Closure of the Sempio investigation

Pavia prosecutors have concluded their 18-month supplementary investigation into Andrea Sempio for the murder of Chiara Poggi, who was killed at her home in Garlasco on 13 August 2007. Chief prosecutor Fabio Napoleone confirmed that Sempio faces charges of aggravated murder committed with cruelty and hatred following an alleged rejection. The case file compiled by Carabinieri investigators links Sempio to the crime scene through an unexamined dotted-sole shoe mark on step zero of the cellar stairs and palm print 33 on the adjacent wall. Sempio's defense attorneys now have a 20-day statutory window to examine the newly filed evidence, commission counter-reports, and submit formal defense briefs before prosecutors determine whether to request an indictment.

Allegations of concealed laboratory results

The newly unsealed discovery documents detail an alleged cover-up within the Carabinieri scientific investigation unit (RIS) in Parma during the initial 2007 inquiry. Independent defense experts Ricci and Linarello, examining raw laboratory files released by the Pavia Prosecutor's Office in November 2025, identified two counter-analyses completed on 20 September 2007. Both tests showed completely negative results for Poggi's genetic material on the pedals of Alberto Stasi's burgundy Umberto Dei bicycle. These findings were excluded from the trial dossier, leaving only an initial positive result that contributed to Stasi's final conviction. Former RIS officer Alessandro Coli gave evidence on 17 September 2026 before prosecutors Stefano Civardi and Valentina De Stefano, describing internal laboratory doubts about why genetic material vanished after the initial swab.

“The fact that DNA came out of one sample and then nothing came out of subsequent repeated samples was an anomalous thing.”

Scientific testing of prints and missing evidence

Prosecutors also deposed former RIS commander Luciano Garofano, Captain Alberto Marino, and geneticist Giorgio Portera as witnesses regarding the original laboratory workflow and the presence of Stasi's defense consultants during testing. A central element of the renewed investigation concerns palm print 33 on the cellar wall, which investigators align with 15 minutiae of Sempio's right hand. Because original plaster scrapings went missing from RIS evidence archives, the prosecution instructed the Racis forensic unit in Rome to conduct reconstruction tests replicating ninhydrin application and scalpel extraction. The Racis report filed on 9 September 2026 stated that negative results from Hexagon Obti blood confirmation tests do not exclude the possibility that human blood was originally present on the wall plaster.

Defense challenges and wider legal fallout

Sempio's defense team rejects the prosecution's technical conclusions, arguing that the dotted shoe impression corresponds to a foot size of 41 or 42, whereas Sempio wears size 44. The defense further asserts that palm print 33 lacks sufficient identifiable characteristics for an individual attribution. In a related proceeding, the disciplinary council of the Milan Court of Appeal dismissed an ethics complaint filed against Stasi's defense lawyer Antonio De Rensis by Stefania Cappa, a cousin of Poggi. Former defendant Raffaele Sollecito, who was exonerated in the 2007 Perugia murder trial, also commented on the findings, calling for mandatory disclosure of all raw laboratory data and analytical logs across criminal proceedings.

“Alberto Stasi is innocent, without any doubt.”