Cold Case That Was Solved With An Insane Twist

foreign [Music] late November 2010 the sudden disappearance of a young girl shook the tight-knit community of brembati De sopra it's a small town on the outskirts of the Alps in Northern Italy the investigation that followed is widely considered one of the largest in Italian History this is the story of Yara gambarazio and a twisted tale that gripped a nation thirteen-year-old Yara gambarazio came from a large loving family she was one of four children to parents fulvio and Mora her father worked as an architect and her mother is a teacher their respective families had lived in

the area of brembate De sopra for Generations it was a quiet town with 8 000 residents despite being only an hour from the fashion capital of the world Milan life in brambati di sobra could not be more different time moved slowly there and the scenery is quintessential rural Italy with Cypress line streets and views of distant mountains it seemed like the ideal place to raise a family on Friday 26 November 2010 Yara said goodbye to her family and set off to the local gym where she trained for gymnastics she left at 5 15 pm to

walk the short couple hundred meter route like she had done countless times before Yara needed to drop off a stereo for her instructor and then she would be right back home when two hours had passed and Yara had still not returned worry set in for her parents yara's mother Maura dialed her number but the call went straight to voicemail they waited until 7 30 PM hoping their daughter would walk through the door with an explanation of something that was keeping her busy until then unfortunately she was still not home and yara's father fulvio called the

police the call went through to Leticia regeri the Magistrate on duty in the nearby city of Bergamo the experienced magistrate wasted no time in getting authorities out and searching for the missing 13-year-old girl when retracing her steps the investigators found out that Yara made it to the gym that day where she saw her instructor they had done a light training session in preparation for an upcoming competition before Yara left and started the Journey Back Home the last time anyone had contact with Yara was at 6 44 PM when she sent a text message to close

friend Martina she told Martina that they could meet up early the next weekend before the gymnastics meet there were a few Witnesses who claimed to have seen Yara talking to two men near a red car but this could not be confirmed they were not completely certain that it was in fact Yara tracker dogs were brought to the gym to try and traceyara's route home instead the dogs LED their handlers in the opposite direction towards mapolo a small commune located less than 10 minutes from brembati Di sopra yara's phone records confirmed that her phone had been

in mapalo at 6 49 that evening as his standard procedure in missing persons cases the family is always questioned by authorities each member of the gambarrassio family was thoroughly interviewed which meant the investigators were able to rule them out as potential suspects Maura and falvio were respected members of the community and Yara was loved dearly by them and her three siblings the tatya rugeri authorized wiretaps on hundreds of cell phones belonging to possible suspects and had her team try to track down the fifteen thousand odd devices that had passed through maplo on November 26th this

led to the identification of their first suspect a Moroccan man named Mohammed fikri a conversation had been overheard where fikri asked God for forgiveness and mentioned something about not being responsible for taking her life at the time of yara's disappearance fikri was working in mapello on a building site by the time investigators believed he may be linked to the case he was already gone vicry had boarded a boat heading for Tangiers a city in Northwestern Morocco the Italian authorities weren't going to give up that easily and set out to intercept the boat the mission was

successful and fikri was arrested his van was subsequently searched and lo and behold a mattress with dried red stains was discovered inside it seemed like they could be on the right track to finding out what happened to Yara until further investigation revealed that the mattress was unrelated to the investigation and that the supposed phrase heard over the wiretap had been mistranslated now the investigation began to slow as no obvious fresh suspects stood out to the authorities the case had garnered national attention with the mystery of yara's disappearance being broadcast on countless Italian TV shows and

reporters from across the country filing into brembat indisopra the gambarassios knew the attention was good for yara's case but nonetheless found the intrusion during such a difficult time hard to bear over the next three months the scores of investigators working on yara's case tracked down every possible lead checked every possible sighting and interviewed any possible suspects Mora and folvio were still holding on to the hope that their beautiful young daughter was alive somewhere and would be brought home to them tragically that hope was crushed on February 26 2011 three months after she was last seen

Larry oscotti had been flying his model airplane in a town six miles or 10 kilometers south of brimbati De sopra he chose an area away from any public spaces and over an expanse of scrub land to try out his new toy Hilario was having some issues with the device which led to him Landing in an overgrown section of Shrubbery and weeds he walked over to the site and waded through before reaching his plane asalaria stood back up something caught his eye it appeared there was some fabric on the ground his first thought was that someone

dumped some clothing there but then Hilario saw a pair of shoes upon closer inspection he discovered the remains of a person while the person had clearly been left in that location for a long time a few items of clothing stood out a black jacket and a Hello Kitty sweatshirt the same clothing item said Yara had last been seen wearing further analysis of the scene uncovered yara's iPod and house keys her SIM card and phone battery was also found but her cell phone was not the autopsy was performed by Professor Christina Catanio one of Italy's most

