The investigation into the Pietracatella murder mystery, the death due to ricin poisoning of Antonella Di Ielsi and her fifteen-year-old daughter Sara Di Vita, does not stop even at the weekend. This morning, the mathematics teacher and friend of Gianni Di Vita, husband and father of the two victims, returned to the offices of the Campobasso Flying Squad.
The woman arrived at the police station around 8am and left four hours later, just before noon. She was heard as a person informed of the facts. A new summons less than a month after the long confrontation with Di Vita on 20 August, when the two were heard at the same time for about six hours in front of the Larino prosecutor Elvira Antonelli and the head of Mobile Marco Graziano. At the basis of that comparison, according to what emerged at the time, there were differences in the statements made to the investigators.
But the teacher is not the only person who has returned to the investigators in recent hours. Yesterday afternoon another cousin of the former mayor was heard for a long time, while on Friday Laura Di Vita, Gianni's cousin, was summoned again for around three hours. A new round of depositions which would be linked precisely to the need to verify conflicting versions provided by some witnesses on circumstances considered important by the investigators. And other calls are expected in the coming days.
The match on August 20th
The teacher had already been interviewed several times as part of the investigation. The most significant step came on August 20, when she was summoned together with Gianni Di Vita. The comparison followed the new results of the scientific tests on the accountant: the tests carried out by specialists from the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin had also excluded previous exposure to ricin, confirming what had already been indicated by the tests carried out in Italy.
An important element because Di Vita had said that he had suffered gastrointestinal disorders on the same days in which his wife and daughter had felt ill. Ricin, however, was only identified in the two victims.
Dinner before Christmas
The mystery begins on December 23, 2025, with a dinner in the home of the Di Vita family in Pietracatella, a small town in the province of Campobasso. At the table, according to what was reconstructed in the following months, there are among other things mussels left over from lunch, cured meats and a vegetable gardener.
In the following days Antonella, Sara and Gianni suffer nausea, vomiting and severe abdominal pain. Mother and daughter go to the emergency room at Cardarelli in Campobasso several times. At first you think of gastroenteritis or food poisoning. Then the situation worsens: Sara, 15 years old, dies on December 27th. Antonella, 50 years old, dies the following morning.
Gianni Di Vita survives. The eldest daughter Alice, 19, had not attended the dinner and had gone out to eat pizza with friends.
The discovery of ricin
For weeks the cause of the two deaths remained an enigma. The turning point comes from the toxicological tests. After having screened around 1,500 substances, the specialists at the Maugeri Poison Control Center in Pavia identified ricin in the blood of Antonella and Sara, a very powerful toxin contained in the seeds of Ricinus communis. Histological tests then confirm damage to the organs compatible with poisoning.
In Gianni Di Vita's blood, however, no traces of the substance were found. And further tests carried out in Germany also exclude the presence of antibodies that could have testified to previous contact with the toxin.
The investigation thus completely changes direction. What initially seemed like tragic food poisoning becomes an investigation into a premeditated double murder.
Since then, investigators have reconstructed meals, foods, gifts received by the family, relationships and movements in the days before Christmas, listening to dozens of people. Electronic devices were also acquired and various leads were investigated to understand two things above all: how the ricin arrived in the house and why Antonella and Sara took it.
Now the focus returns to the testimonies. The new calls in recent days and, above all, the new four-hour interrogation of the teacher indicate that the Flying Squad is trying to resolve the contradictions remaining in the reconstructions collected in recent months. Almost nine months after the deaths of Antonella and Sara, the central point of the mystery still remains unanswered: who brought ricin to that table and why?
