A preliminary hearings judge in this northern Italian city on Monday sent Massimo Bossetti to trial for the 2010 murder of 13-year-old schoolgirl Yara Gambirasio. Bossetti, a construction worker and father of three, has repeatedly denied the murder allegations.
He was arrested and jailed last June and charged with murder following DNA testing of the local population as part of the murder investigation.
His DNA was found on Yara but he has maintained he has no idea how it got there.
Since then, forensic experts said they have also found traces of the fabric from seats in Bossetti's van on the leggings worn by Yara on the day she was killed.
Prosecutors allege that the murder was aggravated by the use of torture and cruelty against the schoolgirl.
Those allegations arise from the police findings that Yara was picked up in the late afternoon, likely as she returned home from gymnastics practice in Brembate di Sopra in the northern province of Bergamo.
It is believed that she was later taken to an isolated field where her body was found weeks after she disappeared, on February 26, 2011.
Investigators said that she had been hit three times in the head and stabbed multiple times before she was left in the field.
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