Alessia Rosati was an italian literature student at La Sapienza, Rome and used to live in Conca D’Oro neighborhood with her family: her dad, Antonio, worked as municipal policeman, her mom Anna as a regional employee and her brother Danilo was a student.

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On the morning of July 23rd 1994, she leaves her house telling her brother she would have been back home by lunch, as the family had to leave for their usual vacation in her father’s hometown, Bazzano, a small hamlet of Spoleto in Umbria. 

In previous years, Alessia had always expressed reluctance about going to a place she found lacking in stimulation for someone her age and with her lively personality. However, this year she seemed to accept the trip willingly, which surprised her parents.

She had to meet Claudia to go assist at her high school final exams.

Later that day, she was allegedly seen quickly walking around the neighborhood with a walkman and headphones on her head, was said to be somewhat agitated.

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Alessia never returns for lunch. From that moment on, there is no further trace of Alessia. Her parents immediately go to file a missing person report, but it is only accepted the following Monday, two days after her disappearance.

In the days immediately following Alessia’s disappearance, the search continues without success. The only clue comes from a friend of Alessia’s brother, who claims to have seen her in a white Peugeot 205 with the word “Rally” written on both sides. He states that when she noticed him, she tried to hide her face. 

Investigations reveal that the car comes from Northern Italy and is owned by the Prison Police. Alessia had been corresponding by letter with a young man from Bazzano, a cadet in the prison guard training program. However, inquiries into this individual yield no significant results.

It is also discovered that Alessia had been regularly corresponding him. Although the letters reveal nothing beyond a simple friendship, her parents notice that Alessia described to this friend a life very different from reality. Alessia claimed she had already run away from home, which was not true. 

These revelations lead her parents to realize that Alessia was living a double life, making up stories and situations that did not reflect her actual existence.

The following Monday, Claudia is questioned at the police station. Upon returning home, she finds a letter, supposedly sent by Alessia on the day she went missing. The letter is handed over to Alessia’s parents and later to law enforcement. Its content suggests that Alessia’s departure was voluntary, which leads to the official search being called off, as Alessia was of legal age.

This is the letter content. It has been confirmed to be her calligraphy:

Dear Claudia,
I know I always told you everything but this time it all happened so suddenly…
I met a boy in Conca D’oro street which has been very important for me in the past,
He was about to leave and if I didn’t do it now I wouldn’t have done it anymore…
I couldn’t handle it anymore… I had to run away from this shit year… Also Monday I’d have to go in that shitty town and you know how much I hate it…
We’re about to travel Europe and I don’t know when I’ll come back… I need to evade…
Now I feel like I’m born again especially because I really wanted to travel.
I don’t feel like telling my parents… Please tell them yourself…
I’m sorry we won’t see each other but it would have been only Sunday
Alessia

Now that I think of it, inform my father. You know how he’s like.

Kisses, Alessia.

This letter, initially not examined with the necessary attention, led the authorities to prematurely conclude the investigation, assuming a voluntary disappearance. However, it raises concerns that not even Claudia, Alessia’s usual confidante, knew the identity of the mysterious boy mentioned in the letter.

The mailing date of the letter is a key element: it appears to have been sent on the very morning of the disappearance, if not earlier. Processed at Rome Tiburtina, the letter was neither priority nor registered mail, suggesting a carefully planned action. This raises important questions: why did Alessia choose to communicate through a letter that would only arrive after her disappearance, instead of speaking directly to Claudia?

Only later do Alessia’s parents notice significant errors both in the letter and on the envelope. The address was incorrect an unlikely mistake given how frequently Alessia and Claudia exchanged correspondence. 

These details, initially overlooked, suggest that the error may have been intentional. Additionally, the letter contains stylistic and grammatical inconsistencies that do not align with Alessia’s educational level as a literature student.

Alessia’s father, unable to find answers, begins his own investigation. He searches his daughter’s room and discovers that she had been involved with social centers and far-left groups an aspect of her life previously unknown to him. 

He contacts members of the editorial committee of a Marxist pamphlet that Alessia was involved with, but none of them provide any useful information.

