The murder of Sarah Scazzi, also known as the Delitto di Avetrana (English: Avetrana crime or Avetrana murder) was a murder which occurred on 26 August 2010, in Avetrana, in the province of Taranto, Italy. Fifteen-year-old Sarah Scazzi was strangled by her cousin Sabrina Misseri and her aunt Cosima Serrano, who then hid the body together with her father Michele Misseri, staging a kidnapping by a third party. The story had significant media coverage in Italy. It culminated with the announcement of the discovery of the victim's body live on the Rai programme Chi l'ha visto? where Sarah's mother, Concetta Serrano Spagnolo, was a special guest.
On 21 February 2017, the Supreme Court of Cassation found Sabrina Misseri and Cosima Serrano, respectively the victim's cousin and aunt, guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment for complicity in voluntary homicide aggravated by premeditation, confirming the sentence already handed down in the first instance and on appeal by the Corte d'Assise of Taranto.Con l'aggravante del legame di parentela, Michele Misseri, Sabrina's father and Cosima's husband, was sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment for suppression of a corpse and tampering with evidence (the theft of Sarah's cell phone); Carmine Misseri, Michele's brother, was sentenced to 4 years and 11 months of imprisonment for complicity in concealment of a corpse. Finally, the Court of Cassation confirmed the sentence of one year and four months for personal aiding and abetting for Vito Russo Jr., Sabrina's former lawyer, and Giuseppe Nigro.
Disappearance
On 26 August 2010, the disappearance of fifteen-year-old Sarah Scazzi (born in Busto Arsizio on 4 April 1995), a student about to begin her second year of hotel management school, was reported by her mother. The girl had left home around 2:30 pm to reach the home of her cousin Sabrina Misseri (born in Taranto on 10 February 1988), a few hundred metres away, intending to visit the seaside with her and another friend.
The disappearance received immediate media coverage.Sarah Scazzi, si teme il rapimento Liberonews.it From the beginning, the media's attention focused on Sarah's private life, analysing her habits, her secret diary and her Facebook profile, looking for possible reasons that could have led her to run away from home. She was portrayed by the media as a restless teenager, who engaged with boys much older than her on the web and was capable of planning her disappearance to become famous and escape from a small town where she was bored and felt oppressed by a mother with whom she frequently argued. Friends and relatives, however, including her cousin Sabrina, denied this image and continued to support the theory of kidnapping, despite the modest economic conditions of the family.
Initially, the Carabinieri investigations were oriented towards the girl's escape or a kidnapping by a man who had lured Sarah on Facebook.Dalla scomparsa alla verità, la tragedia di Sarah Scazzi virgilionews.it The search continued throughout September,Dalla scomparsa alla verità, la tragedia di Sarah Scazzi virgilionews.it with growing media interest seeing the mother and her family, in particular her cousin Sabrina, hosted by television programmes to launch appeals for Sarah's return home.La mamma comunica la lista dei sospetti Italianews
On 17 September 2010, Sarah's maternal grandfather, Cosimo Serrano died at the age of 89. His carer Maria Pantir decided to return to Romania, claiming she had nothing to do with the disappearance of the girl. She returned to Italy on October 6.
On 29 September, Sarah's mobile phone was discovered, half burned, in a field not far from her home. It was found by her uncle Michele Antonio Misseri (born on 22 March 1954 in Manduria) who claimed to be able to find his niece, fueling suspicions around him who, with his wife Cosima Serrano, sister of Sarah's mother, both farmers and former emigrants to Germany, had practically raised the missing girl in their home.
On 6 October, at the end of an interrogation that lasted about nine hours, Misseri confessed to the murder of his niece, claiming that he had killed her after an attempted rape, indicating to the investigators the place where he had hidden the body, a water collection well located in Contrada Mosca, in the countryside of Avetrana.
Scazzi's body was later found in that place. The discovery was communicated to the family and the public live on television by the Rai programme Chi l'ha visto?. Sarah's body was buried on 9 October at the municipal cemetery of Avetrana, next to her maternal grandmother.GALLERY: Pellegrinaggio sulla tomba - Italia - l'Unità - notizie online lavoro, recensioni, cinema, musica
Investigations
Misseri retracted his initial confession and said he had had erotic dreams about Sarah several times, until on 15 October he confirmed the investigators' suspicions about the involvement of his daughter Sabrina, stating that Sarah had died during a game that had turned into an argument.
The following day, after a six-hour interrogation, Sabrina was arrested on charges of complicity in murder.Sarah, arrestata la cugina. "Aiutò il padre ad uccidere" TG24sky.com On 21 October the Taranto decided to validate the arrest, basing it on the testimony of her friend Mariangela Spagnoletti, who reported that Misseri "appeared agitated" and kept repeating that her cousin had certainly been kidnapped and that it was necessary to immediately notify the Carabinieri. The investigations began by hypothesizing that Sabrina's motive was jealousy over the attentions her cousin Sarah was receiving from Ivano Russo, a cook from Avetrana with whom Sabrinaaccording to the Prosecutor's Officewas in love. Sarah had met Ivano a few months earlier, in December 2009, and the young chef had immediately struck up a strong friendship with the two girls. Sabrina began to show interest in him and the two, in the first days of August (probably 3 August 2010), hadas declared by Ivano himselfa sexual relationship, which he did not want to become something more.
