Italian town of Nardò erupts in joy over news that Tramacere is alive.
A woman who had been missing for more than 10 days in Italy’s southern Puglia region was found alive and well by Carabinieri police in the attic of a friend’s house on Thursday night.
The missing persons case of 27-year-old Tatiana Tramacere from Nardò, in the province of Lecce, has attracted widespread media coverage in Italy amid fears that she might have been a victim of femicide.
Police located Tramacere in a small attic room in the residence of Dragos-Ioan Gheormescu, her 30-year-old friend of Romanian origin who was the last person known to have seen her before she went missing on 24 November.
It is not yet clear whether she was abducted or whether she left voluntarily, covered up by Gheormescu, who had been detained for questioning, state broadcaster RAI News reports.
Initially placed under investigation by prosecutors for incitement to suicide in connection with Tramacere’s disappearance, Gheormescu could face new charges if it emerges that she was held against her will.
Tramacere had reportedly been planning to travel to Brescia to meet an ex-boyfriend, having already purchased a bus ticket she never used. Her family publicly expressed their conviction that she would not have left voluntarily.
Tramacere’s safe retrieval on Thursday has brought “joy and relief” to her family, according to her father who paid tribute to the Carabinieri and described her return as” a beautiful moment, a Christmas present”.
Nardò mayor Pippi Mellone also expressed “great joy” at the news and noted the “interminable days of anguish” that the community had endured.
