An Italian Murder Mystery- Elisa Claps

 (having trouble with uploading pictures from blogger)

17 years in the making, this story is one that differs from any other story that I have personally blogged about. It starts in Italy on September 12th 1993, when Elisa was just 16 years old. Her story her story has gripped Italy just as Natalee Holloway's story has done for us. She was last seen with one of her close friends, and then went off behind Most Holy Trinity Church in Potenza, in southern Italy, with a man named Danilo Restivo. She was never seen again. Her family was waiting on her to go for a trip around the country side, and when she did not come to meet them, they knew something was wrong right away. Her brother looked for her frantically for her to no avail. And that was that. She was gone. The church was searched, surrounding towns, friends where asked questions, and all the knew was where and who she was last seen with.

Fast forward to 2002, in England. Heather Barnett is found dead inside her family home by her two young children. She was stabbed and mutilated, her breast was almost cut off and there was someone elses hair in her right hand and her own hair was under her left hand. Guess who lived close by to Ms. Barnett? Danilo Restivo. Detectives had a feeling about his involvment so they flew to Italy and tried to dig up some info into the Claps case. But since it had been a 9year old case at the time there was no new info in that case. They found out that Mr. Restivo had been in Heathers home a few days earlier to ask her to have curtains made for him. They also found out there was a string of hair cutting incidents where young girls where on a bus and started missing clumps of hair.

In March 2010, some workers where called to the Most Holy Trinity Church to look into some leaking water. The water leak was coming from the roof top and needed to be fixed. The workers made their way up to the rafters in the roof of the church and started to seek out the source of the leak. They found a mattress up there and laughed that young kids where sneaking up there to engage in sexual acts. One worker explored a little farther past the mattress and came across a gruesome discovery. The mummified body of 16 year old Elisa Claps. In both her hands where cut strands of hair. She had Restivo's DNA on her jumper. A week after she was found a memorial service was taken place at the church and was attended by some 7000 people.

Mr. Restivo denies killing either women, but can not say how his DNA got on Elisa. It was no secret that he was perusing Miss Claps in the months leading up to her murder. Elisa's brother says his sister did not want to date him and kept refusing to go on dates with him. Restivo is currently on trial for the murder of Heather Barnett.