The murder of Chiara Poggi

Garlasco, canal draining completed in search of the murder weapon

Searches and seizure of computer media at the homes of Andrea Sempio and his parents in Garlasco, as part of the investigation into the murder of Chiara Poggi.

14 May 2025[Aggiornato il 14 maggio 2025, ore 14:45]

Il sopralluogo degli investigatori nel corso d'acqua vicino a una casa, di interesse per le indagini del delitto di Garlasco del 2007, a Tormello, nel Pavese, 14 maggio 2025. ANSA/ FABRIZIO CASSINELLI

5' min read

Key points

Tromello municipality; "Canal cleaning was only superficial"
Andrea Sempio, 37, is under investigation as part of a new reconstruction of the murder of Chiara Poggi.
Search
Rita Poggi: "We still have fireplace tools from back then"
At Garlasco, possible murder weapon is searched in canal
Legal: "Andrea Sempio is as calm as ever"
"Between Sempio and friends phone that morning"
From Hyenas, the unedited account of the super witness

5' min read

Garlasco, canal emptying started in Tromello

The emptying of the canal that runs through the centre of Tromello, in the province of Pavia, where the search for the weapon used on the morning of 13 August 2007 to kill Chiara Poggi has been concentrated since this morning, began at 1pm. The Carabinieri are being assisted in the operations by the Pavia provincial fire brigade. It is difficult to "operate effectively," explains a technician from the Tromello municipality, "without a complete emptying: they will put up bulkheads to isolate the stretch and then empty it with water pumps.

The Tromello canal had already been dredged

The Cavo Bozzani canal, in Tromello, on which the search for the murder weapon of Chiara Poggi is focused, had already been dredged. 'I remember that they had removed the water and worked,' says the owner of a bar in nearby Via Roma, 'but maybe they had only removed the weeds from the banks'.

The last maintenance activity, they confirm in the municipality, dates back to 2017-2018, a full ten years after the Garlasco murder. This is why the chances of finding anything are slim. The investigations by the Carabinieri, in collaboration with the fire brigade, are also concentrated in Piazza IV Novembre, at another point along the canal.

In Piazza IV Novembre, the river teams of the Pavia fire brigade also went into action. Some operators wearing rubber suits went down along the canal, where there are now only a few centimetres of water, to inspect it.

Tromello municipality technician; "Canal cleaning was only superficial"

'Technically, given the muddy bottom', if Chiara Poggi's murder weapon was thrown into the canal that runs between the houses in Tromello, 'surely' it could still be there. This was said by engineer Cesare Curti, head of the technical office of the Pavia municipality.

The clean-up that the local administration did eight years ago was "superficial, the boats cut the grass, they don't touch the bottom," explains the engineer, while dredging operations are ongoing.

Garlasco, si cerca presunta arma in un canale vicino ad una casa

The searches

Searches were carried out at the home of Andrea Sempio, in Voghera (Pavia), the new suspect in the murder of Chiara Poggi, and at his parents' home, in Garlasco. The Carabinieri of the Milan Investigative Unit, coordinated by the Pavia Public Prosecutor's Office, were on site.

The searches are coordinated by Prosecutor of Pavia, Fabio Napoleone, deputy prosecutor Stefano Civardi and public prosecutor Valentina De Stefano.

Andrea Sempio, aged 37, is under investigation

Andrea Sempio, aged 37, is under investigation as part of a new reconstruction of the murder of Chiara Poggi, which took place in Garlasco (Pavia) on 13 August 2007. For the murder, the victim's ex-boyfriend, Alberto Stasi, currently on semi-release, was definitively convicted in 2015.

Searches underway since dawn today by the Carabinieri at the home of Andrea Sempio, who is under investigation by the Pavia Public Prosecutor's Office for

Delitto Garlasco, terminato interrogatorio madre Andrea Sempio

the murder of Chiara Poggi, which took place on 13 August 2007 in Garlasco (Pavia) would be aimed, among other things, at the acquisition of computer media.

According to rumours, mobile phones and PCs were confiscated. Checks are reportedly under way at the home of Andrea Sempio's parents and also of his two friends.

At Garlasco, a search is under way for a possible murder weapon in the canal

The reveals underway since this morning in Garlasco (Pavia) and Voghera (Pavia) in the Chiara Poggi murder case are expanding.

