TV Show Helps Identify Mother and Child Found Dead in Rome Park, and a Suspect

Europe|The Death of a Mother and Child in Rome Stumped Police, So They Called a TV Show

Rome’s largest park, Villa Doria Pamphili, is something of a haven from the city’s bustle and occasional chaos, a place for runners and picnickers and anyone seeking a bit of nature. That vision was shattered last month by the discovery of two bodies: a toddler and a woman, found naked within hours of each other in the brush near an edge of the park.

Investigators were stumped. There were no identifying documents, and the woman’s body was so decomposed it would have been difficult for anyone to identify her visually. The gruesome case immediately brought sensationalist front-page headlines — “Rome, horror in the park, woman and child dead” read one in Rome’s daily La Repubblica. Il Corriere della Sera, in Milan, called it “a whodunit in a park in Rome.”

The country was hooked; the police under pressure.

With few leads, and a media frenzy underway, investigators took an unusual step. A spokeswoman appeared on a popular television show called “Chi l’ha Visto?” — or “Who Has Seen Him?” — to ask for the public’s help.

And viewers of the show, which looks for missing people, did what they had done for 37 seasons: They searched their memories for clues.

All the police had to go on was that the woman had four visible tattoos and that a preliminary autopsy had revealed the child was her daughter. People who frequented the park recalled seeing a young woman and child that may have fit that description in the company of a man.

What unfolded, over several weekly shows, was a sad tale of a young Russian woman’s shattered dream of creating a life for herself abroad. With each revelation, the cachet of “Chi l’ha Visto?” increased, as did questions about the police’s lack of intervention when concerned passers-by had called them about the couple and the child.