New depositions in the case of ricin poisoning in Pietracatella

They called her on a Sunday morning at 8am when no one expected it. The mathematics teacher, a friend of Gianni Di Vita for years, has for weeks been among the people on whom the attention of investigators has been focused as they work to solve the Pietracatella mystery: mother and daughter poisoned in December with ricin by a hand still unknown today.

The teacher entered the police headquarters early and left almost four hours later. She was reconvened a month after her previous depositions. In fact, she had already been heard in the hours of mid-August and then again a week later, on the 20th, when there was also a confrontation with Gianni Di Vita.

The woman was questioned as a person informed of the facts and in the past weeks her husband was also interviewed and could now be called back shortly. With the passing of the days and with the investigators who have increasingly pressed on acquaintances, relationships, exchanges of emails, telephone messages, suspicious behavior, the tension has gradually increased among the people involved in this mystery.

Also because the investigation, although still without suspects regarding the hypothesis of a premeditated double murder, has evidently undergone an acceleration: first the summons in the days of August, now the depositions one after the other even at the weekend. In fact, the teacher was not the only one to be interviewed in these hours by the men of the Flying Squad led by Marco Graziano; at the disposal of the prosecutor Elvira Antonelli yesterday afternoon, again at the police station, a cousin of the former mayor was heard at length (deposition ended late in the evening) while on Friday morning Laura Di Vita, also a cousin of Gianni, father and husband of Sara and Antonella, was also back before the officers for three hours.

Apparently this new round of depositions is also linked to conflicting versions provided by some witnesses on issues investigated by the investigators. The most traveled path remains that of hidden relationships. The work is not finished: other calls are also expected in the week that is about to begin. In the background, but not too much, remain the tests still underway in Berlin, where German experts collaborating with Italian investigators are looking for traces of ricin in food and in the finds taken from Pietracatella's house.