US man arrested after bodies of woman and baby found in park.
A woman found dead in Rome’s largest park on 7 June has been identified as Anastasia Trofimova, a 28-year-old Russian citizen, Italian prosecutors said on Thursday.
The woman’s naked body was found in a rubbish bag, hidden under bushes in Villa Pamphilj, a few hundred metres away from the corpse of her baby daughter.
A 46-year-old American man, Francis Kaufmann, was arrested in Greece last week in relation to the deaths.
The man, who was originally identified as Rexal Ford, had been travelling under a fake passport.
The woman was born in the city of Omsk in Siberia, while the baby girl, who has been identified as Andromeda Ford, was born in Malta in June 2024.
The case has been the subject of extensive coverage in Italy, featuring on the missing persons television show Chi l’ha visto?, which showed images of the woman’s tattoos – issued by police – in a bid to identify her.
+++ Morte a Villa Pamphili: La foto della donna insieme al cittadino americano fermato oggi in Grecia. +++
L’uomo identificato grazie alla segnalazione arrivata a “Chi l’ha visto?”. Lei non ancora con precisione. Qualcuno la riconosce?#chilhavisto→https://t.co/15TDn6XkXl pic.twitter.com/fBE4McqJrI
— Chi l’ha visto? (@chilhavistorai3) June 13, 2025
The programme announced on Thursday that it had been contacted by the woman’s mother who said her daughter had gone to study English in Malta where she met Kaufmann, or Rexal Ford.
The last contact she had with her daughter was an email on 2 June in which the woman said she was having problems with her partner but that they were trying to resolve them, the TV show said in a statement.
Kauffman reportedly entered Italy illegally, arriving in Sicily aboard a private catamaran that left from Valletta, and passing himself as Matteo Capozzi.
In addition to his numerous aliases, Kauffman introduced himself off as a film director or producer, until his arrest on the Greek island of Skiathos a few days ago.
The investigation involves the collaboration of the FBI and Maltese authorities, with prosecutors accusing Kauffman of killing the baby and concealing the corpse of the woman.
