Overview

• Florence’s prosecutor’s office officially confirmed that genetic testing identifies Giovanni Vinci as Natalino Mele’s biological father, overturning Stefano Mele’s assumed paternity.
• Geneticist Ugo Ricci produced the match using DNA samples secretly collected by Carabinieri del ROS in 2018.
• Giovanni Vinci—deceased for years and never previously investigated—now emerges as a focal figure in the ‘Sardinian track’ linking him to brothers Francesco and Salvatore.
• PMs Ornella Galeotti and Beatrice Giunti have reopened the Mostro di Firenze case file to examine unresolved leads prompted by the paternity finding.
• Investigators are probing why the killer spared six-year-old Natalino and tracing the fate of the missing .22-caliber weapon that reappeared in later murders.