The Yara Gambirasio Case: Beyond Reasonable Doubt

Everyone is proud of their children. I think you all are.

YARA'S FATHER RECORDING OF COURT PROCEEDINGS

Yara was a cheerful girl.

She'd constantly wear a huge smile on her face ,

with her teeth covered by her braces.

Yara's family is a very ordinary one.

A middle-class family from Brembate di Sopra,

a suburban area where everyone knows each other.

Her father is a construction surveyor,

and her mother is a kindergarten teacher with four children.

They are a religious family

and they are very fond of their routine.

Yara's life was about four things.

School, home, her siblings, her passion for rhythmic gymnastics.

The winner of the regional championship for rope and ball is Yara Gambirasio.

Yara wanted to be a rhythmic gymnastics champion.

A little girl who would bend over backwards

to go to the gym, or see a friend whenever she could.

Sometimes she happened to attend modern dance classes...

YARA'S MOTHER RECORDING OF COURT PROCEEDINGS

...because she wanted to hang out with her friends at the gym.

She had just blossomed, and was obviously going about life

like all girls at her age,

but she still had the appearance of a child.

She was our mascot.

She was the glue that held everyone together, because she was special.

She would play with Gioele, who was four.

She would entertain Nathan, who was nine,

and she would also challenge her sister Keba, who was two years older.

She was the heart and soul of our family, really.

16 JUNE 2014 SERIATE

Breaking news. At 6:10 p.m. today, Massimo Giuseppe Bossetti

was arrested for the murder of Yara Gambirasio.

He's trying to run!

A 43-year-old builder, father of three,

everyone calls him "a good man."

Watch out, he's on the run. Come on!

...identified through his DNA.

He went that way! Over there!

...arrested on suspicion of murdering the girl.

-How do you get down? -Down here.

After lengthy, inconclusive investigations,

a DNA match has been found.

Investigators are now claiming the case is closed.

Come on. Come here. Put your foot here.

He is accused of kidnapping, torturing and killing Yara Gambirasio.

You have a van, right? Where are the keys? Check if he has the keys.

Tasso. Get his documents.

Moving on to the murder of Yara Gambirasio.

The prosecutor claims the puzzle is almost complete.

Make way.

LETIZIA RUGGERI PROSECUTOR

PROSECUTOR RECORDING FROM THE INVESTIGATION FILES

You read the measure we enacted against you.

We are charging you with the murder of Yara Gambirasio.

There was a large amount of DNA on the girl's underwear and pants.

The DNA matches yours, Mr. Bossetti.

-Are you Massimo Bossetti? -Yes, I am.

Please, follow us.

A great result thanks to the cooperation

of Italian police forces and the prosecutor's office.

The resulting scenario is straightforward. The DNA is in a bad place.

COLONEL OF CARABINIERI RECORDING FROM THE INVESTIGATION FILES

We've been looking for you for three years.

This is absolutely no joke.

Your DNA is on the victim's underwear.

Yara was dying and you were there. Got it? Your DNA was.

Can we take a break?

The prosecutor Letizia Ruggeri went through all the steps

of an "insane and very tiring investigation."

HOME SECRETARY

This proves that in our country,

if you kill someone, if you commit a crime, you go to prison.

I've been convinced since the beginning that, step by step,

we were patiently assembling a big puzzle...

PUBLIC PROSECUTOR

...by adding one piece at a time.

I can now confirm that the puzzle is almost complete.

I'm saying "almost," because we are still looking for more evidence.

Bastard!

Fucking bastard.

Where are you? Fuck!

Bastard!

Where are you? Son of a bitch!

Now, please tell me whether you intend to respond to the charges

or whether you intend to invoke the right to remain silent.

Tell me what you want to do.

I invoke the right to remain silent.

Are you sure? Do you want to think about it?

I've already thought about it.

Fucking bastard! Where are you? Bastard!

BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT

26 NOVEMBER 2010 BREMBATE DI SOPRA

4 YEARS BEFORE THE ARREST

THE NIGHT OF YARA'S DISAPPEARANCE

On the evening of November 26th , 2010, in Brembate di Sopra,

Yara Gambirasio left her home on Via Rampinelli to go to the gym,

which is about 800 meters away.

While I was in the kitchen with the other kids,

she grabbed her stereo and asked for a plastic bag to put it in.

So I joked, "Do you think anyone cares that you walk around with a boombox?"