Sarah later told others about this episode reported to her by her cousin, giving rise to gossip and slander that reached the ears of Ivano who decided, a few days before Sarah's death, to definitively break off the relationship with Sabrina. This increased the latter's hatred towards her cousin, and constituted for the prosecution the real motive for the murder, probably matured following a heated argument between the girls that took place on the evening of August 25, in a pub in the village in front of witnesses.
During the trial, however, the witnesses confirmed only that Sabrina had reprimanded Sarah, which she attributed to the fact that her cousin was publicly and expansively showing her desire for "cuddles" from Ivano and she feared that this could fuel gossip in the village.
Meanwhile, Misseri, since the autopsy on Sarah's body had not confirmed sexual violence on her corpse, retracted his initial confession, declaring that he had not abused his niece's corpse.Misseri ritratta: nessuno stupro. Fermo convalidato, Sabrina nega Adkronos 18 ottobre 2010
On 6 November, Misseri further changed his version, attributing the murder only to his daughter and declaring that he had been called by Sabrina after Sarah's death to help hide her body. Following these further investigations, the charge against Sabrina became only that of murder, while that of kidnapping was dropped.
On 26 May 2011, Cosima Serrano, Sabrina's mother, was arrested on charges of complicity in murder and kidnapping. Analysis of phone records showed that her mobile phone had made a call from the garage, where she said she had not been, a circumstance on which the Carabinieri of the ROS, during their deposition at the hearing on 27 March 2012, expressed in terms of "compatibility". Five days after the arrest, Misseri was released from prison, since the terms of the precautionary custody for the crime of suppression of a corpse had elapsed.
The main evidence against the two women was the testimony (sometimes described by the witness as a "dream") of a florist from Avetrana, Giovanni Buccolieri. Buccolieri initially said that on 26 August 2010, between 2:00 and 2:20 pm, he had seen the two women tugging at Sarah and forcing her to get into the car, and then stated that he was not sure whether the event had actually happened and that he had perhaps only dreamed or imagined it. The first and second instance judges considered his words reliable and compatible with the reconstruction of the facts.
Preliminary investigations concluded on 1 July 2011, with the indictment of 15 people for crimes ranging from complicity in murder to the suppression of a corpse, kidnapping, theft, false statements to the PM, suppression of documents, false representation, aiding and abetting and obstruction of justice.
Subsequently, Misseri reported that the accusations against his daughter were suggested to him in the evidentiary incident of 19 November 2010 by his lawyer Galoppa and by criminologist , who, in turn, denounced Misseri for the crime of slander. Misseri entrusted the defence of this trial for slander to criminal lawyer Fabrizio Gallo, in order to dismantle the accusations of the evidentiary incident. In the second degree of judgment Misseri was assisted by lawyer La Tanza and doctor Anna Maria Casale who drew up, for the first time, a personality profile of the subject.
Particularly controversial were events that occurred in the respective legal offices: the legal defence of Sabrina Misseri since December 2010 has been entrusted to Roman criminal lawyer , who entered the defence team alongside the criminal lawyers from Taranto Emilia Velletri and Vito Russo, defenders of Sabrina since her arrest but subsequently forced to renounce the mandate, pursuant to art. 5 of the Code of Forensic Ethics, as they were investigated in the same proceedings as their client. The same fate befell the defence lawyer of Michele Misseri, who was also forced to resign the mandate after being investigated in the same proceedings as his client.
In November 2011, lawyer Emilia Velletri, following an abbreviated trial, was acquitted of the charges for lack of evidence, and Russo, who had instead opted for the ordinary procedure, was acquitted in the preliminary hearing from two charges, again for lack of evidence. At the same time, the other two lawyers accused in the same trial were acquitted, following an abbreviated trial, again with the formula of lack of evidence.
Trial
The trial opened before the Corte d'Assise of Taranto on 10 January 2012, with Sabrina Misseri as the main defendant, accused of voluntary homicide, her mother Cosima accused of complicity in homicide and her father Michele accused of suppression of a corpse. The municipality of Avetrana joined the proceedings as a .Omicidio Scazzi: Comune Avetrana si costituisce parte civile AdnKronos 10 gennaio 2012 Some of Sabrina's friends were called to testify.
Russo confirmed that he had had a brief relationship with the defendant and then broke off the relationship. During his deposition, retracing the evening of the discovery of Sarah's body, he explained that he and Alessio Pisello accompanied Sabrina to the Mosca district - where her father Michele had just found Sarah's body - on her instructions, after she had spoken on the phone with her mother, who was following the developments reported live on the program Chi l'ha visto? However, it was her friend Alessio Pisello who showed her the way, since Sabrina did not know the location of said place.
On 5 December 2012, in a hearing at the Court of Assizes of Taranto, answering the questions of the lawyer of his daughter Sabrina, Michele Misseri, publicly confessed in tears to being guilty of the murder of his granddaughter. After these declarations, his lawyer resigned, suspending the trial while waiting for a new lawyer for Misseri.