, however, have told the Italian press that he “will exercise his right to remain silent” because the inquiry is still unfinished.

Prosecutors revived the murder investigation last year, placing Sempio – a friend of Poggi’s brother Marco – under scrutiny after new DNA analyses of material found under her fingernails matched his profile.

Initially, investigators speculated that Sempio might have acted with accomplices, possibly including Poggi’s then‑boyfriend Alberto Stasi, who was convicted of the crime in 2015 following two earlier acquittals and is now serving a 16‑year sentence.

Now prosecutors assert that Sempio, formally charged with voluntary manslaughter and aggravated cruelty, killed Poggi alone, allegedly striking her head and face with a blunt object at least twelve times. They are seeking to have Stasi’s conviction overturned.

Dubbed the “delitto di Garlasco”, or Garlasco murder, the intricate case and its many twists have been dissected relentlessly by Italian media for years, dominating crime talk‑shows and, more recently, podcasts.

It was Stasi, then a 24‑year‑old university student, who discovered Poggi’s body lying in a pool of blood on the staircase of her family home. Police promptly named him the prime suspect, noting that his shoes were unusually clean for someone who had just stumbled upon a corpse. They believed he had washed his shoes after the killing. Detectives said Poggi must have known her attacker because she answered the door in her pajamas. No murder weapon has ever been recovered.

Stasi was tried and acquitted twice, only to be convicted later on circumstantial evidence, including traces of Poggi’s DNA found on the wheels of a family bicycle. The 42‑year‑old has always proclaimed his innocence, but public opinion remains split.

Giada Bocellari, one of Stasi’s defence lawyers, remarked: “Alberto was ultimately convicted not so much because of the evidence, but because of the central question posed at trial: if he didn’t do it, then who did? With no credible alternative, the conclusion was that it must have been him.”

An earlier probe into Sempio was dropped in 2017 when prosecutors deemed the evidence against him insufficient.