AN autopsy was due to be held on Tuesday morning on the body thought to be that of missing Italian girl Elisa Claps, whose disappearance nearly 17 years ago has been linked to the 2002 murder of Bournemouth woman Heather Barnett.

Forensic experts have warned that it could take up to a month to carry out a full examination of the partly mummified, partly skeletal remains found in a church roof in Potenza, southern Italy, last Wednesday.

A memorial event for Elisa in Potenza at the weekend has fuelled speculation over how the body could have remained undiscovered for so long and whether the killer had help escaping justice.

Former Parkstone Grammar School student Natasha Kingston, who lectures on organised crime at Bath University, lived in the neighbouring county of Puglia while researching the Mafia. Two of Elisa’s cousins attended the school where she taught.

She said it was not uncommon for pressure to be brought to hamper criminal investigations.

“They use intimidation and omerta,” she explained.

“Omerta means a code of secrecy and silence. It’s like a state of mind and it comes from the Mafia culture.

“They have the ability to intimidate people with the threat of violence.”

During her time in Italy, Natasha worked with the anti-Mafia charity Libera. Its Potenza representative, priest Don Marcello Cozzi, has hinted of a “powerful force” behind a cover-up.

He told townspeople on Saturday: “It is terrible to think that for 17 years we have prayed, chatted and joked 100 paces from Elisa.

“Today is the day to say enough to half-truths and expressing caution. Whoever fails to speak is as guilty as the murderer.”

And Elisa’s mother called for whoever knows the truth to talk to her in private.

“I’m not afraid of anyone, not Mafia nor criminals,” she said.

“I want to know why Elisa was taken from her family and condemned to this attic. However, don’t ask me for forgiveness. Not even a saint would be able to grant that.”

Danilo Restivo says he is in the clear

Italian police believe that one of the last people to have seen Elisa alive was Danilo Restivo, who lived in Potenza and now lives in Charminster, Bournemouth.

Mr Restivo has also been quizzed twice in 2004 and 2006 by Dorset detectives in connection with the murder of Heather Barnett.

He has consistently denied any knowledge of either Elisa’s disappearance or Heather’s death.

Mr Restivo told the Italian news agency Ansa in the wake of the body being discovered: “I do not believe my legal position has been impaired in the slightest. On the contrary, I hope that the urgent checks being carried out now will show that I had nothing whatever to do with Elisa Claps’ death.”