Alessandro Coatti, the Italian molecular biologist whose death is under investigation by the Rome prosecutor’s office, was killed in Santa Marta, a seaside town and tourist destination overlooking the Caribbean Sea on Colombia’s coast. The alarm was raised on Sunday, April 6, when a suspicious suitcase was found abandoned near the stadium: inside were the man’s head and arms, identified thanks to a hotel wristband he was still wearing. Other parts of the dismembered body were later found in another neighborhood of Santa Marta.
Authorities are investigating the gruesome case as a homicide, and the Rome investigation is being led by Chief Prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi, while information about the mysterious death of the 42-year-old is being relayed by the Italian Embassy in Bogotá. Coatti is believed to have been in South America for tourism: he had already visited Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. In Colombia, he had visited the Tayrona Natural Park. He was traveling alone and had arrived in Santa Marta the previous Thursday; by Friday, there was no more news of him.
According to some Colombian experts, Coatti may have been killed by paramilitary groups. “Those who kill in this way in the region are the Clan del Golfo and the Autodefensas Conquistadores de la Sierra,” said conflict expert Lerber Dimas to the website El Tiempo. “There is a clear recurring pattern in these crimes: bodies are tortured, dismembered, stuffed into garbage or coffee sacks, and abandoned along rural roads,” added Norma Vera Salazar, a human rights specialist. According to her, “these types of murders are used by self-defence groups to send warning messages, instill fear, and mark territory.”
However, according to sources close to the investigation, there is no evidence linking Coatti to drug trafficking or organized crime activities.
The Italian Embassy in Bogotá is assisting the family with all necessary steps for the identification of the body and is cooperating with authorities on the investigation. According to initial reconstructions, on Saturday evening Coatti had gone out to visit a nightclub but never returned to his hotel.
Born in Portomaggiore in 1986 and raised in Alfonsine, in the province of Ravenna, he attended high school in Argenta (Ferrara). His paternal uncle, Giovanni Coatti, said: “After graduating, he went to the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and then to London; he was living there.”
The biologist had resigned from his job because, “he felt the desire to go live in South America,” and had been traveling through various countries. “He was supposed to return next week,” his uncle added. The body, he said, will not be released until the investigation is complete.
“I don’t know what happened. We’ll probably never know,” he added. “At this point, it might have been better if the remains had never been found.”
