Rimini, September 8, 2026 – “Fear is there, of course it is. But calmness helps me“. Louis Dassilva does not hide the fear that everything could start again. The appeal trial, the possibility of returning to the center of the Pierina Paganelli case and, in the background, also the specter of prison.
Almost three months after the acquittal at first instance for not having committed the act, the Senegalese metalworker speaks again on TV in the second part of the interview given to Salvo Sottile, host of “Ore 14”. After telling in the first part about the return to freedom, the job found again, the new house with his wife Valeria Bartolucci and the 694 days spent behind bars, Dassilva this time goes into the heart of some of the most delicate points of the investigation: the secret relationship with Manuela Bianchi, the intercepted conversations after the crime and the possible motive hypothesized by the investigators.
The story with Manuela Bianchi
The first point is precisely the story with Manuela. Dassilva reiterates that no one would have known about the relationship and that the only person who could have discovered it was his wife. “The only one who could have discovered it was my wife, but anyway nothing could have happened,” he claims. According to his version, therefore, that relationship did not represent a danger such as to trigger something more serious. “Apart from my wife, it could not be a danger to me. With Manuela we had already been clear and also with Valeria we had already clarified.”
The video of Louis and Manuela at the Police Headquarters
Then it returns to one of the passages scrutinized by the investigators: the video recorded on October 4, 2023 by the cameras of the Rimini Police Headquarters, a few hours after the discovery of Pierina’s body. In the images Manuela appears worried and asks him: “Tell me I don’t have to fear anything for this matter”.
A heavy phrase, interpreted during the investigations also in light of the murder. Dassilva, however, continues to read it in a completely different way. “From the beginning, when she enters the room, we were talking about our relationship. We always talked about that. That’s why I answered her like that. For me, she was referring to our relationship“. When Manuela asked him for reassurances, Dassilva claims, the conversation would have been only about their secret affair. And that relationship, at least in his intentions, could have continued: “We could have continued seeing each other, that’s why I answered her like that. Nothing would have changed”.
Dassilva: “I always told Manuela that I would not leave my wife”
Dassilva also goes back to downplaying the emotional weight of the relationship. A position already expressed in the first part of the interview, when he had spoken of a mostly physical relationship. Manuela, however, had told him she was in love and had even proposed to run away together. “I always made her understand that it was a relationship like others. Even when she proposed to run away, to go away with her, I always told her it was a relationship like others. I love my wife and I stay with my wife“. And when asked if Manuela was in love with him, he answers: “That concerns her, she is the one who can say it. She told me. Anyway, I always made her understand that I had my wife”.
The crime scene
The conversation inevitably then returns to the condominium on via del Ciclamino, the crime scene. That’s where Dassilva and Valeria lived, and that’s where Manuela Bianchi and Giuliano Saponi also lived. And it is precisely around that building that, over the years, a huge part of the investigations into the murder of the 78-year-old pensioner, killed with 29 stab wounds on the evening of October 3, 2023, has focused. Dassilva, however, does not commit when Sottile asks him if it is precisely inside that condominium that the name of the murderer should be sought. “I don’t know, I don’t know. I can’t say it’s there. The investigators are certainly better than me at making these assessments”.
Dassilva in the investigators’ sights
On the reason why he ended up in the spotlight, he tries to give an explanation: “I ended up in the investigations perhaps because they thought the unknown person caught by the camera was me, or because of the relationship”. But the judicial game is not over. The acquittal came only at first instance, while the Rimini prosecutor’s office has already announced its intention to appeal the sentence. First, the reasons must be known, for which a 90-day extension has been requested for the filing.
Fears in front of the prospect of the appeal
And it is precisely in front of the prospect of the appeal that Dassilva admits to being afraid: “Fear is there, of course it is. But calmness helps me”. A fear that, he says, has also reached his children in Senegal. The eldest is 16 years old, the youngest 4. Dassilva says he explained to them what happened and also what could still happen.
The children in Senegal
“They know I could have a big problem. They know they risk, at any moment, no longer being able to have their father close”. To the direct question whether the children know that he could return to prison, the answer is clear: “Yes, they know”. And about the possibility that it could really happen again: “I trust justice. We’ll see”. Dassilva says he has not seen his children since the end of 2022 and reveals that the youngest, who is now four years old, has never met him in person.
Despite everything that has happened, however, he does not think of leaving Italy to return to Senegal. “No, because my life is here. I left my country to come here and here I found myself. A problem happened, a big problem, but I am here”.