That was it, she said goodbye.

She put her gloves on and left.

She arrived with her boombox around 5:30 p.m.

YARA'S GYMNASTICS TEAMMATES RECORDING OF COURT PROCEEDINGS

After putting down her stereo,

she sat down with the younger girls who were doing their workout.

She stayed for about an hour.

She left at around 6:30 p.m.

She looked at me and waved goodbye.

She walked towards a door

that you cannot see from the training area.

So I didn't actually see her leave.

Until about 6:50 p.m., she exchanged text messages with Martina Dolci.

WHAT TIME ARE WE MEETING AT THE COMPETITION ON SUNDAY?

WE HAVE TO BE THERE BY 8.

OKAY. THANKS. BYE.

Since she hadn't come back by 7 p.m., I tried to call her.

She would call for the silliest reason.

"Sorry, Mom, I'll stay five minutes."

"I'll stay half an hour longer to watch the dancers."

She would constantly let us know her whereabouts.

The first time I dialed her number, it rang three or four times,

then it went to voicemail.

It was about 7:20 p.m.

Maura said, "She's not here yet. She's gonna be in trouble."

She was indeed running late.

That's when Keba came up to me and said, "What if something happened to her?"

And I said, "No. She's probably watching the dance class."

Around 7:55 p.m., Maura went to the gym to check,

because it was unusual for her to be so late.

Maura called me and said, "There's no one here. Yara isn't here."

I drove around the area surrounding the sports center

and checked all the streets behind the building.

Then I ran down to the Carabinieri and said,

"I'm here to report a missing person. Something really bad happened."

Vodafone voicemail service. This is the voicemail service for...

Yara.

A 13-year-old girl has disappeared in Brembate, in the Bergamo area.

She is a young and promising rhythmic gymnast.

The girl may have left her hometown.

An investigation has started.

Kidnapping is not the only hypothesis.

"It's not a crazy stunt," says her mother desperately.

As the hours go by, the situation becomes more and more worrying.

Letizia Ruggeri, from the Bergamo prosecutor's office,

took on the case by chance...

JOURNALIST - ECO DI BERGAMO

...simply because she was on duty on that particular day.

That morning, Yara Gambirasio's missing person case landed on her desk.

The chief of police from Bergamo

and Colonel Roberto Tortorella from Carabinieri

paid a visit to the girl's parents.

I thought she was at a friend's.

LOCAL CHIEF OF CARABINIERI

The cell phone was turned off. After all, she was 13.

So I said to the captain and to my men,

"Let's crack on with the search, and let's see. Go on patrol, ask around."

I meant it in a very informal way, because we weren't thinking the worst yet.

Investigators are doing their job,

because 90% of people who abandon their families

do so after fights or teenage sweetheart issues.

It wasn't a romantic escapade, I'm sure of it.

YARA'S TEACHER RECORDING FROM THE INVESTIGATION FILES

Yara's still a child who hasn't discovered romance and all the rest of it.

Obviously, we didn't know whether Yara's parents

had told the truth about what happened.

So we also tapped the home of the Gambirasio family.

They investigated every aspect of our lives,

and, as I told them from the very beginning, they found nothing.

They asked, "Any acquaintances?"

I'm like, "Yara's life was the gym and her siblings."

Time is passing, and it's not an escapade.

Where would she go in the cold and without any money?

She left the purse with her pocket money here.

She'd walk down that road all the time. Friday wasn't a training day.

She just brought the stereo.

I was the one who told her,

"Finish your homework and bring it over,

so it'll be there on Sunday for the competition."

If I hadn't told her, she'd be here.

As the hours went by,

we realized something wasn't right.

I want her home, at all costs.

The search for Yara Gambirasio resumed at the crack of dawn.

The 13-year-old from Brembate, near Bergamo...

...has been missing since Friday without a reason.

Since morning, more than 500 men from all over the area have been searching.

The searching operation started

from the operational base,

that is the sports center where Yara Gambirasio was last seen.

She was wearing black leggings, a Freddy T-shirt,

a black sweatshirt with a Hello Kitty logo on the back,

a black jacket on top, and black glittery gloves.

The sports center from which Yara mysteriously disappeared

is in a very busy area.

The sports center is brand-new.

There's a swimming pool and an indoor arena.

Many athletes come and go,

plus the center is located on a very busy road, with heavy traffic.