Yara Gambirasio (Chiara Bono), a 13 year old girl, was walking home one night in 2010 from a sports center very close to her home when she disappeared. The case, based on a real crime, took years to resolve and was built on DNA evidence. This review contains spoilers.
Yara is a no-frills retelling of how the case went from the point of view of the prosecutor, Letizia Ruggeri (Isabella Ragonese), who devoted years to finding a suspect. It’s well paced and full of tension as she relentlessly searches for a clue or a lead.
Yara’s body was found in a field by a man flying a model plane. It had lain there for a month and was badly decomposed. The police found DNA in her underwear and undergarments as well as some iron filings on her clothing. That was the only evidence they had to go on at first.
They had DNA but nothing to compare it to. No DNA database. Seemingly with a snap of her fingers, Letizia Rugeri ordered a massive DNA collection campaign to set up a database. The film glossed over the details of how this was approved, but eventually people lined up willingly and had their DNA taken.
The unique thing about this true crime story, then, is that it marks the beginning of the Italian police establishing a DNA database for crime solving.
One of those tested was a brother of the person they sought. His mother was not the mother, however. She swore her husband had no other children. He did, in fact, have a children with another woman. Eventually the DNA search results turned up the mother.
By now it was years into the case. But they had a suspect at last. His name was Massimo Rossetti (Roberto Zibetti). His DNA was a 100% match. They were able to use his cell phone records to show he’d been in the area at the time of the girl’s disappearance. His work was proven to produce iron filings that could be transferred to clothing.
He was sentenced to life in prison, but the case was not without controversy. He appealed several times, and each time his appeals were denied.
As an American watching this, I was amazed at the seemingly easy way the police gained permission to do widespread DNA testing. The film covered several years and only included the highlights, but I would have liked to know more about how that worked.
This interesting true crime story is available on Netflix.