Marina Casana, kidnapped by the Anonymous kidnappers in 1979, has died

Goodbye to Marina Casana, who died at the age of 61 in the Gradenigo hospital in Turin where she had been hospitalized for about ten days. It was 1979, August 22nd. She and her brother Giorgio end up in the hands of the Anonymous kidnappers. They returned home after 61 days. It is the most daring kidnapping, due to the location and methods, in the very sad history of kidnappings in Sardinia.

A carefree day in the crystalline sea of Iglesiente, in Capo Pecora, turns into the worst of nightmares. Six bandits lowered themselves from a steep rock face and reached the rock where Marina, then 16 years old, her brother Giorgio, 15 years old, her parents and two family friends were. The sequence of that crime in the story of magistrate Ettore Angioni, who coordinated the investigation: «The criminal plan involves taking away only Marina. The mother of the boys orders the bandits, with the force of desperation, to also take her other son so as not to leave the girl alone. The escape takes place on board the dinghy that the Casana family had used to reach the rock. Marina has chosen the path of silence apart from the definitive memories left recently in a documentary film. Giorgio, even with fatigue and torment, was more generous with painful words and memories."

Ettore Angioni, who retraced the kidnapping in a book, recalls how much the two young people contributed to bringing those responsible for the kidnapping to justice: «With great clarity they provided us magistrates with crucial details that helped us give a name and a face to the bandits. Then, thanks to the repentant Luciano Gregoriani, we managed to deal a decisive blow to the Anonymous kidnappings through the investigations and the maxi hearing in the Montemixi bunker courtroom in Cagliari with 12 kidnappings carried out by that criminal system".

For the kidnapping of the Casana brothers, eleven sentences were issued for a total of one hundred and ninety-eight years in prison. The last farewell to Marina Casana on Saturday in the church of San Massimo in Turin.