well-known forensic pathologists traces of lime were found in yara's nose and Airway and rope fibers were found on her clothing this suggested that the person responsible may be a builder or involved in the building trade yara's body had multiple marks sustained from a sharp object the satisfinding of all was that she had lost her life due to exposure not a direct result of her injuries two DNA samples were recovered at the scene one on yara's gloves and the other on her phone battery the samples were run against the national system but neither person had been

recorded before all of the items were shipped off for further investigation including yara's clothing items this is how a third DNA profile was discovered two months later on yara's underwear authorities believe there had been a struggle and the perpetrator had injured himself hence the DNA being left behind the suspect was named ignota1 meaning unknown one now they just needed to find who this DNA belonged to the investigators ordered DNA samples to be collected from everyone close to Yara that included family members friends and locals who frequented areas that Yara had other officers were in charge

of cross-referencing phone records of devices that had moved through brembati de sopra and the town where yara's body was discovered when a number was found the owner was tracked down and asked to provide their DNA this was not glamorous police work it took hundreds upon hundreds of hours looking through data and trying to put faces to these numbers each new sample took a few hours to analyze and get a profile from with multiple geneticists from across Italy working overtime to get them logged the search for Yara and the subsequent search to track down the perpetrator

has gone down as one of the largest and most expensive manhunts in Italy's history Yara was finally laid to rest at the end of May 2011. in the months following the discovery of her body thousands of DNA samples had been analyzed but still there had not been a hit against unknown one Leticia rugeri decided to look at another angle she knew that many perpetrators tend to dispose of their victims in areas that they are comfortable in or familiar with yara's body was found there was a nightclub not far away she knew it was a long

shot but Leticia ordered officers to take DNA samples from Club patrons outside on busy Friday and Saturday nights this is how Damiano gerino entered the picture Damiano frequently attended the nightclub and his DNA sample beared a striking resemblance to unknown one but he had a rock-solid alibi since he was in South America during the time that Yara was last seen still the authorities weren't giving up on this lead and geneticists were convinced that unknown one was a relative of Damiano gerenoni every member of the geranoni family was looked into and a shocking link to the

gambriacios was discovered damiano's mother Aurora had worked for the family as a domestic helper for 10 whole years Aurora lived near to yara's home and came over twice a week when she was growing up Yara and Aurora were close Aurora always made sure to keep an eye out for Yara seeing that she did not get up to nonsense and Yara loved to show off her new gymnastics moves to Aurora even though she stopped working for a falvio and Maura Aurora maintained a good relationship with the family so imagine her shock when she found herself at

the center of the investigation it was the worst thing that could happen to me Aurora later confessed both Aurora and her son Damiano were extensively questioned the Paris phone calls were monitored and they were followed after months of trying to find any connection between either of them and what happened to Yara Letizia admitted resigning herself to the fact that in the end this was nothing more than a sick coincidence at the one-year anniversary of Yara losing her life the pressure on authorities to bring the person responsible to Justice was reaching a Breaking Point various politicians

were making Digs at Leticia questioning her competence as magistrate despite her running a textbook investigation from the get-go but she could not let this background noise distract her from solving yara's case so she doubled down on the only viable lead so far damiano's DNA profile they focused on building an extensive family tree of those around Damiano which resulted in hundreds of names being cataloged relatives as far back as 1815 were recorded until an immense family tree lay before them this led investigators to the Sleepy Village of Gorno where the same families have lived for Generations

including the guerinonis damiana's Uncle Giuseppe passed away in 1999 investigators hoped they could somehow obtain a DNA sample from him so they visited his widow Laura in September 2011. as luck would have it she was able to provide two stamps that her late husband had licked the results showed that unknown one was likely Giuseppe's son making him damiano's first cousin Giuseppe worked as a bus driver and was a talented accordion player putting his talent to use at Gorno festivals he had three children with Laura two sons and a daughter when their DNA was compared to

unknown one neither came back as a perfect match since neither of them had children the next logical explanation was that Giuseppe had another son out there that they did not know about one that he did not have with Laura Leticia described this as an investigation within an investigation so how on Earth would they track down Giuseppe's illegitimate son through their deep dive into Giuseppe's personal life investigators found out that he visited a resort called salice terme every May from the early 1960s it was an annual tradition for him these trips were made without his wife

