Garlasco Murder: Andrea Sempio Speaks Out: "This Is Where I Was on August 13th"

In the judicial labyrinth of the Garlasco crime, one figure remained in the background for years: Andrea Sempio, a friend of Chiara Poggi's brother and a neighbor of the victim's family.

His name has resurfaced several times in court documents, defense investigations, and media coverage, especially after the release of photos showing him in front of the house on Via Pascoli on August 13, 2007, the day of the murder.

Those images, at the center of controversy and counter-investigations, have been interpreted in contrasting ways: for some, a mere random fragment of that investigative chaos, for others a piece of the puzzle that needs clarification in the chronology of that bloody morning. Now, Sempio himself has broken the silence, offering his reconstruction of those hours before the cameras.

The story on TV: August 13th according to Sempio

Interviewed on the Canale 5 program "Dentro la Notizia," Sempio recounted the day of Chiara Poggi's murder, attempting to pinpoint his travels and schedule. According to his account, that morning he went to Vigevano to run some errands, and then returned home.

Later, together with his father, he reached his grandmother's house, which is located in the same area as the Poggis' house, a few hundred meters away along the main road.

The key sentence, from an investigative perspective, is precisely the one about distance: Sempio emphasizes that his grandmother's house and the Poggis' house are separated by only two cross streets, about 300 meters. This detail places the witness very close to the crime scene at the time the murder took place.

The ambulances, the police and the first voices

It was while leaving his grandmother's house, Sempio recounts, that the events of those hours dovetailed directly with the now-famous images of the rescue operation on Via Pascoli. In the car driven by their father, the two apparently drove along the road that runs alongside the Poggi family's house, encountering the first coming and going of emergency vehicles.

In his story, Sempio says he saw ambulances and Carabinieri already lined up in front of the house, a sign that the rescue and initial investigations were already underway at that moment.

A few hours later, he adds, he passed through the area again: the road was then blocked, with vehicles stopped and access blocked. It was at this point that the first rumors began to circulate among those present and residents: there was talk of a "girl found dead in her home."

This passage coincides with what we know from the chronicles of the time: the progressive transformation of a generic "illness" in the Poggi home into the certainty, matured by the investigators, that they were facing a brutal murder.

The photos in front of the villa and the timetable issue

Sempio's words come as his defense team hopes for the emergence of new images that could place him in Vigevano at key moments that morning, thus strengthening his alibi. On the other hand, the photographs showing him near the Poggi house remain.

The crux of the matter has always been temporal: at what exact time were those photos taken? Do they coincide with the passage described by Sempio while he was returning from his grandmother's house with his father? Or do they occur in a more critical time window than the moment when, according to the investigators' reconstruction, Chiara was killed?

On this point, the television statements don't resolve all the doubts. Sempio speaks of multiple passes in front of the house, but doesn't provide a precise time frame, limiting himself to reporting a sequence of events: leaving the grandmother's house, encountering ambulances and police, returning, passing again with the road already cordoned off, then the voices of a dead girl.

The judicial context and the questions still open

Over the years, the name of Andrea Sempio has been used by the defense of Alberto Stasi—who was later definitively convicted of Chiara's murder—as a possible "alternative figure" in the Garlasco case. However, the judiciary has never found sufficient evidence to alter the prosecution's consolidated case.

The new TV statements don't automatically open up new legal scenarios, but they do bring attention to a point that has often remained marginal: the management of the very first hours of the investigation, the monitoring of the movements of those who gravitated around the house, the photographic documentation and its correct chronological placement.

Some questions typical of any judicial investigation remain on the table:

Is there a complete and verified chronology of Sempio's passages on Via Pascoli that day?

Were all available photographs acquired and properly dated by investigators?

Could any new images – hoped for by the defense – really change anything with respect to the consolidated picture or would they only have narrative-media value?

The weight of a late testimony

The decision to speak publicly years after the tragedy helps redraw the figure of Andrea Sempio in the context of the Garlasco crime: from a silent presence, evoked mainly in defense documents, to the protagonist of a direct account of "his" August 13, 2007.

For investigators, the judicial chapter is closed with Stasi's final conviction. For the public, however, cases like the Garlasco one continue to exist in a gray area where every new word, every photo resurfaced from the archives, every chronological detail becomes fodder for reconstructions, doubts, and suspicions.

This is where Sempio's testimony fits in: a version of events that, beyond its procedural weight, shines a spotlight on one of the most controversial criminal cases of recent years and, above all, on those tragic hours when Chiara Poggi's life was shattered.