After the ongoing Carabinieri searches at the homes of Andrea Sempio, the new suspect in the Garlasco case, and his parents, now the investigators' attention is said to have shifted to Tromello, a small municipality in the Lomellina region, also in the province of Pavia. According to rumours, they are looking for a possible murder weapon, which, according to a witness, was thrown into a canal.

That would be a Poggi household poker.

Rita Poggi: 'We still have fireplace tools from back then'

"All the fireplace tools are still there". The poker 'that we had then is still there now'. Thus Rita Poggi on the search for the weapon used on the morning of 13 August 2007 to kill her daughter Chiara in their home in Garlasco

The lawyer: 'Andrea Sempio is as calm as ever'

'They are doing traditional, sweeping investigations, I don't know what they are really looking for, but Andrea Sempio is as calm as ever. I have seen a thousand searches, but if they are not targeted ... let's see what they seize and we'll understand something more'.

This was stated to Adnkronos by lawyer Massimo Lovati, defending Andrea Sempio.

New investigations after the then boyfriend Alberto Stasi was definitively sentenced to 16 years in prison for the crime.

The defence lawyer is at Sempio's parents' house: 'Here the search is still in progress. There are no computers, there are old and new phones, but let's see, they haven't seized anything so far,' he adds.

Colleague Angela Taccia, on the other hand, is in Voghera, where the Carabinieri are searching Andrea Sempio's house.

Legal counsel Poggi: 'I never worked for father Cappa twins'

The lawyer of the Poggi family, Gian Luigi Tizzoni, denies ever having worked for the Cappa twins' father, Ermanno Cappa, as published by some newspapers (not Il SOlele 24 Ore, ndr) in these hours with reference to the search for the Garlasco murder weapon that is being carried out by the Carabinieri of the Milan Investigative Unit and firefighters coordinated by the Pavia Public Prosecutor's Office in Tromello, near the old court house of the twins' family of Chiara Poggi

'I never worked for Ermanno Cappa, whom I obviously know as I know many people in that area, because at that time he didn't even have a firm, he was the in-house lawyer for a bank and I never worked in a bank,' Tizzoni told LaPresse.

"I have been an independent lawyer since 1995," he concludes, categorically denying a working relationship with the family that has returned to the centre of the murder investigation becausefor a super witness it was Stefania Cappa who disposed of the weapon on the morning of 13 August 2007.

"Between Sempio and friends call that morning"

Telephone contacts between Andrea Sempio, the suspect in the new investigation into the murder of Chiara Poggi in Garlasco in 2007, and Mattia Capra and Roberto Freddi, also friends of Chiara's brother Marco Poggi, had already emerged in the old investigation into the crime and were related to the morning of the murder of the 26-year old girl.

From what we have heard, the Carabinieri of the Milan Investigative Unit, coordinated by the Pavia Public Prosecutor's Office, re-analysed all those old data and phone records and cells.

At 9.58 a.m. on 13 August 2007 Sempio, as stated in the documents that led to his position being archived in 2017, called Mattia Capra, tapping into the Garlasco telephone cell.

A one-second conversation, i.e. the friend probably did not answer. Then, Sempio would drive his car, according to his version, towards Vigevano to go to a bookstore.

Back in Garlasco, the magistrates wrote, 'he was contacted by friends'. And Capra, in particular, sent him a message at 11.10 am.

From Hyenas, the unedited account of the super-witness

"For nine years now, Le Iene has been following the Garlasco case without ever abandoning the hypothesis that there may have been a mistake in convicting Alberto Stasi, her boyfriend at the time, as responsible for the murder of Chiara Poggi.

According to press sources, investigators are looking for a possible murder weapon, based on statements made to Le Iene by a super-witness, who reportedly referred to an object being thrown into a canal'.

Thus the Mediaset programme in a note. "The man, who broke his silence after 18 years, has decided to tell his version of what allegedly happened on the day of Chiara Poggi's murder. His full testimony, unpublished until now, and other exclusive documents, will be broadcast in the next report by Alessandro De Giuseppe and Riccardo Festinese, on air on Tuesday 20 May, in prime time, on Italia1," the programme adds.