Laura the spring months of 2012 were spent looking through Solis torme's records tracking down women whose time at the resort overlapped Giuseppe's the effort proved fruitless as did searching through orphanage records and women's shelters they came to the conclusion that the possible woman they were searching for was most likely married divorce in Italy had been illegal until 1970 so even if the mystery woman had an affair with Giuseppe she likely stayed married during this time yara's parents had hired a freelance geneticist Giorgio portera to look over the investigation and explain to them in layman's terms

what everything meant after reviewing the information Giorgio campaigned for Giuseppe's body to be exhumed so a proper DNA analysis could be performed the DNA taken from the stamp could only compare part of unknown one's DNA sequence his wish was granted on March 7 2013 when Giuseppe's body was exhumed this effort confirmed that without a shadow of a doubt Giuseppe was unknown one's father he did have a son out there who was responsible for yara's passing the authorities kept details of the information private for the most part much to the frustration of the media desperate for

a story slowly rumors started to spread about Giuseppe's illegitimate son who was believed to have taken yara's life as an array of journalists started their own investigation many Affairs and family secrets were uncovered things began playing out like a soap opera in the small towns but a breakthrough was on the horizon Marshall Giovanni mocarino worked closely with Leticia he worked in an office alongside her own Marshall was a well-liked man with a stubborn Streak by his own admittance yara's case had caused him many sleepless nights and four years with no breaks working towards bringing the

man responsible to Justice in stark contrast to the high-tech work that went into analyzing the DNA samples and tracking phone records Marshall was more old school he liked getting out into the community and talking to people making them feel comfortable by talking face to face through this Marshall found out many details of Giuseppe's life as previously mentioned Giuseppe worked as a bus driver and Marshall managed to track down his old colleagues the main bus route for the drivers was taking Factory workers to the Abundant textile factories in the area many of these passengers were women

the drivers often described Giuseppe as somewhat of a ladies man while Marshall became acquainted with every aspect of Giuseppe's life a name came up Esther as roofie Esther was born and raised in Ponte Selva where Giuseppe lived since the early 1960s Giuseppe actually lived not far from Esther at the time when she was 19 years old Esther got married and moved to a nearby Village she worked at a textile mill and would take the bus daily to her job this is how Esther met Giuseppe her husband was a sickly man who used a cane and

during her frequent trips in Giuseppe's bus Esther fell in love did investigators finally have their Missing Link Letitia and her team check their database to see if Esther happened to be on file they found that a sample had been taken from Esther back in 2012 but a lab era meant it was not showing on the system the result was conclusive when the moment came to run Esther's DNA against unknown one unknown one was Esther's son at her sample been correctly logged in the first place this very well may have come to light two years earlier

Esther left the home with her husband and they moved back to Ponte Selva in 1970. the couple welcomed twins at Samir a boy and a girl the little boy was named Massimo in 2014 Massimo bossetti was 44 years old and married with Children the family lived together in mapello the same town where yara's cell phone had last pinged now that Leticia had a name she wasted no time in tracking down bosetti and collecting a DNA sample from him to compare it against unknown one this would be the final puzzle piece if it confirmed that his

DNA was found on yara's body they knew asking bosetti directly for a sample would raise suspicion so they came up with a clever plan but first they needed to find him bassetti was observed for a few days where the team learned he had a fairly set routine he worked in construction and returned home each evening at the same time in his small truck bassetti seemed like any other family man after establishing his routine and confirming what car he drove the plan was set into action while bassetti was out driving an officer pulled him over and

explained there were breathalyzing drivers to catch people driving over the legal limit bassetti was asked to blow into the device his initial response was a chuckle followed by I do not drink the officer persisted and got Rosetti to complete the test the officer then looked down at his breathalyzer and explained to bassetti that it seemed to be faulty before asking him to blow into a second device it showed that bosetti had not been drinking that day so he was free to go as he drove off the officer jogged back to his car armed with two

quality DNA samples from their Prime Suspect they were sent off to the lab immediately and ran as they arrived by early afternoon authorities had their answer Simo bossetti was unknown one on June 16 2014 bassetti was pounced on by police and taken into custody where he was charged with taking the life of Yara gambarrassio during their investigation into bassetti investigators found that he frequented areas near where Yara lived he often added a pizzeria down the road and would park his car behind the gym where Yara practiced her gymnastics he also got regular suntans from a

local shop his internet search history showed a twisted desire for teenage girls and his phone record showed he was in brembati di sobra when Yara disappeared bossetti intentionally turned his phone off at 5 45 PM only turning it back on the following morning when he was questioned bassetti remained silent and claimed he was not guilty his legal team decided to call the DNA evidence into question saying that while it may prove he had contact with Yara it did not prove he was responsible for her slaying the trial began in mid-2015 and lasted an entire year

it revealed the sheer extent of the investigation where over eighteen thousand DNA samples had been analyzed after multiple Witnesses took the stand and dozens of pieces of evidence presented it was time for a ruling the court of Bergamo overseen by judge Antonella protoza found him guilty on July 1 2016. bossetti was given a life sentence yara's case is unique for many reasons Not only was her loss felt by her family but the investigation into finding the monster who took her away from them upended multiple other families Giuseppe's Widow now had to come to terms with

the fact that her husband had been unfaithful and that his son was the man responsible for this deplorable crime bossetty's mother and sister also have to live with what he had done along with many other scandals that were uncovered along the way it of course goes without saying that the loss of the bright young girl that was Yara gambarassio is by far the hardest to swallow we still do not know exactly what happened that night as bosetti still maintains his innocence maybe one day the truth will come to light [Music] foreign