ITALY: Who killed two policemen, a prostitute and a private investigator? Paddy Agnew reports
When police patrol cars, responding to an emergency call, arrived at the "Bonometti Centro Caravan" showroom outside Verona at about 2.30 a.m. last Monday, they unexpectedly found themselves at a murder scene.
On the tarmac in front of the showroom on Route 11 they found four bodies - two policemen, one private investigator and one Ukrainian prostitute. One of the policemen was dead, as was the private investigator, and later on Monday morning both the prostitute and the other policeman died in hospital.
The violent deaths of policeman Davide Turazza (36), his 26-year-old colleague, Giuseppe Cimarrusti, private investigator Andrea Arrigoni (35) and the 29-year-old Ukrainian, Galyna Shafranek, as of now prompt more questions than answers.
Initial reconstructions of the killings, based on the positions of the four bodies at the scene, would suggest that the police patrol car driven by agents Turazza and Cimarrusti came across the Fiat Panda 4X4 of private investigator Arrigoni while on a routine patrol. The policemen may well have wondered what Arrigoni was up to, parked in front of the car showroom at half-past two on a freezing, snowy February morning.
They may have noticed a body on the ground in front of Arrigoni's car. The body was that of the prostitute, Galyna Shafranek. Intriguingly, she was not dressed "for business". Rather, she was wearing a heavy sweater, jeans and an overcoat, while her "work clothes" (thigh-length leather boots and a mini-skirt) were later found in a plastic bag in Arrigoni's Panda.
Even if it was a bitterly cold night, the policemen would probably not have been much alarmed if they had come across a prostitute "at work" with a passing client. The area where the killings took place is close to an industrial estate of warehouses and factories, but no residential community. It is a favourite haunt for the migrant population of mainly east European prostitutes.
The problem here, though, was that it seems the person "at work" was private investigator Arrigoni, busy firing three bullets into Ms Shafranek. When he was rumbled by the police, Arrigoni appears to have reacted immediately and violently, opening fire on the two policemen as they got out of the car to investigate.
Forensic experts calculate that, in the subsequent shoot-out, the two policemen fired 19 rounds, while Arrigoni replied with at least 14. All three men were reliable marksmen, so much so that all three hit the target with tragic effect.
Before he passed out, policeman Cimarrusti managed to raise the alarm on the police radio.
So what did happen? Was Arrigoni's violent reaction merely that of someone caught "in flagrante" with a prostitute? Or was he involved in some form of "settling of accounts"?
According to his brother, Marco, Andrea Arrigoni had spent an ordinary Sunday afternoon at home in Bergamo (he lived with his parents), playing with his nephews.
What then was the nature of the phone call he received at around half-past eleven on Sunday night, a call which prompted him to set out on a 158km journey - in freezing conditions - to Verona? Why did he leave his mobile phone behind?
What sort of person was Andrea Arrigoni? Certainly, he appears to have been someone unwilling to settle for the bank clerk's job. A paratrooper with the crack Folgore regiment, a volunteer on military service in Somalia in the mid-1990s and a onetime bodyguard to Northern League leader Umberto Bossi, he appears to have been a man of action.
He was also a man who claimed to have serious political connections. His website - www.mercuryinvestigazioni.it - lists him as the founder of CONIPI, a national federation of private investigators whose alleged honorary president is the current Minister for Communications, Maurizio Gasparri, of Alleanza Nazionale. While a spokesman for the minister confirmed to The Irish Times that Mr Gasparri did indeed hold the "honorary presidency" title, that title may mean little or nothing. The minister's spokesman speculated that Arrigoni could have been one of thousands of people encountered by the minister during the course of his work.
Two other considerations are worthy of mention. Firstly, Verona chief prosecutor, Giudo Papalia, appeared to speak for many when saying that the grisly incident called into question the rigour with which private gun licences are issued in Italy. (In 2003, 34,787 such licences were issued).
"It is simply a very negative thing that people can go around armed like this," said prosecutor Papalia.
The final thought concerns Maria Teresa Turazza, mother of Davide Turazza. For her, this week's tragic events represented a traumatic re-run of her worst nightmare. By a tragic quirk of fate, she lost another son, Davide's elder brother, Massimiliano, also a policeman, who was shot down by a small-time mobster in October 1994.
Whatever light is eventually shed on these strange killings, Maria Teresa will have to live her life out without her two sons, while her grandchildren, Nicole and Laura, will be forever without their father.