What happened
Twenty-year-old Simonetta Cesaroni was killed in the Rome office where she worked in 1990, beginning one of Italy’s longest-running murder mysteries.
The investigation
Over the years investigators examined coworkers, building residents and people in Cesaroni’s personal life. Advances in DNA testing produced new leads but did not establish a definitive perpetrator.
What the courts or investigators concluded
A former boyfriend was convicted at one stage but later acquitted on appeal. No one currently stands convicted of the murder.
Why the case remains significant
The case endures because of disputed forensic evidence, shifting suspect theories and the challenge of reinterpreting a contaminated or imperfectly preserved crime scene decades later.
Case context
Crime by Region organizes cases geographically so readers can move from one file to other investigations from the same country. For unresolved or contested cases, the wording above reflects the distinction between confirmed events, investigative theories and findings actually established in court.