Explosion in Alexandria, the farmhouse owner stopped for murder: attempted insurance fraud

Stopped on the charge of murder Giovanni Vincenti, owner of the Quargnento farmhouse, in the province of Alessandria, in whose explosion three firefighters were killed. Vincenti is held responsible for arson, murder and voluntary injury due to the explosion that destroyed its farmhouse on the night between 4 and 5 November.

There is an attempted insurance fraud behind the tragedy. The public prosecutor of Alessandria, Enrico Cieri, announced this during a press conference. The arrested man confessed, denying however the intention to want to kill. Even the wife of Giovanni Vincenti is under investigation for free in the investigation that led to her husband's arrest.

While the request for an involvement of even Stefano Vincenti, Giovanni's son, the provincial commander of the Carabinieri of Alessandria, Colonel Michele Angelo Lorusso, responded to journalists with a "No comment".
Vincenti and his wife were "heavily indebted"said the prosecutor explaining the details of the transaction. "Last August – the magistrate reveals – the building's insurance had been extended to the malicious fact. The maximum premium was one and a half million euros ". The timer instruction sheet that caused the farmhouse explosion was found by the carabinieri in Vincenti's house. The leaflet was on the dresser in the bedroom.

"The timer was set at 1.30 but accidentally there was also a setting at midnight. This led to the first modest explosion which, alas, alerted the fire brigade, "explained Cieri. The explosion had to be only one but the error in programming the timer, connected to the gas cylinders, caused the tragedy.

The turning point in the investigation came a few hours from solemn funerals of Antoninus, Markus and Matthew in the cathedral of Saints Peter and Mark of Alexandria, in the presence among others of the premier Giuseppe Conte, of the president of the Chamber Roberto Fico and of the minister of the Interior Luciana Lamorgese. "You have to catch them, you have to do everything to catch them", was the appeal that the relatives of the three victims turned to the President of the Council.

Numerous the technical assessments and interrogations, including in the last hours that of Giovanni Vincenti. The man, whom the investigators had already heard more than once, responded to the investigators' new questions for several hours. In the barracks also a lawyer, Laura Mazzolini of the Alessandria bar, and two women, who arrive and leave by car in about twenty minutes.

"I witnessed the interrogation, I can't say anything," he merely declared the lawyer leaving the offices of the Weapon in Piazza Vittorio Veneto just before 2 am. "I think that soon – he added – you will have official statements". Shortly afterwards the prosecutor Cieri also left the barracks, limiting himself to a "no" with his hand turned to the journalists by the car.

In front of the provincial command also some citizens who, having heard of the interrogation, reached the offices of the weapon. The news of the judicial police detention arrives at 2.29 with a ten-line statement that refers to the details of the operation.

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