The images, captured by a video camera positioned at the traffic light in via Camillo Rosalba on the corner between via Escrivà and via Madre Teresa di Calcutta, would have immortalized him on 18 December, a few minutes after the murder of the Bari physiotherapist Mauro Di Giacomo occurred at 8.25pm in via Tauro. This would be one of the crucial clues that would have allowed the investigators to reconstruct the motive for the crime and trace the alleged perpetrator. The 59-year-old carpenter from Canosa di Puglia, Salvatore Vassalli, ended up in handcuffs this morning: according to investigators he unloaded an entire magazine at Di Giacomo and, later, attacked the victim by hitting him with the butt of the gun.
Vassalli, driving his Hyundai I10, would have had an uncertain and unusual course that evening at the traffic light in via Camillo Rosalba: he would have remained stationary with the green light, perhaps stalling due to a lack of sense of orientation. Instead he would have run a red light and mistakenly taken a no-entry road. Subsequently he would have turned back, thus taking the ring road to exit the city. The strange performance of the car, for the investigators, would have been very valuable in the intersection with another fundamental element of the investigation: the civil lawsuit brought against the physiotherapist Di Giacomo by a woman.
The motive for the crime, according to the Bari Prosecutor’s Office, is to be found in the civil lawsuit for compensation brought by the daughter of the alleged murderer against the physiotherapist. The legal proceedings were still ongoing, a Court report seems to have reduced the extent of the damage which was localized in the mobility of one arm. The woman apparently had a single session with the physiotherapist in September 2019, the object of the civil judicial dispute lies precisely in that treatment which (according to the woman) caused some damage to the mobility of her limb. Di Giacomo, who appeared during the trial, had denied his responsibility, as well as his willingness to reach any form of settlement.
The woman, resident in the province of Viterbo, would have repeatedly communicated her anguish, due to the physical and judicial problem, to her father with whom, according to the prosecutor Ciro Angelillis, there would have been a “morbid relationship”. In the reconstruction of the motive made by the investigators, therefore, Vassalli would have acted out of the resentment accumulated towards poor Di Giacomo.
Regarding the victim, the Bari prosecutor Roberto Rossi wanted to point out that, after having explored all the leads, the complete correctness of his private life clearly emerged. The physiotherapist Mauro di Giacomo had no skeletons in his closet and had probably never met his killer before the evening of 18 December 2023.
After a brief altercation with the gunman, Di Giacomo was hit by 5 7.65 caliber pistol shots. The murderer attacked the victim, hitting him several times on the head with the butt of the gun. Investigators are busy searching for the murder weapon. The carpenter would be the owner of 2 pistols (regularly held with the relevant permit), but the two weapons would not be compatible with the 7.65 caliber with which the ambush was carried out.
The figures of the two daughters and the wife of the carpenter accused of murder were also examined by the Prosecutor’s Office. At the moment there is no evidence of involvement of the 3 women. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Vassalli also carried out some inspections in the area of the crime in February 2023: according to the investigators, this aspect would signal the premeditation of the murder.
