Mario could not have climbed up there. It was out of reach. Also, the knots in the sheet that tightened his neck, when UN colleagues found him at home, seemed particularly well made, so much so that he could hardly have tightened them on his

 own.

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The amount of blood found at the crime scene is not compatible with the superficial wounds found on the wrists. Finally, the external wound found on the neck is too evident such as to have been caused by a sheet. However, it could hardly have caused death.

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These are the circumstances concerning the death of Mario Paciolla - the 33-year-old Neapolitan UN field officer found lifeless on July 15 in his house in San Vicente del Caguan, the Colombian city where he was on a mission with the UN - that prompted the Rome prosecutor's office to open a murder investigation, not believing the hypothesis of suicide with which Colombian authorities had labeled the case.

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Our investigators started the investigation from the beginning. Starting from the crime scene: the house where Mario lived and where he died around two in the morning on July 15, has been altered. Some objects have been moved, others thrown away. There are also clear elements that would suggest a staging: whose blood was that? Who made the knots on the sheet? It was then necessary to repeat the autopsy because crucial investigations had been omitted in Colombia: for example, the CT scan was not carried out to assess the extent of the injuries, which instead the Italian medical forensic team - led by Professor Vittorio Fineschi (the same in the Cucchi and Regeni cases) and also composed of a coroner appointed by the Paciolla family -did. In addition, specific tests have been arranged to check if there are other signs on Mario's neck.

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It was not easy: the body was returned in poor conditions to Italy (sawdust was found inside the coffin), as if a second autopsy were not to be done. Instead, this second autopsy has already been done and, already in the next few days, it will be able available in order to help the Rome prosecutor's office - the investigation is entrusted to the prosecutor Alberto Pioletti and the adjunct Lucia Lotti, but is also followed by the prosecutor Michele Prestipino - to connect all the dots in this story.

 

The main protagonist of this story is Christian Thompson, the contractor who was in charge of the UN mission security, who was the first to find Mario's lifeless body. It was also Thompson who threw some of the objects found at the crime scene away. Thompson also arranged the cleaning of the house, before the Colombian police finished their investigations. And Ilaria Izzo, 31 years old, Mario's ex-girlfriend who is currently working in Colombia on a UN mission, also speaks about Christian Thompson.

 

To the question:"Who did Mario not trust inside the UN?", she answered:"Christian. Christian Thompson". Izzo has also mentioned previously another name. All these information were conveyed and delivered in a long report on August 1st to the Colombian police, in the presence of the Italian ambassador and Italian authorities.

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In the excerpts reported, it can be seen that the girl had told about Mario's fear, which was so intense that the hypothesis of suicide is considered plausible. The day before he died he was so upset that he let himself go to a chilling outburst: "I don't want to live anymore."

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Mario, says the girl, was "obsessed" with the fear of being spied on. She is convinced that he witnessed something he should not have seen. He felt observed, intercepted. "He even talked about the CIA, he had become obsessive". The day before he died, the situation reached its climax: "Mario was crying, he was screaming, he told me he didn't want to live anymore." At the same time, however, he asked her for help to buy a ticket to return to Italy.

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On the morning of July 14 Ilaria, also to comfort him, gives him the details of her credit card and Mario, without consulting her, buys two tickets: one for him and one for her. However, the routes are different: "Mario was supposed to travel via Paris. “But I told him I had no intention of returning back to Italy and that I wanted to remain in Colombia. The next morning they informed me that he was dead". Ilaria had a breakdown so intense, that she needed hospitalization. Now she is a little better and she is still in Colombia.