(ANSA) - Rome, October 25 - Three people have been detained
by police in relation to the homicide of Desiree Mariottini, a
16-year-old girl found dead in an abandoned building in Rome's
San Lorenzo district last week, sources said Thursday.
Investigators believe that Desiree was drugged and gang raped
while unconscious before she died.
Two Senegalese nationals - Mamadou Gara, 26, and Brian
Minteh, 43 - were held overnight.
A third suspect, a 40-year-old Nigerian, was detained on
Thursday.
They are suspected of sexual violence in a group, selling
drugs and voluntary manslaughter.
Sources say the police are trying to track down at least one
other suspect.
"Two illegal immigrants held last night for the rape and
death of Desirée, two others are wanted," Interior Minister and
Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini said via Twitter after Gara and
Minteh were detained.
"Thank you to the police. I will do everything so that the
worms guilty of this horror pay in full for their vileness, with
no discounts".
"Today I'm happy because three beasts who raped a girl have
been captured," Salvini added later in the day in Verona.
"The fourth will be nabbed within minutes".
Gara went missing after an expulsion order in 2017, sources
said.
"Now I want justice for Desiree. I don't want this tragedy to
happen to other girls," said the victim's mother, Barbara
Mariottini, who was at her home in Cisterna di Latina, south of
Rome.
Deputy Premier and Labour and Industry Minister Luigi Di
Maio said Thursday that Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi's powers
should be boosted following the case.
"It's time to give more powers to the mayor of Rome," Di Maio
told Radio 24.
"Rome has no rivals in Europe in terms of its complexity and
size".
Raggi is a member of Di Maio's 5-Star Movement (M5S).
3 detained over 16-year-old's homicide
Investigators believe Desiree Mariottini was drugged, gang raped