Luca Spada

Luca Spada is a former Italian Red Cross ambulance driver and rescuer from Meldola, near Forlì in Emilia-Romagna. Prosecutors in Forlì suspect him of responsibility for a series of six deaths involving elderly or seriously ill patients during 2025. The patients were being moved on what are described in Italian reporting as trasporti secondari — generally planned, non-emergency transfers between hospitals, rehabilitation centres, hospices or residential facilities. Although the patients were medically vulnerable, investigators were struck by a recurring pattern in which people whose conditions had appeared stable suddenly suffered severe respiratory or cardiac deterioration while Spada was on board the ambulance.

The suspected series begins with Mirella Montanari, 77. She was a vulnerable woman from Meldola who had suffered paralysis and other health problems and had required assistance from local social services and Caritas. A transfer associated with the investigation occurred on 13 February 2025; she died on 24 February. She is regarded by prosecutors as the first of the six suspected victims.

On 8 July 2025, Francesco Mario Scavone, 69, died during an ambulance transfer. He had lung cancer but, according to accounts cited from the investigation, had been alert, oriented and clinically stable enough for discharge shortly before the journey. His son later said that his father had travelled only a short distance before the ambulance returned with him dead. Investigators also examined a message attributed to Spada that day referring to having just "made a dead man" at Cusercoli, Scavone's home area. The meaning and evidential significance of that language are matters for the investigation and eventual proceedings.

The third suspected victim, Edoarda Gasperini, was 98. She died following a sudden deterioration on 26 July 2025. Prosecutors noted that despite her advanced age she had reportedly been in stable health and was principally dealing with a problem affecting her leg. Investigators allege that Spada manoeuvred himself into the patient compartment of the ambulance before her rapid respiratory decline and cardiac arrest.

Vincenzo Pesci, 81, was the fourth suspected victim. A former agricultural teacher, he had previously suffered a stroke but was described in medical records cited by the press as serious yet substantially stable, with stable vital signs. During a transfer on 12 September 2025, his condition deteriorated and he arrived at the hospital in Faenza dead.

The fifth death under investigation is that of Vittorio "Victor" Benini, an 84-year-old saxophonist. Benini was being transferred from the hospital at Santa Sofia for what his family described as routine medical checks when he suffered a cardiac arrest. Reporting differs as to whether the journey took place on 8 or 9 October 2025. He was successfully resuscitated initially but died in hospital on 13 October. A daughter subsequently told investigators that during his final hospital stay Benini had said words to the effect that somebody had "done something" to him in the ambulance. Investigators regard the statement as potentially significant, although medical records also reportedly documented episodes of delirium, an important qualification when assessing it as evidence.

The investigation became substantially stronger after the death of Deanna Mambelli, 85, on 25 November 2025. Mambelli had recently experienced a cardiac problem but her family said doctors believed she had recovered sufficiently to begin rehabilitation. She became critically ill during the ambulance journey and died the same day. Unlike the earlier cases, an autopsy was performed with investigators specifically examining the possibility of an embolism. The post-mortem findings identified a gas embolism, and prosecutors allege that Spada introduced air into Mambelli's bloodstream with a syringe while he was in the patient compartment with her. This forensic evidence is the principal reason her case has progressed further than the other five.

Carabinieri had attempted to place a concealed camera inside the ambulance around the time of Mambelli's transfer, but the equipment reportedly suffered a technical failure and did not capture the alleged act. The following morning, 26 November, Spada was recorded noticing the device and asking a colleague whether it appeared to be a camera.

Investigators subsequently seized medical equipment associated with Spada, including syringes, needles and venous catheters, and subjected the items to forensic examination. Colleagues also provided investigators with messages and photographs from group chats. Material placed in the case file reportedly includes photographs or selfies involving coffins, hearses, exhumations and cremation equipment, sometimes accompanied by macabre jokes. Spada also had informal links with the funeral-services sector, although prosecutors have not established in court that financial benefit from funerals was the motive for the alleged killings.

Spada was arrested on 11 April 2026. At a prosecutor's press conference two days later, authorities said six deaths were being attributed to him in the investigation. Crucially, however, the investigating judge found sufficient grounds to order pre-trial detention only in the Mambelli case; the evidential threshold for detention had not been met in respect of the other five deaths. Those deaths therefore remained separate subjects of continuing investigation.

The prosecution also commissioned the investigative-psychology section of the Carabinieri's RACIS to examine Spada's alleged behavioural pattern. Its conclusions, reported in September 2026, described what investigators regarded as a repeating operational pattern involving elderly and ill victims and characterised the alleged conduct as compatible with a "predatory and serial" dynamic. The report referred to an obsessive and uncontrollable internal motivational drive and was relied upon by prosecutors when arguing that the risk of repetition remained high. It formed part of the reasoning when a request for Spada to leave prison for house arrest was rejected. These findings constitute an investigative assessment rather than a determination of criminal guilt.

Spada has repeatedly rejected the allegations. Before his arrest he told journalists that he had always performed his duties correctly, had sought emergency assistance whenever patients deteriorated and believed medical and operational records would clear him. His defence continues to challenge the prosecution's interpretation of the evidence and has objected to some public descriptions of him as a "serial killer".

Timeline

• Late 2024–early 2025 — Spada allegedly shares photographs involving coffins, hearses, crematoria and exhumations in group chats; the material later enters the investigation file.
• 13 February 2025 — Ambulance event associated with Mirella Montanari, regarded by prosecutors as the first case in the suspected series. She dies on 24 February.
• 8 July 2025 — Francesco Mario Scavone dies during an ambulance transfer.
• 26 July 2025 — Edoarda Gasperini suffers a rapid deterioration and dies.
• 12 September 2025 — Vincenzo Pesci dies during or immediately following an ambulance transfer.
• 8–9 October 2025 — Vittorio Benini suffers a cardiac arrest during an ambulance transfer. He dies on 13 October.
• 25 November 2025 — Deanna Mambelli dies following an ambulance transfer. An autopsy later identifies a gas embolism.
• 26 November 2025 — Spada notices a concealed camera that investigators had installed in the ambulance; it had malfunctioned during the previous day's operation.
• Late November 2025 — Spada is formally notified that he is under investigation.
• March 2026 — The investigation becomes publicly known; Spada gives interviews denying involvement and saying the suspicious deaths were coincidental.
• 11 April 2026 — Spada is arrested and remanded in custody in connection with Deanna Mambelli's death.
• 13 April 2026 — The Forlì prosecutor publicly confirms that six deaths are being attributed to Spada in the investigation, while noting that the detention order is supported only in the Mambelli case.
• Summer 2026 — A request for release or house arrest is rejected.
• 18 August 2026 — A judge orders an immediate trial for the alleged murder of Deanna Mambelli.
• 8 September 2026 — Details of the RACIS investigative-psychology assessment are reported, describing the alleged pattern as serial and predatory.
• 15 October 2026 — Scheduled opening of Spada's trial before the Forlì Court of Assizes for the Mambelli case.