Murder of Pierina Paganelli in Rimini
July 3, 2024
06:31
Davide Barzan, criminalist and consultant for Manuela Bianchi, Pierina Paganelli’s daughter-in-law, killed with 29 stab wounds in October in via del Ciclamino in Rimini: “I don’t think Louis Dassilva was in love with Manuela because he chose to stay with his wife. In our opinion, Pierina’s killer should be sought in the relationships of both Pierina and her son Giuliano, Manuela’s husband. Here’s why.”
From left: Manuela Bianchi and Pierina Paganelli.
“We believe in the extraneousness of the facts of Louisas well as obviously Manuelawho is the injured party identified as such by the prosecutor in charge, and her brother Loris. We reiterate that Pierina’s killer should be sought in the network of relationships of the victim and her son Julian Soaps, because it is likely that the accident in which he was involved a few months before the crime cannot be defined as such”.
He’s talking Davide Barzan criminalist and consultant of the Barzan firm who assists Manuela Banks, daughter-in-law of Pierina Paganellithe 78-year-old stabbed to death last October 3 in the garage of the complex of via del Ciclamino in Rimini, where she lived. After 8 months of investigations, in the last few weeks he was entered in the register of suspects for the murder Louis Dassilva, the victim’s neighbor, with whom Manuela had a extramarital affair. The woman, together with her brother Loris, and Louis’ wife, Valeriahas long been under the magnifying glass of investigators, but is now considered an injured party. For her legal team, she, with her brother Loris, is innocent, as is Louis.
Barzan, on July 11th the famous unrepeatable investigations will be carried out following the registration of Louis in the register of suspects. What do you expect?
Pierina Paganelli, fight between the victim’s daughter-in-law and the suspect’s wife in the crime scene building
“The unrepeatable tests will be decisive for the purpose of solving the mystery. The technical expert, Professor Giardina, in the hearing held on June 28 before the investigating judge, Doctor Cantarini, asked, in the event that biological traces other than those attributable to the suspect were extrapolated, to compare them with those of third parties who may have come into contact with the victim and also present in the database. The public prosecutor, Doctor Paci, asked to decide at the end of the expert assessment if this was the case. The judge reserved the right to abstain from the assessment at the end of the expert assessment. This means that on the timing and method of depositing biological traces, DNA says who but not when a blood trace was deposited.
The repeatable tests will begin on July 11 at 2:00 p.m. at the laboratory of the University of Tor Vergata in Rome. General Luciano Garofano and I will participate for Manuela. The traces found on Pierina’s body will be analyzed and not only that, since they have extended the tests to the contents of the handbag, as well as the handles, and all the clothes. I believe that they will give a negative result”.
In the past few weeks, you had asked for a mass test among the residents of Via Ciclamino because for your team the murderer is not to be found in the victim’s family sphere. Are you still of the same opinion?
“Our thesis has always been the same: more people than Manuela and Louis were present at the crime scene. But the investigation in the first phase was characterized by a prejudice due to the extramarital frequentation of Manuela and Louis which led the investigators to focus only on the third floor of via del Ciclamino. We have always believed the total extraneousness to the facts of Dassilva, as well as Manuela, identified as the injured party by the public prosecutor. It also seems that the available evidence is not very conclusive otherwise the prosecutor would have requested a precautionary measure. For this reason it was important for us to widen the circle, because we believe that Louis is still unconnected to the facts. In our opinion, Pierina’s killer should be sought in the relationships of both Pierina and her son Giuliano, Manuela’s husband, because it is likely that the accident in which Giuliano was involved a few months before the crime cannot be defined as such. In our opinion the two events are strictly connected among them”.
In the last few days, the possibility that Manuela could be heard again in the Prosecutor’s Office has leaked out. Do you have any news?
“At the moment we have no evidence, she has always collaborated with the prosecutor and remains at the complete disposal of the investigations. The friends were probably questioned about the relationship with Louis but we do not have a discovery of the documents, it’s all classified. We don’t even know what the evidence is against Louis, we’re still thinking of the 7:30 pm camera and the 10:20 pm camera in the pharmacy, but there wasn’t a clear evidentiary framework, highlighting in our opinion a very weak possible motive. If the investigations give a negative result, we’ll start over from the beginning with the investigations”.
What do you think of the relationship between Louis and Manuela?
“I don’t think Louis was in love of Manuela because she chose to stay with her wife. Manuela is an injured person, she is beyond any reasonable doubt of guilt at the moment. At first I assisted both Manuela and Louis and Valeria. I put them in front of a table with Loris and asked them to tell me if Pierina’s murderer was there. The answer was negative. Their stories have always been linear and never contradictory, for this reason I believe in their lack of involvement in the facts”.
