Restivo arrest dramatic twist to Heather Barnett murder investigation

A dozen police officers pulled up outside a large detached property in Chatsworth Road, Charminster, and detectives went inside to arrest a 38-year-old trainee dental technician.

Just before 7.25am, wearing a hooded tracksuit top and his face obscured by a red towel, Italian national Danilo Restivo was taken away in a blue Mercedes to Poole police station to be quizzed on suspicion of the murder of Heather Barnett.

This has been a long-running inquiry by Dorset’s Major Crime Investigation Team.

The arrest came nearly eight years after Heather’s brutal killing in her own home – no more than 20 yards away in Capstone Road.

The seamstress, a 48-year-old mother of two, was found in her bathroom on the afternoon of November 12, 2002.

She had been violently assaulted and strands of hair placed in her right hand.

Police have never been able to establish who the hair belonged to.

Hardened detectives were stunned at the brutality of the killing and baffled by the motive and its strange, apparently ritualistic aspect.

But they were clear about one thing at least. It was very carefully planned. There was nothing spur-of-the-moment about it.

As one senior detective told the Echo: “The killer knew what he was going to do and how he would cover his tracks and establish his alibi. He knew there was a window of opportunity. This was an attack personal to Heather, not the work of a random killer.”

For several years, the murder of Heather has been linked by Dorset Police to the disappearance in 1993 of a young Italian schoolgirl, Elisa Claps, 16.

In March, seventeen years after she vanished in Potenza, Italy, her remains were discovered by workmen hidden in the town’s main church, where she was reportedly last seen.

The autopsy was completed last month, but unusually the findings have so far been withheld by the public prosecutor.

Dorset Police have made several trips to Italy since 2004 as a key part of their inquiries.

Two weeks ago, Heather’s brother, Ben, visited Potenza for an emotional first meeting with Elisa’s family.

At the house in Chatsworth Road where Mr Restivo lives with his wife Fiamma, contractors began erecting scaffolding, as teams of white-suited forensic officers began a painstaking examination.

The process is likely to take a minimum of two days but it could last up to a week, according to a police source.

The operation at the property was overseen by the man in charge of the Heather Barnett investigation, Detective Supt Mark Cooper.

He carried out an assessment of the scene before instructing the forensic officers on what was needed.

Earlier on the steps of Bournemouth police station, he said a large team of detectives had been working “tirelessly on the long running investigation”.

The officer said any disruption due to increased police activity in Charminster would be temporary and he thanked local residents.

He added that Heather’s family was being kept fully informed of developments at what he described as “a difficult time”.

Only last week, Supt Cooper told the Echo he was hopeful of a breakthrough in the Heather Barnett investigation.

“All the focus and attention has been on Italy in the past two months but there has been a huge amount of activity here in the UK.

“Things have been moving very fast as far as our own investigation is concerned and I believe we are very close to a breakthrough.”

Two weeks ago he met with Italian counterparts in the Hague to discuss progress in both cases.