Edoardo Galli, who disappeared in Colico on March 21st
If Edo has decided to hide in the mountains he won’t be able to do so for long. The firefighters and Alpine Rescue operators who inspect the gullies with drones know this. While father Alessandro and mother Natalia – who from their villa in Colico, thirty kilometers further down the valley, make incessant appeals on television -, they wonder whether or not the absence of tracks in the mountains is a bad sign. «At night it drops below zero. You can’t survive with a denim jacket and tennis shoes”, reflect the rescuers who have been employed for days.
The thesis of the “survival test”
So far, no element has emerged to suggest that Edoardo Galli really climbed the mountains in some sort of “survival test”. Halfway between Rambo and Bear Grylls. He had told some friends about it, had done research on the web and said he was fascinated by the idea of surviving without food or water. But it’s another thing to venture out without a cell phone and warm clothes, especially for a boy “with his head on his shoulders” like him. Saturday’s sighting by two hikers on Mount Suchello (“he had the same glasses, he was sitting on a bench”) is regarded with great caution. Because the walking distance is really long to imagine a crossing between valleys and rock walls.
The research
The base camp for the research is at the Hotel Institute of Casargo (Lecco). Edoardo had spent some summer camps here in past years. And from here he left “enthusiastic”, say his friends, for excursions in the mountains. The Prefecture of Lecco coordinates complicated searches: there is no zero point, nor the certainty that the 16-year-old passed through here. The only trace is the one left in the video footage from the cameras at the Morbegno station (Sondrio) on the morning of Thursday, the day of his disappearance. Edoardo had left Colico to arrive at the «Nervi-Ferrari» scientific high school in Morbegno. The backpack on his shoulders, a bag with a dictionary and another with squares, rulers and compasses. But he had never made it to school. A few minutes later he got back on a train, alone, in the opposite direction, towards Milan and Brianza.
Cell phone turned off
The Lecco Carabinieri, led by Colonel Alessio Carparelli, are working on the images of the stations in the hope of finding other pieces of the puzzle, essential for the searches. But we also delve into the young man’s friendships. Edoardo’s cell phone was turned off from the moment he got back on the train in Morbegno, but help could come from Instagram chats. To access it, without a password, it will take time. The 16-year-old has a passion for music and the saxophone, but is fascinated by travel and discoveries. And then maybe he could have really arrived in Milan, or as his parents suspect he went abroad given that he took away his two passports, Italian and Russian (his mother’s country of origin). But where?
The Russian trail?
The Russian or Ukrainian track is suggestive but almost impossible. Only a sleeping bag has disappeared from the house, no money or credit cards are missing. However, Edoardo may have accumulated a thousand euros from pocket money and tips over the last few months. But why suddenly disappear? Family and friends are unable to explain. Lately, “Edo seemed stressed” by school. He studied a lot and his grades, compared to the past, were not always up to par. A normal crisis, but perhaps a frustrating situation for those who were used to excelling since childhood.