Barletta, Michele Cilli murder: two accused arrested, glasses worn by the victim found

Barletta, Michele Cilli murder: two accused arrested, glasses worn by the victim found.

The State Police of Barletta, Andria and Trani, in the early hours of today, on the orders of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Trani and in execution of the precautionary custody measure in prison issued by the GIP of Trani, arrested SD, thirty-three years old from Barletta, believed to be the alleged perpetrator of the murder of Michele Cilli, and BCD, a contemporary of SD who, in collaboration with the latter, is believed to be the presumed perpetrator of the suppression of Michele Cilli's corpse.

These are the provisional charges challenged to the suspects by the GIP of Trani, at the request of the Public Prosecutor of Trani who directed and coordinated the investigations conducted by the Mobile Squad of the Police Headquarters of Barletta Andria Trani and by the Police Station of Barletta.

The complex and detailed investigations were triggered immediately after the relatives of Michele Cilli, a boy from Barletta who had just turned 24, on the morning of Monday 17 January 2022 had reported his disappearance to the Police Station of Barletta, reporting that they had not I had more news of the boy since the evening of the previous Saturday, when he had attended a friend's birthday party held in a lounge bar in Barletta.

From the first information acquired it emerged that Michele Cilli had been seen leaving the bar when the birthday party was still in progress, in the early hours of Sunday 16 January, in the company and on board of SD's car and that the latter had been seen go back to the bar with his own car alone and, after a very short stop aimed at taking his partner on board, without getting out of the car, he set off again at high speed.

This information, considered of extreme interest right from the start, was corroborated by further elements that were collected by the investigators with meticulous investigative work which made it possible to provide what the Trani GIP defined as "circumstantial elements as well as factual elements". , by virtue of the emergencies indicated in detail, even of a logical nature, as a combined, precise and scrupulous reading of the multiple clues collected by the investigating body, in the face of an evident climate of silence permeating the matter under examination. Nonetheless, however, the evidence collected, clearly univocal and concordant, is found to be considerable in number, but above all it proves to be convergent in focusing on today's suspects".

The investigations followed the double track of the search for Michele Cilli's body, which also took place through specialized units of the State Police (dog lovers, divers, drones), and of the search for suitable elements to reconstruct the dynamics of the facts, which took place through a complex analysis of the images recorded by the numerous video surveillance systems present in the targeted area, as well as of the telephone and telematic records and of the GPS tracks of some cars of investigative interest, which made it possible to ascertain the progress of events and the conduct of some specific subjects.

In short, a painstaking reconstruction that can be summarized in the following terms: in the evening between 15 and 16 January, SD, after having dinner in the company of other people in a restaurant in Barletta, went to a bar where he met Michele Cilli, with whom he left at 01:38, driving his own car; along the direction of the Pietro Mennea seafront, the car driven by SD, with Michele Cilli on board, was resumed entering a garage located in a condominium complex in Barletta, where about half an hour remained 'Now; at approximately 01am, the same car left the garage to park near nearby houses where it remained for a few minutes, and then set off again with only the SD on board and arrive at 40:02 in the vicinity of the bar, where there was just enough time to get on board people who were already in the company of the S. when he had previously arrived at the bar.

The car driven by the suspect will then return to the latter's home after approximately two hours. The parking of SD's car in the garage and, afterwards, for a few minutes, near some houses, did not escape the attention of the investigators who, by examining this new piece which was added to the others, managed to understand the reason for this short stop of the car following the longer one inside the garage. In fact, near those homes, after a short while a tall, slender man came out and, running, headed towards the condominium complex where the garage is located, entering and staying for a few minutes before leaving and, still running, he was caught head towards your home from where, after a short while, a car came out.

By following the route of this car it was possible to ascertain that the car in question went to a nearby service station where the same tall and slender man mentioned above, who was driving the car, filled a tank of petrol to then go inside the garage where SD had been. The man in question was identified by the investigators as the suspect BCD, who in carrying out the actions accused of him was wearing tracksuit trousers and a pair of shoes which are believed to be those found by the investigators in the Fiumara area of ​​Barletta on the following 21st January, following the lead of another subject which will be discussed shortly.

The discovery of these clothes, in the following days, will be followed by another fact - this too did not escape the notice of the policemen of the Flying Squad and the Barletta police station -, namely, the report of theft of the car used by B. on the night of January 16th. It was precisely by following the route of this car that the police arrived in one of the countryside districts of Barletta, where on the afternoon of January 31st they found the glasses which are believed with reasonable certainty to be those of Michele Cilli. BCD will return to the same district on the morning of January 16, a few hours after the events that occurred during the night of that same day. These elements are contested against BCD who, in addition to being investigated for aiding and abetting, was subjected to precautionary custody in prison because, in collaboration with SD, he suppressed the body of Michele Cilli.

The discovery of the clothes in the Fiumara area - as well as that of the glasses - was a very important moment in the investigation, which was achieved not by chance, but by following a different car - compared to the one used on the night of 16 January - of SD, in the circumstance led by another man who came into the sights of investigators from the first days. In fact, from the beginning of the investigations it was established that SD left Barletta on the morning of January 16th to return there on the following January 17th, the day on which he gave one of his cars to a man who, driving it, was going to the Fiumara area, stopping at a point near the reed beds on the banks of the Ofanto, where an envelope was found stuck with clothes and shoes inside which are believed to be those worn by B..

The man in question is the same one in whose availability the policemen of the Flying Squad and the Barletta PS police station found the car driven by S. on the night of the murder. Subjected to seizure, scientific police activities were carried out on this car by the Interregional Scientific Police Cabinet for Puglia and Basilicata which found hair formations inside, alleged vegetal and biological substances and, above all, blood substances on the horn and in other points of the passenger compartment. On the day the investigations began, SD had wounds on both hands for which justifications were provided which were considered by the investigating judge to be a "false alibi". Therefore, on the basis of the elements submitted by the Public Prosecutor, the GIP accepted the request for precautionary custody in prison against SD, investigated for the murder of Michele Cilli.