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The Circeo murder (also known as the Circeo crime) is a case of kidnapping and murder that took place in the Italian town of San Felice Circeo (on the Pontine coast, in the area of the homonymous promontory on the Tyrrhenian Sea).
The Event
The meeting
On the 29th September 1975, Izzo, Guido and Ghira met at 4:00 p.m. with Donatella Colasanti and Rosaria Lopez, two girls who had met a few days earlier through a mutual friend. The two were invited to Circeo, in the villa of Ghira, in the locality of "Punta Rossa".
The massacre
Once they reached their destination they were raped, drugged, tortured and massacred for a total of thirty-five hours. Lopez was eventually taken to the bathroom on the first floor of the villa, where she was beaten and drowned in the bathtub, while Colasanti was nearly strangled with a belt and savagely beaten.
Aftermath
The two girls were then hidden in the trunk of the car of Guido's father and then went to have dinner. The lamentations of Colasanti, a survivor of the violence, attracted the attention of a night watchman who gave the alarm.
The Investigation and the Process
The investigation
The investigations were entrusted to the Carabinieri commanded by Marshal Gesualdo Simonetti that reconstructe the dynamics of the case thanks to Donatella's depositions.
The trial
During the trial, Donatella was represented by the lawyer Tina Lagostena Bassi.
Arrest of the perpetrators
Izzo and Guido were arrested within a few hours while Ghira went into hiding. On the 29th July 1976, all three were sentenced to life imprisonment in the first degree. The sentence was also confirmed in the subsequent degrees of trial for Izzo and Ghira, while Guido was granted the general extenuating circumstances on appeal, thus reducing the sentence to thirty years.
After, Andrea Ghira was released from prison.
Trivia
- This event was rappresented in the movie "I violenti di Roma bene" ("The violent of the wealthy Rome") (1976) and "The catholic school" (2021).