The Yara Gambirasio Case: The Story of the Murder, Step By Step

A new docuseries about The Yara Gambirasio Case is coming to Netflix. It’s called “The Yara Case: Beyond Any Reasonable Doubt” and is developed and directed by Gianluca Neri, written by Carlo G. Gabardini, Gianluca Neri, and Elena Grillone, and produced by Quarantadue. The docuseries reconstructs the investigation into the girl’s disappearance, which culminates with the arrest of Massimo Bossetti. The long investigative and judicial process reveals the truth about some of the Bossetti family’s family ties, shedding light on intricate and often controversial details about the investigation. Through testimonies, reconstructions, exclusive interviews (including one with Bossetti himself and his wife Marita), and unpublished materials, the events related to the case, the accusations of misdirection, and suspicions about the investigative methods are explored. Will the vast media coverage and political pressure allow a trial that ends with a verdict beyond any reasonable doubt?

The documentation work began as early as 2017 (almost four years before the release of SanPa: Sins of the Savior), and the authors began to outline the structure of the docuseries in 2021. To create the docuseries, a rigorous and in-depth study was carried out of all 60 folders (60,000 pages, in addition to hundreds of gigabytes of images, audio, and video) of the documents that make up the investigation. A total of thousands of hours of video material was viewed, which was then synthesized into 118 minutes of findings, recovered from twenty different archives, and integrated as a fundamental part of the story.

The Yara Gambirasio Case: The Main Stages of the Murder of Yara Gambirasio

November 26, 2010: The Disappearance

The Yara Gambirasio case began on November 26, 2010, when the disappearance of a 13-year-old girl from Brembate di Sopra, in the province of Bergamo, was announced. After going to her town’s sports center for rhythmic gymnastics training, she disappeared. It was after 6:30 p.m. when Yara disappeared, and so did the signal from her cell phone, which, shortly after her disappearance, had been connected to the cell of several locations a few kilometers from Brembate di Sopra.

December 5, 2010: Mohammed Fikri investigated

It was December 5th when the Moroccan worker Mohammed Fikri, 22, from the construction site in Mapello where the dogs had found the last trace of Yara, was stopped on a ship headed to Tangier. The boy had been investigated for a telephone interception that later turned out to be unfounded and the charges against him were dropped.

February 26, 2011: Yara’s body found

On February 26, 2011, Yara’s body was found three months after her disappearance by a model airplane enthusiast in a field in Chignolo d’Isola, a town 10 km from Brembate di Sopra. Several blows from a crowbar, head trauma, a wound to the neck, and six stab wounds were found on the body. There were no signs of rape on the body and it was assumed that death occurred following the attack.

May 28, 2011: Yara’s funeral in the sports center where she trained

The funeral of the young Yara was held on May 28th in the sports centre where the girl studied rhythmic gymnastics in the presence of thousands of people and during which the message of the President of the Republic was read.

June 16, 2014: Massimo Bossetti arrested

In June 2014, Massimo Giuseppe Bossetti, the 44-year-old bricklayer whose DNA matched that of the man defined as “unknown 1” who had been found on the girl’s underwear in the very area that had been hit by the gun, was arrested.

The man’s DNA was taken during a traffic check, through a breathalyzer. This is how the prosecution identifies Bossetti as “unknown 1” thanks to genetic evidence. Another element in favor of the prosecution is that the street cameras of the gym where Yara trained had filmed him driving his van through that area several times. Bossetti, however, declares himself innocent.

October 12, 2018: Bossetti sentenced to life in prison

It was only in 2018 that Massimo Bossetti was officially sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Yara Gambirasio.

The motive and how the murder happened

The motive for this murder is identified as “sexual advances” but the dynamics of how it happened are still unknown. It has never been clarified whether Yara got into Bossetti’s van voluntarily or not.

Roberto Saviano and the cocaine trafficking and organized crime trail

Roberto Saviano in his book ZeroZeroZero, which later became a TV series, spoke of possible links between the murder of Yara Gambirasio and organized crime linked to cocaine trafficking. Saviano declared that Yara’s father, the surveyor Fulvio Gambirasio, worked in 2011 in a construction company that was managed by Patrizio Locatelli, the son of the entrepreneur Pasquale Claudio who was involved in drug trafficking with the Camorra. Saviano claims that Yara’s father had been a witness in a trial against the Locatelli family and would have been avenged for this with the murder.