Not only do the collaborators of the magazine Avanzi di Scienza prominent figures such as Gianluca Peciola, Fabio Ciabatti, Alessio Gagliardi, Luca Nutarelli, Simone Turchetti, and Davide Vender deny having any useful information when summoned to the family home, but some even respond with hostility, accusing Antonio of being a fascist.

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Antonio’s concern grows when a particular event, which occurred in the early hours following the disappearance, raises alarm for Alessia’s mother. When she suggests to Claudia that she look for Alessia in Via dei Volsci, at the headquarters of Radio Onda Rossa [Radio Red Wave], Claudia strongly objects, insisting that she will check herself. This unusually firm response fuels further suspicion.

Alessia’s father, Antonio, revealed that shortly before her disappearance, he had received a disturbing phone call. A male voice told him that Alessia “would do well to stop beating people up and having others beat people up.” This episode seemed to suggest a connection to the world of political extremism, but no concrete evidence ever emerged to support this lead.

According to the family’s account, shortly before her disappearance, Alessia sold her whole collection of Agatha Christie mystery novels. Although it was her mother who had passed on the passion for these books, Alessia had built the collection entirely on her own. However, it remains unknown who sold the collection and for how much. This gesture remains unexplained and was never properly investigated.

About a year after Alessia’s disappearance, on July 6, 1995, a disturbing message was left on her parents’ answering machine. “…to track you down because it’s going (so?) badly” a woman said in an agitated tone. When filing a report at the local police station, Alessia’s father noted that the voice was “likely foreign, possibly Yugoslavian, with an unclear tone.”

Monica Manzini, graphologist, conducted a detailed analysis of the only real piece of evidence in the Alessia Rosati case: the letter Alessia sent to Claudia shortly before her disappearance. In the letter, Alessia announced her decision to leave suddenly with “a boy who was very important to me,” to go “to Europe” without knowing “when I will return.” Alessia’s parents, Antonio and Anna Rosati, had always believed the letter was a cry for help written under duress, as it contained a mistaken temporal reference that only they would understand: Alessia placed the departure for the village in Umbria on the following Monday, while the correct date was Saturday, the day she disappeared. They thought the kidnappers forced her to mislead and reassure everyone with a fake trip to Europe, inserting a wrong detail to alert the family.

However, Manzini’s analysis suggests otherwise.

Manzini, who has also worked on famous cases states that there is no objective evidence supporting the hypothesis of a voluntary departure or a letter written under threat. Alessia’s handwriting lacks signs of terror such as trembling, hesitation, or sudden angularity. However, emotional fragility and anxiety clearly emerge. These are shown by the overlapping of letters and the hurried movement of the script toward the right, which expresses a desire to escape and flee. The strong aggressiveness in the sharp crossing of the “t”s suggests inner tension, while the expanding left margin reflects a need to break free.

During the investigation, Monica Manzini actively participated in field searches. In 2019, the authorities reopened the case, which was soon closed again, and Manzini collaborated using sniffer dogs trained to detect specific scents in search of any traces of Alessia in Montesacro Park, where the young woman used to go and where two aerial photographs from that time show ground disturbance. These dogs detected some trails, but unfortunately none led to a decisive discovery, as the lack of institutional support prevented the carrying out of proper excavations. During the searches, a bone was found which, after careful examination, appear not to belong to Alessia, but an animal.

In 2022 (Not sure but in very recent years) Claudia, questioned again, told police that Alessia was dating a man nicknamed “Il Bugia” (Mr. Liar) and at the time, upon asking him if he knew about Alessia disapperance, he shrugged it off and allegedly never talked about it again. They all hanged out at the same community center near their house, “Hai visto Quinto?” now closed.

It is unknown to public if he has been questioned by police or even identified.

This feels like a case of someone intentionally running away but I’m left wondering where in the hell she is now?

I wonder if they ever cross-checked the employment status of the police/cadets to see if any of them quit or stopped coming into work around the time of her disappearance.

Hopefully we can get answers one day!

Thanks for reading!
-AJ Thomas