Rome
CNN
–
A hint to the Italian TV show popular with the public was arrested on a Greek island of Americans suspecting of killing a baby girl and hiding the body of their mother in a busy Rome park.
“On June 13th, in Skysos, officers from the island’s police station worked with the (Italian) state police to identify and stop American citizens.
The body of a baby girl, which Italian provincial police thought would be between six and ten months, was found on June 7th under a bush at the corner of Rome’s largest park.
A few hours later, a child playing in the park noticed his arms protruding from under a black garbage bag, leading to the discovery of the naked body of a young woman, thought to be in her late 20s or early 30s.
DNA testing showed the woman was the mother of the baby, police said at a June 11 press conference.
The first autopsy report was inconclusive in the cause of death of the woman, they said, adding that she had no visible wounds. The baby, who had an empty stomach, showed signs of strangulation.
Unable to identify the body, police have released photos of their mother’s extensive tattoos. These tattoos were featured on the popular missing person television show Chi L’Havisto? on June 9th. (“Who saw him/her?”), it invited the public to call for information about the mother and child’s identity.
Several people came, including some who saw the young woman and her baby in various soup kitchens in the city, as well as others who witnessed an altercation between a woman and a man in the central square of Rome, according to an eyewitness featured in “Chi L’Havisto.”
Police were called to the incident and took details of the man. No arrests were made at the time, but the information led to the man’s identification. No details about the woman were made in the incident.
Photos of a man covered in blood from a head wound, as well as photos reported to be sitting next to a woman and a baby, surfaced as a result of television appeal. And a photo of a man without a woman – a clearly crying baby girl crying in her arm, spoke to police two days before the infant died. Police said the woman with her baby in a state that she was more advanced than the baby was not seen in the photos.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation also helped track the man’s credit and SIM card, police said at a press conference in Rome on Friday after his arrest.
The suspect’s identity has not been officially released in Italy, but he is widely named in Italian and Greek media. CNN will not disclose his name unless he is charged with a crime.
Police told CNN on Monday that they were still unable to verify the identity of the woman or her baby, but DNA testing was underway to determine whether the American arrested in Greece was the baby’s father.
The US embassy in Rome provides consular services to arrested Americans, but said they would not comment specifically on the incident. CNN was unable to determine whether the man currently has an attorney.
The Italian prosecutor’s office said it would seek extradition of the man from Greece.
