The investigation into the murder of Yara Gambirasio was one of the most extensive and highly publicized in Italian criminal history, and its findings are still disputed today.
After three years and tens of thousands of DNA samples later, police arrested local construction worker Massimo Bossetti and charged him with the young gymnast’s murder. And earlier this year, Netflix released a documentary in Italy about the 13-year-old girl’s murder case, titled The Yara Gambirasio Case: Beyond Reasonable Doubt.
But for many, doubt persists in Gambirasio’s case, and lawyers for Bossetti have continued to fight his conviction in recent years. Here’s what police say happened, and why attorneys for the man convicted of Gambirasio’s murder are still contesting his conviction.
The case of Yara Gambirasio in a Netlifix TV series.
Luca Ponti/IPA via ZUMA Press
Gambirasio’s Murder
Gambirasio was a promising local gymnastics champion at the time she went missing after practice on Nov. 26, 2010. The teen’s body was found dumped in a field near Brembate di Sopra, a suburb of Milan, about three months later, The Guardian reported.
Shortly after the discovery, an autopsy showed the teen had been beaten to death and not sexually abused, according to The New York Times. And it also turned up DNA evidence on the girl’s clothing, prompting one of the most-publicized DNA investigations in history.
The Investigation
With only the DNA evidence to rely on, the Times reported that investigators took DNA samples from nearly 22,000 people in a longshot effort to track down Gambirasio’s killer.
The goal of authorities was to use DNA evidence to track down close-enough matches to identify relatives of the killer, and then use further DNA testing to find a perfect match, according to the American Academy of Forensic Science. After thousands of swabs, police found a partial match with a young man they believed to be “unquestionably a close relative of the killer,” according to the Academy. That sample then led investigators to identify a local bus driver, Giuseppe Guerinoni, as the killer’s father — only Guerinoni had died 11 years prior.
A former colleague of Guerinoni told police he was a “ladies’ man,” according to the Academy, and helped them put together a list of more than 500 women he may have had intimate relationships with in his life. Police then found a maternal match for the killer using the list, leading them to Massimo Bossetti.
Bossetti never knew he was the son of Guerinoni, prompting local media to begin characterizing the case as a “genetic soap opera,” according to the Times. Meanwhile, the three-plus-year investigation into Gambirasio’s murder prompted The Guardian to call it “the murder that has obsessed Italy” in 2015.
Massimo Bossetti.
Netflix
Bossetti Claims Innocence
Bossetti was arrested and later found guilty of murdering the 13-year-old Gambirasio, despite his repeated claims of innocence to police, arguing that he does not know how his DNA was found at the scene.
“I might be stupid, an idiot, ignorant, but I’m not a killer,” Bossetti told the court before he was found guilty, according to The Guardian.
In 2016, Bossetti was sentenced to life in prison, according to the forensics academy, though his attorneys have not stopped appealing the murder conviction in recent years. His attorneys’ latest appeal came earlier this year, when his defense team asked to analyze the DNA evidence found on Gambirasio themselves, as they continue to question the validity of the genetic samples that led to Bossetti’s life behind bars.
