Italian investigators have confirmed that 50-year-old Antonella Di Ielsi and her 15-year-old daughter Sara Di Vita died in late December 2025 at the Cardarelli hospital in Campobasso from acute ricin poisoning. The prosecutor's office in Larino is treating the case as premeditated murder by an unknown perpetrator; both the autopsy and toxicological tests carried out in Pavia confirmed the poisoning.
Suspicion is focused on a family dinner on December 23, when only the older daughter, Alice (19), was away from home. Investigators have questioned more than 160 people and seized phones and tablets belonging to both victims, and according to Italian media they already have a probable motive that narrows the circle of suspects to the family.
Samples of biological material and food from the household are now being examined by Germany's Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, and the German federal criminal police (BKA) have also joined the investigation. Investigators are also looking into a trip abroad taken by people close to the family, as well as a celebration that someone organized shortly after the deaths of the two women. No official suspect has been named so far.
Ricin killed a mother and daughter in Italy. Investigators are now narrowing the circle of suspects to the family
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