Fabrizio Catalano

Status:

Open

Missing From:

Assisi, Perugia

Summary:

Fabrizio Catalano, a 19-year-old from Collegno, Turin, disappeared on 21 July 2005 in Assisi while attending a music therapy course. His tracks were lost on the Franciscan Peace Trail from Assisi to Gubbio. His bag with wallet and documents was found a few days later along the trail, and his guitar was discovered seven months after his disappearance. The case remains unsolved.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

On the morning of 21 July 2005, Fabrizio left the apartment he shared in Assisi to attend class, as he did every day, but never returned. When he did not come home that evening, his roommates raised the alarm, and his parents, Caterina and Ezio Catalano, rushed from Turin to Assisi. In his room they found an anguishing silence: all his personal belongings were there, including his mobile phone left on charge and his newly-fitted glasses. Only three things were missing: his wallet, his black guitar, and a white hiking bag. A friend recalled receiving a phone call from him on 19 July 2005 in which he said: "Something wonderful happened to me... I found the road with the help of the Good Lord." The day after his disappearance, various personal items were found in his Assisi house, including his still-charging mobile phone and glasses, suggesting he had left suddenly and precipitously. A few days later, his white bag was found on the dirt path called the "Sentiero di San Francesco" between Assisi and Valfabbrica in the Pieve San Nicolò area, and a woman was certain she had met him on Friday 22 July 2005 and offered him water and two tomatoes.

Additional Details:

From the beginning, official investigations struggled to take off. In the absence of signs of violence, the hypothesis of voluntary departure prevailed—a belief that subsequently negatively conditioned the searches. The Carabinieri of Assisi initially did not even put in writing the names of two street artists who had played music with Fabrizio the evening before his disappearance. In September 2005, the family achieved national visibility with an urgent appeal during the television program "Chi l'ha visto?," but no concrete leads emerged. In 2006, a new disturbing element surfaced: Fabrizio's guitar was found near a path, not far from where the bag had been discovered. The instrument was in good condition, placed with care, as if it had been deliberately set down. The parents obtained access to the investigative file and were shocked: the dossier was practically empty, lacking thorough reconstructions. "It's as if no one had really searched for Fabrizio," Caterina Catalano would later say. In 2007, a new police commissioner, Francesco De Miccoli, decided to reopen the case, organizing search operations with dog units and firefighters along the already-searched trail, admitting that investigations had initially been incomplete. For the first time, authorities considered hypotheses different from voluntary departure, including the possibility of involvement of third parties. After De Miccoli's transfer shortly afterward, the investigation stalled, and in 2011 it was archived as an unsolved case. A tribunal in Turin pronounced a decree of presumed death on 10 November 2022, more than one year after the family's formal request. His parents have not surrendered, transforming their anguish into a daily mission: searching for Fabrizio and keeping his memory alive. They founded the Association "Cercando Fabrizio e…" (Searching for Fabrizio and...), organized prayer vigils and public initiatives at each anniversary of his disappearance. In 2018, a woman from Narni, province of Terni, wrote a detailed letter asserting she was certain she had given a hitchhike to Fabrizio, who would be about 33 years old then, on 7 November 2018.

Case Last Updated:

Nov 04, 2026