Bari, April 13, 2021 – He was only six years old, Mauro Romano, when he was kidnapped in Salento in 1977, 44 years ago. But his mom has never stopped looking for him, and now she thinks she has spotted him: she thinks it might be Sheikh Mohammed Al Habtoor, 52 years old (and the age more or less coincides), son of the tycoon Khalaf Al Habtoor.
Bianca Colaianni, Mauro’s mother who may have become a sheikh, confides her hopes to Ansa: “I hope it’s him – he says – because it would mean that he is still alive and that no one has ever killed him”. But why should the little one be the sheikh? The mother, explains Corsera, has it recognized thanks to “two scars: one on the eyebrow, the other on his right hand: he got it with an iron “, he says.
Obviously the scars are not enough: it is necessary to do the DNA examination. But according to the newspaper, the emir has so far refused to submit to it. The Romano family, however, has no intention of giving up: they will go to Dubai in person to have the examination carried out through the intercession of the consular authorities.
The disappearance of Mauro
The little boy disappeared into thin air in Racale (Lecce), on 21 June 1977. According to the investigations, the alleged kidnapper is a 79-year-old former barber, a friend of the family whom Mauro called ‘uncle’ and who on the day of his disappearance, according to the Prosecutor’s Office , made the child get on his Apecar and took him to his summer house to play with his son. This, according to the prosecution, pending delivery to two individuals, unknown to date, who then took him by force, making all traces of him disappear.