The Imperia cold case ventures into a hunt for a witness. Forty witnesses have already been traced in Sweden and invited to testify in Court in Imperia next Wednesday, to shed light on the disappearance, 28 years ago in Linköping in southern Sweden, of Sargonia Dankha, a 21-year-old girl originally from Iraq. Nothing more was heard of her, she vanished like snow in the sun. She is suspected of murder and after the Swedish authorities raised their arms in a sign of surrender (without a body in Scandinavia it is not possible to open a trial), the Imperia Prosecutor’s Office took action. Who arrested and sent to trial Salvatore Aldobrandi, 73 years old, restaurateur-pizza chef from Sanremo. At the time of the events he lived in Linköping and had started a relationship with that young woman who was so full of life. He is accused of voluntary homicide and concealment of a corpse. It seems that she wanted to leave him. He is assisted by the lawyer Andrea Rovere who did not object to the acquisition of the testimonies, provided that the people informed about the facts are called to testify again. Clean slate of statements released at the time of the investigations conducted in 1995.

It was said of the 40 witnesses, including friends of the victim, relatives, policemen from the Swedish criminal unit that the plaintiff’s lawyer Francesco Rubino is tracking down with the help of his staff. The lawyer serves the interests of Sargonia’s family, the civil party. It was mother Ghriba Shabo and brother Ninos Dankha, never resigned to the disappearance of their loved one, who found support in the Imperia Prosecutor’s Office to reopen the investigation. The appeal was accepted by the prosecutor Alberto Lari. He entrusted the file to two prosecutors with strong investigative intuition: Paola Marrali and her colleague Matteo Gobbi.

Sargonia’s mother and brother will already be in the courtroom on Wednesday to answer the questions of judge Carlo Alberto Indellicati and try to convince the jury of the accused’s guilt. For them Aldobrandi is the murderer. “Too many circumstances are pointing in that direction,” Ninos said in the inaugural hearing. On Wednesday it will be known how many witnesses traced in Sweden will come to testify in person and how many will do so remotely. It is a process that relies on technology, unthinkable 28 years ago.