Search efforts for Francis Kaufmann’s missing trolley expanded on Wednesday to include both Rome’s Villa Pamphili park and the banks of the Tiber River. Divers and police units are scouring the area beneath Ponte Garibaldi and combing through wooded sections of the park, working on the assumption that the luggage may contain clothing, phones, or other items that could shed light on the sequence of events leading up to the double homicide.
A photograph taken on June 10 shows Kaufmann pulling the trolley as he walks along Via Arenula toward the river. By the next day, when he boarded a flight to Greece from Rome’s Fiumicino airport, the bag had vanished. Just days earlier, on June 7, the bodies of Anastasia Trofimova and her infant daughter Andromeda were discovered in the park, where the three had been living outdoors for at least two weeks.
Kaufmann had been stopped by police on June 5 in the Largo Argentina area, visibly intoxicated and carrying the baby in his arms. He was in possession of a U.S. passport under a false name. Andromeda was killed the next day; preliminary findings suggest Trofimova may have been dead for several days by the time her body was found.
Following his departure from Italy, Kaufmann was arrested on June 11 on the Greek island of Skiathos. He is currently being held in a prison in Larissa, where a hearing on his extradition to Italy is scheduled for Thursday. His defense team—reportedly backed by American diplomatic officials—has strongly opposed the transfer, demanding legal safeguards and consular involvement. Italian authorities are pressing for a swift extradition, while Greece finds itself navigating between competing international pressures.
In a video link with prosecutors in Rome, Kaufmann maintained his innocence and declined to answer any questions. His sister, interviewed by Italian investigators, has portrayed him as a violent man with a history of deception and multiple false identities.
Meanwhile, search operations led by the Rome Police Mobile Squad and the Central Operations Service continue without pause, with investigators focusing on areas near the river known to be frequented by the unhoused, where the missing trolley may have been discarded in an attempt to conceal evidence.
