An Italian tourist, Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, was the victim of a nightmare that lasted three weeks right in the heart of Lower Manhattan, in SoHo. In connection with the incident, on Friday, a man named John Woeltz, a cryptocurrency investor originally from Kentucky, was arrested. He faces charges of kidnapping and assault. Along with him Beatrice Folchi, a Social Media and Marketing Manager at Waterdream, a Dutch yacht brand, was also arrested, but for now the details of her involvement remain murky.
According to the New York Police Department, the 28-year-old victim, who is believed to be a business partner of the arrested man, arrived from Italy on May 6 and was allegedly tied up and tortured in the luxury apartment on Prince Street–where the monthly rent ranges between $30,000 and $40,000. Armed with a chainsaw, Woeltz reportedly carried out a sadistic plan in an attempt to obtain the passwords to the victim’s accounts. After managing to free himself, injured and bloodied, the Italian sought help from a traffic officer, who immediately alerted law enforcement.
The moment of the arrest was described by a witness as chaotic. Upon entering the residence, officers found numerous Polaroid photos likely intended to extort money from the family, showing the unfortunate man bound and mistreated, along with a gun and various instruments used for torture. According to sources, the young man had been restrained with an electrical cable, shocked with a taser while his feet were submerged in water, forced to take cocaine, and threatened with having his limbs amputated with a chainsaw.
Two butlers who worked at the residence have been questioned by investigators to clarify any dynamics involved and the possible complicity of the 24-year-old Beatrice Folchi.
Local residents expressed shock at the incident. Woeltz’s arrest also reveals a hidden reality that contrasts sharply with the neighborhood’s veneer of respectability: a case still shrouded in mystery, with many investigative threads yet to be unraveled.
