Garlasco: Sempio diaries name Giovanni Ferri as Pavia reopens his 2010 death as homicide

The 2010 death and the reopened file

Giovanni Ferri, an 88-year-old retired mechanic, was found dead on 22 November 2010 in a narrow crawlspace in via Mulino, Garlasco. Investigators at the time treated the death as a suicide. The Pavia prosecutor's office has now opened a new file into the death, with a homicide hypothesis against unknown persons. The file followed a request from the lawyer Fabrizio Gallo, who represents Ferri's widow. Gallo has also announced a three-dimensional reconstruction of Ferri's last moments, intended to show that the death was a homicide and not a suicide. The family argues that the first inquiry was not carried out properly.

What the diary pages contain

Mattino 5, the Canale 5 programme, broadcast on 2 November pages from diaries that investigators seized on 14 May 2025 at Voghera, where Andrea Sempio lived at the time. Sempio is under investigation by the Pavia prosecutors over the 2007 killing in Garlasco. The handwritten, block-capital notes place Ferri's name beside the words "Ale/Ferri" and a set of phrases whose meaning is unclear. One line reads "Ale sì, io aiutato", which the programme read as "I helped", an interpretation Il Messaggero stressed is not established. Another entry asks whether people knew "the Poggi version" and mentions suicides among Sempio's acquaintances. A further line, "parla a Lov", is linked by Il Giornale and Open to the lawyer Massimo Lovati, Sempio's defence lawyer in the 2017 inquiry.

Forensic tests and the 2010 scene

Prosecutors have ordered genetic analyses on the knife handle and on bloodied tissues found beside the body, a step reported in late October. Fanpage reviewed the 2010 documents and reports that the body was holding a kitchen knife in its left hand. The knife and its bloodied sheath were seized and handed to the judicial authorities at the time. The first carabinieri at the scene reportedly saw a substantial bloodstain in the crawlspace and waited for an operational unit from Vigevano before entering. The then procurator, Alfonso Lauro, was informed that afternoon and ordered the body moved to the forensic institute in Pavia for autopsy.

What comes next

Gallo intends to ask the prosecutor leading the new inquiry to question Sempio, so that he can explain what he meant by the phrases he wrote in block capitals. Mattino 5 said investigators had already examined the diaries and had included this page among the documents they considered of interest. Il Messaggero reported that there are currently no concrete elements of Sempio's guilt in the Garlasco killing or in any other case. The new file is open against unknown persons, so no suspect has been named in it.