He introduced himself as Rexal Ford, an American film producer with a script in hand and a plan to relocate a comedy from Malta to Italy. But Charles Francis Kaufmann, 46, was not who he claimed to be. On June 13, he was arrested on the Greek island of Skiathos, just days after the bodies of a woman and an infant—whom he had passed off as his daughter—were discovered hidden in the underbrush of Rome’s Villa Pamphili, one of the city’s most elegant public parks.
On May 7, he arrived at the firm’s office by taxi, accompanied by the woman and the baby girl. “He didn’t look like someone on the run,” a company executive recalled. “He wore jeans, a leather jacket, a T-shirt, and sneakers—casual, like a typical American filmmaker.” The woman and child waited quietly in a separate lounge during the meeting, which lasted just under two hours. Kaufmann handed over the script and left the premises the same way he came.
Exactly one month later, on the evening of June 7, the bodies of the woman and child were found in dense vegetation inside Villa Pamphili. The infant had been strangled; her body was discovered naked and partially concealed. The woman, presumed to be the mother, had also died under suspicious circumstances. Authorities began piecing together the man’s identity and whereabouts, though at the time, they still knew him only as “Rexal Ford.”
What followed was a rapid unraveling of Kaufmann’s carefully curated façade. Italian investigators, in coordination with the FBI, discovered that “Rexal Ford” did not exist. Kaufmann had been living in Europe under a false identity, using a legitimate U.S. passport issued in a fabricated name. For years, Kaufmann is believed to have received between $5,000 and $6,000 a month from his parents, on the condition that he stay away from the United States.
Communications from the FBI revealed a violent criminal history: at least five prior arrests in the United States for domestic violence and assault, including a conviction for assault with a deadly weapon that had left the victim seriously injured. He served 120 days in jail.
Between 2023 and 2024, he lived in Marsascala, Malta, with a woman and a child believed to be his. Known locally as Stella Ford, the woman was never officially registered, nor was the child. Kaufmann paid over €1,000 a month for rent using family-funded credit cards, frequented local restaurants, and occasionally pitched screenplay ideas. During that period, he promoted a fake film, The Great Culinary Battle of Malta, complete with fabricated posters and cast.
Roman investigating judge Flavia Costantini issued a ten-page detention order describing Kaufmann as a man of “elevated criminal capacity” and “persistent intent to carry out a criminal plan.” According to the document, he stood by as his partner died, made no effort to call for help, and then attempted to cover up the crime—hiding her body, destroying her clothes, and leaving no trace that might link him to the scene. He never reported either the woman or the child missing.
The judge called attention to “the inherent brutality in the act of strangulation,” and described Kaufmann’s behavior as driven by an “inability to control violent impulses,” particularly toward “vulnerable and defenseless individuals, such as a baby likely under the age of one.” While Kaufmann has so far been formally charged only with the child’s death, investigators have not ruled out a second homicide. The final autopsy report on the woman is still pending.
Meanwhile, Kaufmann maintained his film producer persona. On June 9—two days before fleeing Italy—he sent a second email to the consultancy. “I’m working on a rewrite of the script to relocate the film to Italy,” he wrote, as if nothing had happened. Then he boarded a plane to Greece.
He was arrested on Skiathos on June 13. Italy has since filed a formal extradition request, while Kaufmann, through his attorneys, has expressed the desire to return to the United States. The final decision now rests with the Greek judiciary.
