There is a witness in the case of Kataleya Mia Chicillo Alvarez, the little girl who disappeared from the Astor hotel in Florence. He claims the 5-year-old girl was kidnapped. The person, who could be an occupant or a neighbor, told prosecutors Christin Von Borries and Giuseppe Ledda: “I saw her forcibly dragged away.” The direction would be “beyond the courtyard”, towards the building next door. The time is compatible with that of the disappearance. That is between 3 and 3.30 pm. When the cameras frame Kata she looks out the gate of the hotel and then returns. And while the searches in the building near the Astor yield negative results, a report arrives from Bologna. But also a possible motive for the kidnapping. There is talk of revenge for a sexual assault against a teenager of Peruvian origin.
Revenge
The violence allegedly took place last February. To tell the motive is today The print. Some tenants of the San Jacopino hotel spoke about it: “The relatives of that fifteen-year-old may have taken their revenge because the girl had been abused by someone from the hotel”. The wife of the Peruvian citizen who fell from the balcony on 27 May adds other details: «We have someone who manages the rental of the rooms. This man had a fight with his daughter one day. During the discussion it came out that a 15-year-old girl had been raped by someone in the hotel. There was also a meeting among all to discuss the fact. The woman doesn’t remember if it all happened last February: «I’m not sure. But I’m sure that Kataleya’s father was also there during the meeting». Who has been in the Sollicciano prison for theft since March.
The kidnapping
There are at least two escape routes from the Astor square, where the children played last Saturday. The first opens onto via Boccherini, the other onto via Monteverdi. There is also a third. It’s an old door on a back wall. It overlooks the road in a point not framed by the cameras. And it would be found closed. Yesterday the molecular dogs beat the entire structure inch by inch to find the girl. Without results. The children talked about the “secret passage” of the other door. Adding that they didn’t use it for fear of an occupant who made a small room there to sleep. The maternal uncle Abel and the older brother of Kata (who is eight years old) were heard again by the investigators. The uncle admitted that he lost sight of the little girl because he was changing into her two-year-old daughter’s clothes.
Kata’s brother and the balloon men
Kata’s mother, after ingesting bleach, is still in the hospital. The father, also desperate to have attempted suicide, is in prison. Despite these terrible hours, however, there is trust among the relatives: “We have one more hope, I can’t say what, but we have this faith,” said Elisa Suarez, aunt of the missing child. The story of the rape could also be framed within the rivalry between the communities in the area. Under the lens of investigators, explains the newspaper, there is the war between gangs of Latinos in the neighborhood. Kataleya’s brother said men with balloons approached him on Saturday while he was playing with his sister. “Soon after Kata disappeared,” he said. But the surveillance cameras cannot see the entrance of anyone carrying balloons.
The sighting in Bologna and the “I’m fine” signs
The question of revenge would be connected with the post on the social network that appeared and then disappeared in the previous days: “Remember that you have a family in Peru”. During the searches, the soldiers looked in particular for “the shirt with Minnie and Kata’s hat”. The report from Bologna has in the meantime been verified: unfortunately it was not the child. Close to the hotel lSigns have instead appeared along the tram line that runs along the Mugnone stream. They were white A3 sheets with the words “I’m fine” in brackets. They ran along the tram line, they were also posted on the balustrade of the Margherita Hack bridge. The signs were also relaunched by the Facebook page “Peruanos pe unidos per un solo Firenze (Peruvians united by one Firenze)“.
The searches
Yesterday the carabinieri searched apartments, garages, basements. The firefighters have broken down a door, opened and searched the cesspools. They raised the garage doors and checked every corner. Up to the roof. There was a coming and going between the two properties, even with his little brother, to follow a possible route, an itinerary that could perhaps have been used by hypothetical kidnappers to take Kata away without leaving the main gate overlooking the street. The Dda investigates for kidnapping for the purpose of extortion, a sort of kidnapping to take revenge and get something. Walls of gardens, courtyards, barred rooms seem to prevent the two buildings from communicating, it is a maze but internal and secret passages, the inhabitants claim, make it possible to cut through the block from the inside without walking in the street and reach via Monteverdi, a street crossbar. So you could take the child away without being seen.
La mamma Katherine
The carabinieri investigators have also been instructed to interrogate all the occupants who live inside the former Astor hotel, asking if they have useful information to trace Kataleya, or traces also to outline the context in which the little girl lives. And there is also a mystery concerning Katherine, her mother. She learned of her daughter’s disappearance on her return from work at 3.40pm. But she only filed a complaint at 8pm. Who did she rely on to look for Kata in the meantime?
Read on about Open