Elderly man who died in a house fire: it was a homicide. Case solved in Reggio Calabria

That fatal fire was a domestic accident. It was a homicide.

This is the conviction of the investigators investigating the case of 76-year-old Giuseppe Latella , whose body was found on the night of September 14, 2022 by the firefighters in his apartment in via Nicola Furnari in Reggio Calabria.

Seven months later, for that fire, the police arrested a 45-year-old, Roger Sagnipun, of Filipino nationality.

According to the indictment, Sagnip first killed Latella by suffocating him and then set fire to his apartment to erase evidence of the crime.

The homicide section of the Reggio Flying Squad traced the man through the acquisition and analysis of numerous cameras, but also with telephone interceptions and analysis of printouts after the medico-legal investigations had established that Latella's death was attributable to "mechanical" suffocation. Therefore provoked in a violent way.

Once the presence of smoke in the victim's lungs was ruled out, investigators concluded that the killer had started the fire after suffocating Latella.

The video surveillance cameras then made it possible to reconstruct, almost entirely, the outward and return journey of Sagnip, domiciled, at the time, near the victim's house where he entered using the keys.

In fact, the suspect knew Latella who was assisted by a carer, also a Filipina, with whom Sagnip had a close relationship. The woman was also entered in the register of suspects.

(Unioneonline/lf)