Forlì – They had climbed into that ambulance with trust. Frail elderly people, transported on what should have been the safest journey possible: from a nursing home bed to a local hospital, accompanied by those who wore the red cross on their chests as a symbol of protection and assistance.
Instead, five of them never returned. And now, months later, those deaths—silently dismissed as the unfortunate outcomes of already debilitated patients—are tinged with a dark mystery, transforming into the most disturbing judicial investigation in Romagna in recent years: a 27-year-old ambulance driver has been placed under investigation by the Forlì Prosecutor's Office on charges of multiple voluntary homicide.
Five dead. Five families devastated. An investigative hypothesis that, if confirmed, would paint the profile of a serial killer in a white coat—not in the romantic sense of the term, but in its coldest, most legal sense: someone who deliberately killed those entrusted to his care, in the cramped, invisible space of a moving ambulance.
February-November 2025: the five deaths
The events span a nine-month period, from February to November 2025. Five elderly patients—whose identities remain confidential, to protect the dignity of their families and the integrity of the investigation—died during or shortly after being transferred by ambulance from care facilities to hospitals in the Forlì area. These were routine transports, as they say in the jargon: no full-blown emergencies, no red codes. The type of service Red Cross volunteers perform hundreds of times every day throughout Italy, in the reassuring anonymity of everyday life.
But in these five cases, something went wrong. Or, worse, something was made to go wrong.
The deaths, which occurred one after the other over those nine months, didn't immediately arouse suspicion: elderly people, often already seriously ill, dying during medical transport are—on paper—a sadly plausible statistic. It was an anonymous tip that changed the course of events, triggering the investigation that overturned all certainties.
The reporting and intervention of the NAS
According to leaks from investigative sources—the investigation is being kept strictly confidential by the Forlì Prosecutor's Office—the investigation was triggered by colleagues of the suspect, who raised concerns about the 27-year-old's conduct during transport. A rumor, perhaps a suspicion that had developed over time, perhaps an anomaly observed by chance: in any case, a source within the emergency services system itself.
The report reached the Carabinieri of the NAS—the Anti-Adulteration and Health Unit, specializing in medical and healthcare investigations—who initiated quiet investigations, as required by the sensitive nature of a case of this nature. The NAS officers in Bologna, coordinated by the Forlì Prosecutor's Office, reconstructed the chain of deaths step by step, cross-referencing medical records, witness statements, and—a potentially crucial element—the images from the cameras installed on board the ambulances.
Yes, because the emergency vehicles were apparently equipped with internal video surveillance systems: an increasingly common safety measure in emergency fleets, designed to protect both workers and patients. Those cameras may have recorded what happened inside the vehicle during the fatal transports. Analysis of the footage is ongoing, and it could prove to be the cornerstone of the entire investigation.
The embolism hypothesis: how they would have died
From investigative circles, with due caution, a lead is emerging: the five elderly people may have been killed by inducing an embolism, likely gaseous. This is a method of homicide known in forensic medicine: the injection of air into a vein causes a fulminant embolism, difficult to diagnose without an autopsy and often confused with spontaneous cardiovascular collapse, particularly in already frail elderly individuals.
This is why the Prosecutor's Office has ordered an autopsy on the body of the last deceased patient, an elderly woman who died in November 2025, whose body was returned to her family after her death. The medical examiner will have to search for traces consistent with this hypothesis—microbubbles in the bloodstream, injection marks—in a body that time and funeral practices have already partially compromised. It will be an extremely difficult task, but not impossible.
At the same time, authorities are considering exhuming the other bodies for similar examinations. This will be a long and painful process, forcing families to reopen wounds they thought were healed.
The 27-year-old: who is the suspect?
The man—27 years old, resident in the province of Forlì-Cesena—worked as a volunteer for the Red Cross Committee of Bertinoro and Forlimpopoli, a small town in Romagna a few kilometers from the capital. A seemingly ordinary profile: young, a volunteer, deeply rooted in the local community. No known criminal record, no red flags on his record—at least on the surface.
The man is currently under investigation at large: the Prosecutor's Office, while listing him as a suspect on the very serious charge of voluntary multiple homicide, has not deemed there to be any precautionary grounds for his arrest or detention. For now, therefore, he is living his daily life while the investigation progresses.
Through his lawyers, the 27-year-old denies all charges and declares himself innocent of the alleged facts. His defense will likely rely on the already critical nature of the victims' health conditions and the current lack of direct and irrefutable evidence.
The Red Cross: "Suspended, we are available."
The Italian Red Cross's reaction was swift and clear. The organization stated that it "immediately made itself available to law enforcement and authorities to cooperate with the investigation" and that, "as soon as it received news, it suspended the worker as a precautionary measure." This move reflects institutional transparency, necessary to protect the image of an organization with over 150.000 volunteers active nationwide.
The Italian Red Cross, however, wishes to clarify that the worker "had been off duty since the first days following the start of the investigations"—a detail that highlights how the formal suspension came after a period during which he had already been effectively inactive. The association hopes that the investigations "will shed full light on what happened," acknowledging the daily commitment of thousands of volunteers who save lives in Italy every day.
The case, however, risks casting a long shadow over the voluntary rescue system, raising uncomfortable questions about operator selection and vetting protocols, psychological training, and internal oversight.
The families' grief: "We only want the truth."
The most heartbreaking voice in this story has a name: Vittorio, the son of one of the alleged victims, the elderly woman who died in November 2025. Contacted by the press, the man couldn't contain his emotion: "We learned from our lawyers, because we're not in Forlì right now, about this investigation into our mother's death. We're shocked."
These words sum up the experiences of five families, all plunged into the nightmare of having to re-examine a grief they had already dealt with—or so they thought—in a radically different light. "It's a huge thing to accept," Vittorio continues. "We have complete faith in the Forlì Prosecutor's Office and the work they're doing. We'll be there to the very end to truly understand what happened and why. We just want the truth."
The families of the alleged victims are being assisted by lawyers Max Starni and Massimo Mambelli, two professionals from the Romagna legal system who will follow the proceedings both during the autopsy phase and in the eventual trial.
The weight of a story that shakes Italy
There's something particularly heartbreaking about this story, which sets it apart from other crime stories. The victims were elderly, and therefore already vulnerable. The context was one of care, assistance, and trust placed in those wearing a first aid uniform. And the alleged perpetrator was a young volunteer—the type that, by definition, represents goodness, self-giving, and solidarity.
If the charges are substantiated, it would reveal one of the most serious cases of therapeutic trust violations in recent Italian history. A case that challenges not only the judiciary and law enforcement, but civil society as a whole: who controls those who hold the hands of our elderly at their most fragile moment? Who guarantees that that ambulance ride is truly, as it should be, an act of love?
The investigation is ongoing. The truth, as Vittorio asks in a broken voice, has yet to emerge.
Source EDITORIAL TEAM
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