PESCARA. Sunday afternoon, around 4-4.30pm, Christopher Thomas Luciani did he have a pre-arranged appointment with his killers near the Pescara central train station and bus terminal? This is a crucial question in the investigation into the murder of the 16-year-old, stabbed 25 times in Baden Powell Park on Via Raffaello over a drug debt. The alleged killers are Gianni e Michelefictitious names because they are still minors: the two 17-year-olds, the first son of a teacher and the second son of a carabiniere serving in the Pescara area, are locked up in juvenile penal institutions in Bari and Rome. Chats on Whatsapp, Telegram and Instagram will answer the question: Gianni, who wanted 250 euros back for some drug deals, had he written a message to Christopher Thomas to arrange a meeting? And if he had, had he also planned the murder? He certainly had a change of clothes in his backpack.
SIX CELL PHONES SEIZED The IT consultant of the prosecutor’s office for minors in L’Aquila, Fabio Biasini, will check what’s inside the phones of the two arrested kids and those of the four friends who were with them, from the center of Pescara to the garden of via Raffaello, the last stretch of road of about 700 meters traveled by Christopher Thomas before to be killed without mercy. In a ravine in the park between the five-a-side football pitch and the railway wall, the 16-year-old was initially attacked from behind by Gianni without the possibility of defending himself, amid insults and spitting, and then ended up with another sequence of stabs from Michele.
CHAT AND PHOTO HUNT The consultant appointed by the prosecutor Angela D’Egidio he will look for the messages but also the photos, like those taken posing on the beach shortly after the murder: proud face and biceps on display, this is how Michele photographed himself at 6.21pm under the palm tree of the Southern Cross establishment.
APPOINTMENT IN THE CENTER So far, what has made us think of a rendezvous between the victim and the murderers are the stories of the gang at the police station. The first to speak is the boy witness, the one who beyond the bush saw the two friends stabbing Christopher Thomas: «This afternoon around 4.30pm I found myself at the Pescara station with my friends. The intent was to go to the seaside but also to talk to Christopher Luciani who owed Gianni 200/300 euros. Christopher is usually found near the station and we met him there.” And it wasn’t a courtesy appointment: «Gianni told Christopher that he had to give him the money back. Gianni and Christopher started arguing because Gianni was aggressive and Christopher told him in return that he also had friends to call.” The boy specifies the details: «I met with my friends with whom I already had an appointment. I knew that Gianni had to talk to Christopher who owed him around 200/300 euros perhaps for drug debts. I knew that Gianni sold hashish and that Luciani also had something to do with drugs. Gianni had made it clear to us that he wanted to give him a couple of slaps.”
THE KNIFE ON DISPLAY But the boy also remembers this: “While Gianni was walking, already inside the park, he showed us that he was holding a knife.” It is the murder weapon, a diving knife that so far no one has been able to find: according to witnesses, that knife was wrapped in a blood-stained sock and then thrown into the sea, behind the rocks. «I saw Christopher on the ground bleeding and I immediately realized that Gianni had stabbed him. In front of me and Michele”, he says, “Gianni continued to slash Christopher, who was lying on the ground and moaning. At a certain point Michele also took the knife from Gianni’s hands with which he also hit Christopher several times as he continued to moan and make a death sound. I was astonished and didn’t have the strength to react.”
NEAR THE BAR The possibility of an appointment also emerges in other testimonies: «In the centre, at the station stop, I met my friends. Initially we waited for this boy, who I didn’t know but they told me his name was Christopher and he had escaped from a community, who they explained to me owed money to Gianni – I think 240 euros – and who had recently lent him another 70 euros. I think it was drug debts. They saw this boy near a bar and Gianni and another took him and took him behind the White Bakery and talked to him in a circle.”
RISK OF FIGHT Another story is this: «I went out with the intention of going to the seaside with friends. At a certain point we meet a boy called Christopher, who I know had argued with Gianni, and they start talking in heated tones.” Then everyone went towards the park: «We», says the friend, «we followed them because, knowing Gianni, I know that he is a person who gets angry easily and that in a short time it could have started a fight».
«RELAX AT THE SEA» Another boy, among the most reticent, answers the investigators’ questions like this: «We met to go to the beach but I don’t know if he was supposed to meet Christopher». And then he talks about the death of a boy like him: «At the park I saw Michele and another friend of mine (the eyewitness, ndr) who followed Gianni and the boy. My friend, when he came back, told us that the boy was dead. Michele came out first and then Gianni. We went to the seaside in peace.”
