“I still have some photos of Ciccio and Tore at home, they are clearly visible in the living room. When I see them they seem to smile at me, as if they wanted to thank me for what we are doing“. Talking is Rosa Carlucci, the mother of Francesco and Salvatore Pappalardi, the two little brothers aged 11 and 13 who were found lifeless in the well of the “house of a hundred rooms” in Gravina di Puglia on 25 February 2008, after being lost for 20 months. Last Friday, together with the lawyer Giovanni Ladisi and the latter’s consultant, Rocco Silletti, the woman filed the request for the reopening of the investigations with the prosecutor’s office in Bari. “I want the truth”he says in an interview with Corriere della Sera.
“Someone saw Ciccio and Tore fall”
Rosa has been asking for fourteen years justice for the death (never fully clarified) of his two sons, Ciccio and Tore. She is sure of it: “FThey were forced to go there (in the house of a hundred rooms, ed.) by someone who saw them fall and didn’t call for help, we are convinced of this”. A belief that has matured over time, after reading and rereading “the investigation papers“. “It is clear that many knew what had happened, – he declares –but no one ever said anything to avoid trouble. If help had been called immediately, at least Salvatore could have been saved. As happened in 2008 to Michelino”. The woman is referring to Michele Dinardo, the 12-year-old who fell into the cistern of the abandoned ruin while playing with some friends. The timely arrival of help avoided the worst and on that occasion the bodies of the Pappalardi brothers were found.
The request to reopen the investigation
Investigators at the time concluded that Ciccio and Tore died after accidentally falling into the well the same evening disappearanceJune 5, 2006.”Based on our investigations we believe that they were in that ruin between 11.30pm and midnight, and not at 8pm as claimed in the investigations at the time. – explains the mother of the two little brothers – But they would never have stayed out late, and above all they would not have done it alone.” Then there is that bottle of tranquilizer found next to the bodies “ignored in past years but attributable to contexts close to their daily lives”.
“I want justice”
It is not the first time that Rosa Carlucci has asked for the investigations to be reopened. To date none instance was never accepted: “I can’t give up“, he says. Then the mind returns to Ciccio and Tore, to that premature death that broke their dreams: “Salvatore was a great history enthusiast, ever since my father, a veteran of the Second World War, told him about his experience in Russia. – concludes the woman – He had excellent grades and I think he would have been a teacher. Francesco, however, often helped his father in a workshop.
In high school he would have been a mechanical expert, it was already decided”.
