Murder `victim' turns up alive
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Your support makes all the difference.A MAN from a wealthy Italian family who was thought to have been murdered nine years ago has been found living in London.
The Italian police are applying to Interpol to have Ferdinando Carretta extradited on suspicion that he killed his parents and brother before fleeing abroad.
But Mr Carretta, 36, who is understood to have told the police that his family secretly moved to South America, is expected to fight any attempt to take him home to Parma.
The identity of Mr Carretta, a firearms enthusiast, was discovered during a chance stop and search in London about a month ago, but was only revealed yesterday. He has spent several years living in London doing menial jobs and claiming benefits. He has been living in a poor part of London, even though his family's bank account contains a large amount of money - possibly hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The case has caused a sensation in Italy, has baffled the police and led to a number of conspiracy theories.
Giuseppe Carretta, his wife, Marta, and their youngest son, Nicola, who had drug problems, were last seen on 4 August 1989 when they headed off on holiday in their camper van to France, Spain, and North Africa. The older brother, Ferdinando, stayed at home.
Two days after they left, Ferdinando cashed two cheques at a local bank, one from his brother and one from his father, for four million lira (about pounds 2,000), and then he too disappeared. The signatures on the cheques turned out to be false.
When the family failed to return from their holidays, relatives reported them missing.
Investigators have looked at the possibility that the family made off with several million dollars from slush funds. Much was also made in the Italian media of the bad relationship between Giuseppe Carretta and his eldest son. Ferdinando had bought a pistol shortly before the disappearance.
There was a sighting of one of the family in Venezuela in 1992 and other sightings in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Mr Carretta's surprise discovery was made during a routine stop and search operation by the City of London police in late October.
The officer who checked the Italian's identification became suspicious and carried out a search on his name, discovering that Mr Carretta and his family were on Interpol's missing persons list.
Interpol contacted the Italian police, who sent over several officers about a week ago. They questioned Mr Carretta and are putting together a request for his extradition.
The case, however, is far from clear-cut because the Italians do not have any murder victims or proof that Mr Carretta has broken the law.
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