They put him to bed like every night and never found him again. Over 200 people participate in the search for a child of just 21 months, not even 2 years old, who disappeared from home in the night between Monday and Tuesday: a cottage surrounded by woods, reachable only through a dirt road, in Mugello, in an almost wild territory of the ‘Apennines on the border between Tuscany and Emilia. The child disappeared in the Molino di Campanara locality, in the municipality of Palazzuolo sul Senio. With the setting of the sun and the difficulties of searching in the dark, a fire brigade helicopter with thermoscanner for night searches also took off. For the new aircraft of the Air Force, an HH-139B, this is the first real intervention. It is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, useful in interventions in particularly inaccessible environments or with poor light conditions, as in this case. For now, the first overflight with a thermoscanner has given a negative result. The searches will continue throughout the night.
Child missing in Mugello, research with helicopters and molecular dogs
The parents of the baby are beekeepers and breeders. Not far from their home, in an abandoned village, there is an ecovillage of Campanara, where a group of three Italian and foreign families live devoting themselves to the cultivation and production of organic products, in a context that tells of a philosophy of life devoted to nature . However, the family of the missing child is not part of the community. However, they were the first to participate in the research, when this morning the father and mother of the child, who have another child, noticed the disappearance. The child is called Nicola Tanturli, he was born in Borgo San Lorenzo on 28 September 2019.
When the parents went to wake him up, they found an empty cot. They searched the whole house, then the surrounding land. They gave the alarm to the carabinieri. Nicola is a child who lives in the countryside, used to moving independently, even beyond the edges of the house and the immediate vicinity. The hypothesis considered most likely is that during the night, it is not clear at what time he woke up, got out of bed and left the house, where he never returned. He may have walked a long time and got lost, unable to find his way home. The jokes by the firefighters and carabinieri immediately started and in the afternoon there were 18 teams of volunteers engaged in the research.
The range of searches is very wide because it is not known exactly the time when the child left and consequently the distance he may have traveled given his tender age. In particular, the jokes were initially concentrated in a nearby pond where it was feared that the child might have fallen. But after the divers’ inspection this possibility was ruled out.
What is known is that, given the kind of life of the community – some uninhabited houses and farmhouses since the 1980s that have been repopulated in the last decade thanks to the arrival of Italians and foreigners, particularly Germans – it is that the child he was used to moving independently, both indoors and outdoors. A village far from the so-called modernity, reachable only by a dirt road and where the telephone network and the internet work in fits and starts.
Following the reports of expulsion made by the parents, the prefecture has activated the search plan for missing persons. Alpine rescue teams and civil protection volunteers have also been activated on the trails in the area. The territory was sifted throughout the afternoon with a fire brigade helicopter, with drones and with dog units, with both molecular and research dogs.
“The parents are upset, and our whole community is out in the woods looking for the baby.” One of the inhabitants of the ecovillage tells it, reached by telephone from Ansa. According to what the woman explained, the child’s family lives in a cottage about 2 kilometers from the other houses. “We have been sifting through the area relentlessly since this morning – says Gian Piero Moschetti, mayor of Palazzuolo sul Senio – the whole town is involved in the search for the child, there are also volunteers from neighboring countries, everyone is helping. The research will continue until until there will be an outcome. I spoke to the family, they are clearly very worried, let’s hope for the best. “
“We hope that the research machine will prove effective – comments Moschetti – the area is tens of square kilometers with steep and very inaccessible parts, many wild animals. The forest is dense and is a restricted area, a Site of Community interest ( Sic), where it is not possible to make cuts, therefore searches are very difficult, the vegetation cover is very extensive and dense “.
.