Garlasco Murder, Unknown DNA 3/ Abbate is Sure "It's the Killer!" Garofano "The Trace Says Nothing"

Quarto Grado is a showdown over the Garlasco crime and in particular over the DNA trace of an unknown suspect. 3: Abbate vs. Garofano

The Garlasco mystery begins immediately on Quarto Grado, and the first discussions, predictably, are over the infamous DNA trace, dubbed "unknown 3," found on the gauze after an autopsy sample from the mouth of poor Chiara Poggi. This trace is obviously dividing public opinion between those who think it's inconclusive and those who believe it represents a turning point. Carmelo Abbate, a longtime defender of Alberto Stasi, is part of this second group, convinced that it is the killer's indelible signature: "The contamination of the trace is undetectable," he begins, already charged. " We finally have the genetic identity of the killer, or at least one of the killers; we must have the courage to say so. The other killer is the one with fingerprint 33 and the DNA on the victim's fingernails, and we'll see who it is (according to the prosecutor, it's Sempio, ed.), but are you talking about contamination? So let's just stop and go home because we're not stupid, but what contamination?"

And again: "All the subjects who came into contact with the body have been registered and the DNA does not belong to any of them. We will see if someone who should not have come into contact with the body perhaps did and they will explain how and why, but until then we have the genetic identity of the murderer and that is a fact and it is not Alberto Stasi. We must have the intellectual honesty to say that we have the genetic identity of one of the murderers and it is not Stasi. Convicted definitively?" – he then replies to Nuzzi – "you know how I feel and you know that there is not a trace of Alberto Stasi at the crime scene, there is not one. Over the years you have filled me with a fingerprint on the dispenser and then the one on the nails is nothing? For example ? He is the one who, according to Previderè, the prosecutor's expert, is on Chiara Poggi's nails." And again: "The scandal is that there's a gauze that was never opened after the murder; a man was convicted without ever opening that bottle. The trace of Unknown Person 3 isn't mixed ," he adds. "There's a part where the DNA isn't mixed."

General Garofano, a consultant to Andrea Sempio, commander of the RIS at the time of the Garlasco crime, took a completely different view. In a separate interview with Quarto Grado, he stated: "I've heard about a large amount of DNA, but it's not true. The Y DNA detected on that gauze is infinitesimal; the majority, 99.9%, belongs to Chiara. Therefore, the male portion is so limited that it cannot be considered to be that of a stranger who attacked poor Chiara, leaving this material." He then reiterated: "I exclude an unknown 3 because an autopsy room is a DNA hotbed; contamination can occur at any moment, a fraction of a second." Garofano explained why the poor Garlasco victim's mouth was not examined at the time: "Among the various swabs, the oral one is considered comparison material and was intended to obtain material attributable to the victim to compare with the traces found at the crime scene."

But how could the gauze have been contaminated? "Perhaps it wasn't sterile to begin with, or a forceps with which it was learned, or while it was being learned, came into contact with one of the surfaces in the autopsy room. Therefore, the synthesis of the infinitesimal quantity of material Y from Ballardini's assistant, plus the environment in which the sampling occurred, leads one to believe it was a contamination. Is the person who contaminated the material punishable by law? Absolutely not. We must also consider that this was 18 years ago. A lot of time has passed , and our attitude in the autopsy room and at the crime scene has changed, and techniques have become more sensitive. It was a completely unintentional contamination, and whoever committed it is entirely responsible."

Garofano adds: "I recently read 'In Search of the Unknown 3' using the complete profile. Be careful, it's a complete profile, but it's a Y profile we know absolutely doesn't lead to a personal identification, but only to those who share that type of profile in the paternal line. It's comparable, but it doesn't give us certainty of an identification. It's not like Bossetti's DNA, nor the DNA found in Melania Re's mouth. It's Y DNA, but it's very limited, subcellular and subcentesimal."

A puzzled Umberto Brindani, editor-in-chief of Gente, present in the studio at Quarto Grado, said: "I'm more cautious than Carmelo in saying there definitely wasn't any contamination. There could have been, but if there had been, it would be yet another mistake in this investigation, which has left a person in prison for 10 years. General Garofano," he pointed out, "has always been someone who advocated caution, so I don't understand how he, who has nothing to his name except what experts and consultants have, can deny the importance of this lead." Once again, the clash is fierce between those who accuse Stasi or, at least, claim certainty that the Garlasco case will not be rewritten, and those who instead claim to be convinced of the exact opposite—that Chiara Poggi's murderer has been at large for 18 years. We'll see what emerges from a more in-depth analysis of this famous DNA trace, which could rewrite history or prove to be yet another red herring in this ongoing investigation.