In Italy, the wife and 15-year-old daughter of a former mayor died after Christmas dinner. The initial suspicion was of food poisoning, but investigation confirmed ‘ricin’ poison. The police are investigating it as a double murder.
Pietracatella: A surprising case has come to light from Italy. Here the wife and daughter of a former mayor died after Christmas dinner. What was initially thought to be food poisoning actually turned out to be a double murder. Investigation revealed that both of them were given a dangerous poison named ‘Risin’. The police have now registered a case of murder and started investigation.
This incident took place in Pietracatella city of Italy. Last December there was a Christmas party at the house of former mayor Gianni De Vita. After this dinner on 23 December, the health of his wife Antonella De Gelsi and daughter Sara De Vita began to deteriorate. They thought food poisoning was caused by eating mushrooms or fish. After initial treatment, he was also discharged from the hospital.
But on December 24, the condition of both of them deteriorated again. Within a few hours, 50-year-old mother Antonella and 15-year-old daughter Sara both died. After this, when the postmortem was done, nothing unusual was found in it. The matter was almost closed. But later, advanced tests conducted in Switzerland and Italy revealed the presence of poison in the blood of both of them. This poison was ‘ricin’ extracted from castor seeds, which is extremely dangerous. After this revelation, the police considered it a murder and started a fresh investigation.
Former mayor Gianni De Vita also fell ill in this incident, but 55-year-old Gianni completely recovered after treatment. The couple also has another 19-year-old daughter, who was not present at the dinner that night, so she escaped unharmed. Gianni De Vita is the former mayor of Pietracatella as well as a senior leader and treasurer of the Democratic Party.
The police is now investigating from this angle whether anyone in the family had any enmity between the mother and daughter. Additionally, an investigation has also been initiated against five health experts for negligence in the initial postmortem. Pharma experts say that ricin is one of the most poisonous substances in the world. Only 14 mg of ricin is enough to kill a person weighing 70 kg.