Proceedings have been opened by the Taranto Public Prosecutor’s Office, against person or persons unknown, for incitement to suicide following the death of Petrino Vanacore, the former caretaker of the building in Via Poma, Rome where Simonetta Cesaroni was murdered in 1990. The body of Vanacore was found at 12 noon on 9th March, floating in the sea near Torre Ovo, close to Torricella.

The proceedings of incitement to suicide are principally a legal mechanism to provide grounds for the performance of an autopsy. However, the possibility of criminal intent is not entirely without foundation given that doubt exists about whether Vanacore could have drowned unaided in such shallow water.

His body was found floating face down in the water, five meters from the beach, with one ankle tied to a tree with a rope. The autopsy will seek to shed light on the mechanism of his death.

The prosecutor has also commissioned a forensic examination of the contents of a half-empty bottle, found in the dead man’s car which was parked just a few meters from where his body was recovered.

The suspected suicide of Vanacore, the former Via Poma caretaker, means one less “useful witness” in the still unsolved murder of Simonetta Cesaroni, noted Luciano Garofano, former police colonel with the Parma Police Forensic Department. Garafono investigated the Via Poma murder in 2004, at which time Cesaroni’s ex-boyfriend, Raniero Busco, first surfaced as a suspect. "Vanacore could certainly have been useful to the investigation. Now his wife’s testimony becomes relevant" continued Garofano