Twenty years ago Marco Pantani died, the third investigation was also closed: "It wasn't a murder"

Next week, February 14th to be exact, will mark the 20th anniversary of Marco Pantani's death .

And in all likelihood in these days the request to dismiss the third investigation by the Rimini Prosecutor's Office into the disappearance of the great champion , whose lifeless body was found in 2004 in a room of the "Le Rose" residence in Rimini, will also arrive.

News that left the whole of Italy and especially two-wheel enthusiasts dismayed: there was great pain over the passing of one of the greatest protagonists in the history of Italian sport. Pantani was 34 years old, the autopsy revealed that death was caused by pulmonary and cerebral edema following an overdose of cocaine and psychotropic drugs .

For the third time the investigators have reached the same conclusion: it was not a murder .

The investigation by the prosecutor Elisabetta Melotti and the deputy Luca Bertuzzi has not yet been formally sent to the investigating judge's office as a request for dismissal, but as far as we know , no new elements have emerged. A new dismissal of the case therefore seems obvious .

«If and when a request for dismissal arrives, we will evaluate the reasons and decide whether it will be worth opposing - said the lawyer Fiorenzo Alessi who represents Marco Pantani's parents -. From what we know, in recent years the Prosecutor's Office has investigated thoroughly, also following the new clues and new leads that we have provided on behalf of the Pantani family."

The push for the reopening of the investigation was a new complaint from his mother Tonina Belletti who had declared to the Carabinieri of the investigative unit of the Rimini operations department: "Marco was not alone the night he died, there were two escorts with him" . It was then mother Tonina who provided the Prosecutor's Office with the names of new witnesses or acquaintances of Marco who had never previously been heard. Dozens of people were interviewed by the investigators, never heard before by the investigators. But no one seems to have been able to provide certain information , indeed it was often misleading and unreliable information.

(Unioneonline/L)