At the end of the closing speech for the Serena Mollicone case, 24 years were requested for the former commander of the Carabinieri barracks in Arce Franco Mottola and 22 years for his wife Annamaria and their son Marco. Franco Mottola is “the person who behaved the most seriously because he was the commander of the Carabinieri station and should have been the first to take the initiative to prevent this girl from dying” said Deputy Attorney General Deborah Landolfi during the closing speech of the second degree trial, before the First Court of Assizes of Appeal in Rome, for the murder of Serena Mollicone, the 18-year-old from Arce killed in 2001. “For Marco and Annamaria Mottola – she clarified – we are asking for 22 years of imprisonment, a sentence a little higher than the minimum sentence given the gravity of the situation. Furthermore, they have never admitted their responsibilities and have never collaborated”.
What had happened
On June 1, 2001, the young woman disappeared and only three days later was found dead in a forest. The conditions in which she was found made it look like a kidnapping: hands and feet tied and a bag over her head. The autopsy revealed that Serena had been suffocated. Initially, the investigations came up with nothing. In 2008, however, Brigadier Santino Tuzi committed suicide in a completely unusual way. It seems that a few days earlier he had told the Prosecutor’s Office that Serena, on the morning of June 1, had entered the barracks and had never come out again. In 2011, investigators entered the former Carabinieri Marshal Franco Mottola, his wife Annamaria and their son Marco in the register of defendants and hypothesized an argument with Serena that had arisen in the Mottola home. In 2016, the Prosecutor’s Office obtains the exhumation of Serena Mollicone’s body and Dr. Cristina Cattaneo highlights that Serena’s genitals and anus had been removed, perhaps to eliminate any compromising biological traces. Meanwhile, the investigation focuses on the murder weapon: the prosecution nails Franco Mottola. According to the prosecution, he pushed Serena’s head against a door, causing a skull fracture.
A cold case made of countless twists and turns
New twist in 2018: the murder would have occurred in the Arce barracks. The following year, however, the investigation was officially closed and in 2022 the Court of Assizes of Cassino acquitted the five suspects (including the Mottola family and two carabinieri involved in the murder, Vincenzo Quatrale and Francesco Suprano) due to lack of sufficient evidence. But the judges of the Court of Assizes of Rome decided to reopen the trial, accepting the request of the Attorney General who proposed to listen to the testimonies of 44 people, including witnesses and consultants, considered “indispensable” for ascertaining the truth.
Deputy prosecutors: “The Mottolas killed Serena deliberately”
“Marco, the Mottola’s son, endangered Serena’s life in an apartment where only the Mottolas could access and had the obligation to intervene”, write the deputy attorneys general Deborah Landolfi and Francesco Piantoni in their final report. Both parents and Marco himself had the obligation to provide assistance to the girl who had entered the home that only they had access to and they did not do so, indeed they wanted to hide what had happened to avoid criminal consequences to their son. But, in this case, they also decided to suffocate the girl and therefore deliberately kill her, and then make the body and every trace disappear”.
Deputy Prosecutors: “Acquittal requested for Carabiniere Quatrale, 4 years for Suprano”
Deputy Attorney Generals Deborah Landolfi and Francesco Piantoni requested acquittal for Carabiniere Vincenzo Quatrale and four years for Francesco Suprano during the closing speech of the trial, before the First Court of Assizes of Appeal of Rome, for the murder of Serena Mollicone “because the act does not constitute a crime” while for Suprano, for whom the final brief requested acquittal due to the statute of limitations, a sentence of four years for aiding and abetting is requested after the soldier decided to waive the statute of limitations. “Quatrale realized that something serious was happening and if he had gone to see it he could have reported the fact. If this had happened he too would have to answer for murder – she explained – but there is also the possibility that he did not go to check because he did not want to confront the commander and then change the service order and therefore make it appear that he and Tuzi were not in the barracks”.
