PESCARA. Both seventeen years old, normal families, students in Pescara. One resident in the province with his policeman father in a local barracks; the other, in the centre, father an employee, mother a teacher and lawyer. They are the two minors accused of the murder of Christopher Thomas Luciani16 years old, from Rosciano, killed on Sunday afternoon in Baden Powell park, between Via Raffaello and the station, with 25 stab wounds.
THE WITNESS The body was discovered shortly after 9pm on Sunday, when police cars rushed to the scene Pierpaolo Varrasso, is a friend of the two arrested people who witnessed much of that hell. He too comes from a good family, he too is a student and he too, like the small group of five other friends, was present in the park on Sunday afternoon while Christopher was killed. That stop, he himself told the investigators, must have been a parenthesis because one of them had to recover a credit from Christopher of around 250 euros. A parenthesis before the afternoon at the seaside. And instead it happened as it did, even if they went swimming in the sea anyway and someone, the witness says, even mocked the victim for how she was reduced to.
SERVICE AND CRUELTY From the story, from the frames taken by the cameras of the buildings around the park and from the evidence that emerged last night from the testimonies of the other four summoned to the police station, in the end the two alleged perpetrators were arrested because, the prosecutor writes in the decree David Mancini and the substitute Angela D’Egidio, “in competition with each other”, killed Christopher Thomas Luciani “with 25 stab wounds”, “inflicting torture and operating with cruelty, by kicking and spitting while he was lying on the ground lifeless”. And they conclude: «What emerges is the absence of emotional empathy with an event of such unprecedented brutality, such as to rail against the body, going to the bathing establishment to swim in the sea, without calling for help or reporting the event to the authorities, indeed chatting with macabre irony about the event that has just happened” and with the intention, as they did, of getting rid of the knife used in the crime.
THE ALARM And so here is what the key witness says who, once he returns home, distraught, tells his father everything. And with him he returns to the park. There among the brambles, not far from where he had seen him on the ground a few hours earlier, is Christopher. He died. And faced with that lifeless boy, the parent immediately calls the police, describing the scene and adding that his son had witnessed the stabbing of that young man shortly before him. The police sent an ambulance to the scene and contacted the police station responsible for that portion of the city on Sunday evening. And from that moment, it is around 9pm, the face of a youth from Pescara that no one has the courage to recognize materializes through the news that gradually emerges. But she’s there. And she has Christopher’s face. Killed, insulted, kicked. And even mocked as he died. Here is the story of the witness in the Mobile offices before the prosecutor Gennaro Varonereached by the prosecutor Giuseppe Bellelli shortly before on site, and by the Mobile policemen of Gianluca Di Frischia.
THE APPOINTMENT «Around 4.30pm I found myself at the station with my friends. The intention was to go to the seaside but also to talk to Chistopher Luciani who owed 200-300 euros to Gianni (fictitious name ed). Gianni told Christopher that he owed him the money and they started arguing because Gianni was aggressive. We moved first towards the station silos, where Gianni got annoyed because Christopher didn’t give him the money back, so he forced him to head towards the small park on Via Raffaello in a secluded area. Gianni also signaled us to leave but me and Michele (also a fictitious name, which is the other one stopped ed) we went after him because the situation didn’t seem calm to us.”
THE KNIFE And here is the diving knife, which has not yet been found: «While Gianni was walking, already inside the park he showed us that he was holding a knife. When I reached the point of view that allowed me to see the position in which Gianni and Christopher were, I saw Christopher on the ground bleeding and I immediately realized that Gianni had stabbed him. In front of me and Michele (alleged accomplice ed), Gianni continued to slash Christopher with the knife as he continued to moan. I was astonished and didn’t have the strength to react. When Gianni and Michele and I rejoined the rest of the group, everyone knew what had happened because I, who arrived first, told them about it.”
ALL AT THE SEA But the afternoon continues as planned. «Despite what happened, we went to the sea to swim, to the Southern Cross and there Gianni got rid of the knife that he had wrapped in Michele’s blood-stained sock, leaving it behind the rocks».
DRUG It is at this point in the story that the prosecutor of the Juvenile Court Mancini is notified by the Police Headquarters and arrives at the Mobile offices with his deputy D’Egidio. And the witness adds other details. The boy explains that the debt between Gianni and the victim was presumably for drugs: «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”, because, explains the witness, “Gianni told Christopher that it had become a question of respect”.
THE GUN At that point, as already reported, they first go near the silos and then to the park and here another detail emerges: «I noticed that Michele (the other accused of the murder ed) had a small gun”, a detail that also emerged from the stories of others. “Gianni heads up the driveway with Christopher walking in front of him.” «At this point Michele and I followed them, while the others remained outside. Turning right, we see Luciani on the ground and Gianni with the knife in his hand. When we arrived Gianni continued to stab him. They said that Gianni stabbed him 15 times and Michele, who then took the knife, with a black blade, gave him ten more.” And when asked “why” by the investigators, the witness: “Because they are friends.”
“SHUT UP” The witness then talks about the gasps of the poor boy on the ground, of the two who told him to shut up, and of himself: «I was shocked, I wanted to stop them but I didn’t know how. It seemed like they were no longer thinking about it.” Then he walks away first “while they were still stabbing him”. «I told the others what had happened. Then after five minutes, first Michele and then Gianni came out and told about the stab wounds. Gianni changed his clothes, he had a change of clothes behind him in a backpack.” Then once at the seaside, Gianni goes for a bath, carrying with him a long bloody sock of Michele’s with the knife inside that he left on the rocks.” And finally: «While we were walking, I think Gianni said that this had to stay between the five of us». But the boy is shocked. He confronts another boy in the group, they agree to report the incident. And he tells his father everything. The weapon, despite searches by fire brigade divers, has not yet been found.
©ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
