A completely valid document, issued in 2019, but with a false name. A passport with which Francis Kaufmann, this is the real name of the man who killed a baby girl of a few months in Rome, has been traveling undisturbed for years . Malta, Russia, Italy and Greece are his latest destinations. The Villa Pamphili mystery is enriched with a new piece: the man stopped in Greece, on the island of Skiathos, is not Rexal Ford .
The work of the Prosecutor's Office, in collaboration with the FBI, has led to a new twist in the story: the 46-year-old had a document issued by the American authorities six years ago with a false name, an alias. An element that opens up further scenarios in a story whose contours are hard to define. The woman found dead 200 meters from her daughter still has no name. "She said her name was Stella Ford," some witnesses reported. An identity that, however, has not been confirmed. For investigators, the origin must be between Russia, where the two had stayed, and Ukraine. For a witness, Oskar 'El Mariachi', a Mexican musician who met her in Malta, she was a "computer genius, a sort of hacker. A Robin Hood of the Internet. Not even Rexal knew exactly what she did."
So what did the two of them do for a living? Can any possible links with security apparatuses be ruled out? He introduced himself as a film director and producer . On May 7 , Kaufmann - accompanied by the woman and the child - went to a Roman production studio for an "international" project with a budget of three million euros . An email from the United Kingdom by British producers also supports the candidacy.
On June 5, two days before the bodies were found, the Californian sent a voice message to an Italian friend: "My wife left me. She got back with her ex, he's rich. She left me with the child because she wasn't interested in being a mother anymore. Now I'm looking for a place to stay in Rome." In the same audio, the man mentions a film project in which even Dhani Harrison, son of the legendary George of the Beatles, would have been involved. Friendships yet to be proven, in a story told in a detached tone and an almost mechanical voice. Words recorded when the woman was already dead . A body, at the moment, not claimed by anyone but whose identity could be revealed in the next few hours by tracing a determining element: two years ago, in mid-2023, Ford arrived in Malta and met the woman. The child was born in 2024, probably in a hospital on the island . For this reason, checks are underway to understand the name of the child's mother, perhaps contained in the health records. It is from there that the couple, with the child, would have then left to go to Russia, the possible country of origin of the woman.
In Malta, Ford-Kaufmann would have also obtained a local identity card and would have lived with his partner in a small village in the south of the island. Finally, the dramatic epilogue in Italy, with the body of the newborn found on June 7th. On the body, left near a hedge, signs of violence, of strangulation.
The prosecutors of Piazzale Clodio, coordinated by the deputy Giuseppe Cascini, have charged the suspect in the European arrest warrant (EAW) with voluntary homicide aggravated by the victim's minority and concealment of a corpse. The Ministry of Justice has also received the European investigation order (OEI) from the investigators and has forwarded it to the Greek authorities, so that the request for extradition to Italy can be formalized. Thanks to the European investigation order, it is possible to obtain crucial elements such as the acquisition of the accused's DNA, but also the credit card and two cell phones he had with him at the time of his arrest. If the DNA test proves the family relationship with the child, the accusation could be further aggravated for the suspect . The man is currently detained in Volos prison, in Greece, and the Council of the Court of Appeal of Larissa will decide in the next few days on the procedure for his surrender.
But the murderer did not consent to the transfer to our country and this could slow down the procedures, even by months. In this mystery, the causes of the woman's death still need to be ascertained and the conditions in which she was found make the work complex. A possible death due to an abnormal suffocation, for example with a pillow, would have been ruled out by the initial autopsy results. In the meantime, the investigations continue on several fronts. Ford's bank movements and credit card transactions are being analyzed. The investigators are trying to understand whether the man really built a web of lies around himself, disguised as artistic ambitions.
(Online Union)
