Pietracatella ricin deaths: 140 times lethal dose found, accidental ingestion unlikely

Autopsy findings and the ricin hypothesis

Sources close to the investigation said autopsies found ricin in the victims' biological samples at up to 140 times the minimum lethal dose. That quantity, they said, makes accidental ingestion unlikely, a theory that had resurfaced the day before. The two victims, a 50-year-old woman and her 15-year-old daughter, died between 27 and 28 December 2025 in Pietracatella, in the province of Campobasso, after ricin poisoning.

The pathologist who performed the autopsy, Benedetta De Luca, said the cause of death was certain but the examination could not establish how the poison entered the body.

“The cause of death is certainly ricin poisoning, but the autopsy cannot determine what happened, namely accidental ingestion or administration by third parties.”

Speaking to the local broadcaster Telemolise, De Luca said no food residue was found in the stomachs, only blood, because both victims had vomited repeatedly before dying. She did not rule out accidental ingestion of ricin seeds, though the scale of the poison found now weighs against that explanation.

Questioning and the school inquiry

Investigators from the Squadra Mobile in Campobasso, led by Marco Graziano, questioned a laboratory technician at the questura on Saturday, 14 November, from about 11.00 until after 12.20. The man is the husband of a teacher who is an old friend of the husband of one victim and father of the other. He works at the Istituto Agrario di Riccia, one of four schools police searched in the weeks before. He was heard as a person informed of the facts, and the content of his statement has not been disclosed. Further interviews of people with knowledge of the facts are set for the following week.

On Wednesday, 11 November, classmates and teachers of the 15-year-old girl were questioned about her contacts at school and whether she had confided in anyone. That line of inquiry started after police found two detective novels in the family home, which belonged to the girl and dealt with murders. On 13 October, prosecutors in Larino ordered checks on the central computer system of the Riccia school, which has 71 computers, looking for online searches on ricin, the castor plant and anonymous browsing tools such as Tor. Whether those checks produced anything relevant has not been made public.

Berlin examination and what comes next

The Robert Koch Institute asked for Italian police to attend, because its experts feared analysis could damage or erase traces of forensic value. In a note to the Larino prosecutor, Elvira Antonelli, the institute also requested more time to finish its checks for ricin. The five items at issue are a pink bag holding kefir found on the stairs, a rubbish bin, a water bottle found on the floor between the bedside table and the bed, a bottle with yellowish liquid and sediment, and a pack of work gloves.

Items seized from the house131

Items not yet tested for ricin in Berlin5

Items seized from the house

131 items

Items not yet tested for ricin in Berlin

5 items

Data from the article text

The Squadra Mobile and the Scientific Police from Campobasso will travel to Berlin on Thursday, 19 November, to collect latent fingerprints and biological traces, working with German police. Prosecutors ordered the operations to be video recorded and the reports filed within five days. The parties, including the doctors under investigation and consultants for the families, have been notified and may attend. Ricin results from Germany are not expected before the end of the year. Nearly eleven months after the deaths, investigators are waiting for this scientific data before choosing a definitive line of inquiry, possibly with names entered in the register of suspects.