
There is a name for the person killed with a pistol bullet, stuffed into a bag and disappeared along with a Fiat Bravo in the waters of Tergola in Padua, Italy. It is Ferdinant Hoti, 35 years old, Albanian, living in Mirano, in the Venice area. And it is precisely in the Mirano area that part of the verifications is being focused, while investigators are trying to reconstruct the man's last movements and, above all, to understand with whom he spent the hours before his death.
Gunshot wound
The methods of murder and the attempt to dispose of the body and vehicle lead the investigation to the hypothesis of a settling of scores, matured in the environment of drug sales. And it is precisely by digging into Hoti's associations and past that investigators are looking for the key to finding the motive for the execution.
The body, on Tuesday morning, after a passerby had reported seeing a car in the canal, was found in the back of an old Fiat Bravo, with the seats down, wrapped in a black bag and with his hands tied. The car, whose license plates had been removed, had been driven into Tergola and left near a water gate. Initial forensic tests identified a gunshot wound to the body from close range.
Awaiting autopsy
Hoti, therefore, must have been dead when the car sank into the water, where the body may have remained for several hours. The stay in the river has inevitably damaged some of the elements useful for the external examination, making the autopsy, which will be carried out tomorrow, even more important.
Since Wednesday, after the victim was identified thanks to fingerprints present in the law enforcement database, the carabinieri's attention has been focused on the Venice area and Hoti's relationships.
In particular, the investigation is deepening into an ambush that took place in the Mirano area just two months ago: on the night of July 1, in Zianigo, Mirano, a young Albanian man was hit by a bullet between the shoulder and neck. He managed to escape and in the following weeks the investigation led to the arrest of two of his compatriots.
The motive had been his desire to leave the world of drug dealing after finding a normal job. A framework that, in terms of dynamics and environment, presents elements that investigators may now want to compare with Hoti's story, especially for the sunken Fiat Bravo, which had reportedly already appeared in the checks carried out in the Venice area for the July ambush.
Choosing a place
But the mystery of the murder of the 35-year-old found tied up inside Bravo presents another point to be clarified: the reason why the killer chose San Giorgio delle Pertiche to dispose of the body.
Did the person who drove the Fiat to the Torre di Burri water gate, in the territory of the municipality of Padua, know that part of the watercourse or was it a random choice?
The car sank at the height of a water gate, at a point where, in those days, the water level was enough to cover it almost completely. A decision that seems studied, but which also presents a contradiction: the chosen point is not at all isolated. A short distance away there is a roundabout, the area is lit even at night and is crossed by an important artery monitored by numerous cameras.
Owner and answers
And it is precisely from the video surveillance footage that a turning point in the investigation may come: the carabinieri are reconstructing the route taken by Bravo through various checkpoints present along the way, which allow not only the license plates, but also the images of the vehicles to be recorded.
The objective is to verify whether, while passing from one checkpoint to another, the same vehicle appears with a certain continuity before or after Bravo, that is, a second vehicle used by the killer or killers precisely to guarantee their escape.
The images, if sufficiently clear and complete, can thus enable tracking in the opposite direction of the car's travel and identifying possible companions.
In the end, the relationship between the owner of the Bravo, an Italian living in the Venice area, and the person who had the vehicle at his disposal that evening, which was then thrown into the river along with the body, remains to be clarified.
Key answers to quickly give a face to the hand that shot Ferdinant Hoti and his accomplices, who most likely helped him hide the car and the body in the river. (Corriere della Sera)