Missing persons, Fabrizio Catalano and the others: the deafening silence of absence
The young man disappeared in Assisi more than 20 years ago, many delays in the investigation, silences, cruel answers. Mother Caterina speaks
Key points
"Fabrizio is our eldest son. On 21 July 2005 he was in Assisi, where he was to attend the second year of a four-year music therapy course. His tracks were lost on the Franciscan Peace Trail from Assisi to Gubbio. There, after a few days, his bag with all his personal belongings was found, and after seven months, his guitar. The alarm was immediately triggered by his classmates who were staying with Fabrizio. Then they found his mobile phone on charge, but nothing of him'. Speaking is Caterina Migliazza, the mother of Fabrizio Catalano, the young 19-year-old who disappeared in Assisi on 21 July 2005. Caleidoscopio - the video column to look at the world amidst colours and chiaroscuros - to talk about missing persons starts from the pain-filled story told by Fabrizio Catalano's mother. The family has been searching for the truth for over twenty years and has come up against silences, cruel answers, days of waiting that have turned into years of pain. And they have created a page 'Looking for Fabrizio and ...' to make the boy's story known. To continue looking for him. To help other families who struggle every day with the disappearance of a loved one. To raise awareness among young people in schools, to continue to hope.
From Denise to Angela, the pain of disappearance
Fabrizio's is one of the stories that cannot be glimpsed from the numbers in the report drawn up every year by the office of the Commissioner for Missing Persons Saverio Ordine. Numbers that hide many stories of pain, such as that of Denise Pipitone, who disappeared at the age of almost four on 1 September 2004 in Mazara del Vallo, or that of Angela Celentano, who disappeared at the age of three on 10 August 1996 on Monte Faito. Or the story, perhaps best known, of Emanuela Orlandi, the Vatican citizen who disappeared in Rome at the age of 15 on 22 June 1983 after a music lesson near Piazza Navona.
Who is Fabrizio
Fabrizio is a young man from Collegno, in the province of Turin. A young, likeable, sensitive, romantic, guitarist and rugby player. He rents a flat in Assisi with three classmates. A flat to which he will never return after leaving on Thursday 21 July 2005. Suddenly the family finds itself catapulted into an endless drama. Phone calls from his flatmates to his parents set off the alarm. The parents immediately file a missing persons report, which 'does not receive the attention it deserves', says the mother. The report was filed as a voluntary departure, because Fabrizio was already an adult, 19 years old. So the search did not start immediately.
The discovery of the guitar seven months later
After a few days on the Franciscan Peace Trail that goes from Assisi to Gubbio, his bag was found and after seven months, in January 2006, his guitar was found by a hunter. "After the guitar was found, we finally got the appointment of a public prosecutor, so the big search started after 27 months. The analysis of the guitar clearly yielded no results, so it remained mute and continues to be mute. It gave us no answers, it only gave us more questions. Unfortunately there was a lot of superficiality, especially in the first moments, which were very important.
With no mercy who should have led the investigation
During the video interview, the mother recounts all the pain she experienced in the years following Fabrizio's disappearance. Including the very heavy phrases she had to hear from those who should have conducted the investigation: 'in September the hunt opens, so finding a body now in three months what difference does it make?' she heard from those who were supposed to organise a search party. And 27 months later, on the occasion of a further search on the Franciscan path: 'Let's do the search party, but be aware that in that area wild boars don't even leave their shoelaces'.
