On one side, the Parma RIS (Special Investigations Unit), which was under scrutiny for its alleged failure to submit to the Prosecutor's Office two negative genetic tests performed in 2007 on Alberto Stasi's bicycle pedals. On the other, colleagues from the Cagliari Scientific Investigations Unit, who—after the Pavia Prosecutor's Office reopened the investigation into the Garlasco case—worked on other circumstances and were assigned, along with Colonel Andrea Berti, to re-examine the crime scene using the latest technology. There is no connection between the two units' responsibilities, but the work done on the island is now included in the file filed yesterday, when the preliminary investigation was officially closed.
The assignment
The colonel, who commanded the Sardinian RIS for three years, had been asked to further investigate the reconstruction of the murder of Chiara Poggi, killed in her family home in Garlasco on August 13, 2007. Berti, who took over command of the Rome RIS in September, had already been a key figure in the scientific reopening of the case. Under his leadership, specialists from the Cagliari unit conducted a lengthy inspection of the house on Via Pascoli on June 9, 2025, also using drones and sophisticated equipment to reconstruct the crime scene in three dimensions. The work was accompanied by Bloodstain Pattern Analysis, a technique that studies the shape, distribution, and direction of bloodstains to reconstruct the dynamics of a violent incident. The approximately 300-page report was filed in September 2025.
The comparison
After this lengthy investigation, the Pavia Prosecutor's Office asked Berti to directly address the conclusions reached by Sempio's defense consultant, Armando Palmegiani. Palmegiani had developed his own interpretation of the blood traces, advancing observations on the method used and formulating alternative hypotheses regarding certain moments of the murder: specifically, what may have happened in the area where the phone was located, when and where the killer washed himself, and the route he took after the crime. The RIS commander then reexamined these observations. According to the Pavia Prosecutor's Office, headed by Fabio Napoleone, the consultant confirmed the need to distinguish evidence supported by physical evidence from reconstructions that, while theoretically possible, cannot be directly verified at the crime scene. Essentially, the further investigation would not have altered the material data underlying the RIS's previous report.
The controversies
Meanwhile, last night, former Parma RIS general Luciano Garofano was categorical, forcefully rejecting the suspicions emerging from the Pavia prosecutor's office's new investigation. "I am absolutely certain," he told news agencies and later confirmed to Unione Sarda, "that I can rule out any manipulation, any misdirection, any shelving of documents, which was not and is not our custom. I put my hand in the fire, all my hands in the fire, on the honesty of my collaborators who were physically identified by the Vigevano prosecutor's office to perform those analyses." At the center of the controversy are the pedals of Alberto Stasi's burgundy bicycle, the subject of further investigation by the convicted man's defense. According to data made available by Parma RIS to Pavia prosecutors in November 2015, as early as September 20, 2007, four days before the (unconfirmed) arrest of Chiara Poggi's boyfriend, two counter-analyses were performed that ruled out the presence of the victim's genetic material on the pedals. The two negative samples, confirmed by consultants from the Pavia Prosecutor's Office, are apparently missing from the Vigevano Prosecutor's Office's investigation documents. Now that the investigation is concluded, the entire file will be made available to the defense of Andrea Sempio, a friend of the victim's brother and the only suspect in this new investigation.
Francesco Pinna