The death of a mother and child in Rome stumped police, so they called a TV show

Rome's largest park, Villa Doria Pamphili, is something of a haven from the city's bustle and occasional chaos, a place for runners and picnickers and anyone seeking a bit of nature. That vision was shattered last month by the discovery of two bodies: a toddler and a woman, found naked within hours of each other in the brush near an edge of the park.

Investigators were stumped. There were no identifying documents, and the woman's body was so decomposed it would have been difficult for anyone to identify her visually. The gruesome case immediately brought sensationalist front-page headlines -- "Rome, horror in the park, woman and child dead," read one in Rome's daily La Repubblica. Il Corriere della Sera, in Milan, called it "a whodunit in a park in Rome."

The country was hooked; the police were under pressure.

With few leads, and a media frenzy underway, investigators took an unusual step. A spokesperson appeared on a popular television show called Chi l'ha Visto? -- or Who Has Seen Him? -- to ask for the public's help.

And viewers of the show, which looks for missing people, did what they had done for 37 seasons: They searched their memories for clues.

All police had to go on was that the woman had four visible tattoos and that a preliminary autopsy had revealed the child was her daughter. People who frequented the park recalled seeing a young woman and child that may have fit that description in the company of a man.

What unfolded, over several weekly shows, was a sad tale of a young Russian woman's shattered dream of creating a life for herself abroad. With each revelation, the cachet of Chi l'ha Visto? increased, as did questions about police's lack of intervention when concerned passersby had called them about the couple and the child.

The first breakthrough came early, when a viewer called the show to say that she had recently witnessed a troubling tableau on the streets involving a man, woman and child. The man had been bleeding from a wound on his head, she said, and police officers were called to the scene.

Scouring logs for that evening, investigators saw that police had indeed been there. The man held an American passport with the name Rexal Ford. Checking airplane manifests for that name, investigators saw that the man had taken a flight from Rome to Skiathos, Greece, on June 11. (They later learned through the FBI that his real name was Francis Charles Kaufmann.)

He was arrested in Skiathos on June 13 and later extradited to Italy on suspicion of killing the child, according to the arrest warrant, although he has not been charged in either death.

During a news conference, Francesco Lo Voi, Rome's chief prosecutor, made a point to thank "Chi l'ha Visto?" for providing "a particularly useful break for the investigations" by helping identify Kaufmann.

Although police now had a suspect, the woman and child had still not been identified. Again, Chi l'ha Visto? provided crucial information. Francesco Paolo Re, a reporter for the show, headed to the area near where Kaufmann had been found bleeding. He questioned shopkeepers and happened upon a bouncer who said he had called police on the night the man had been found bleeding. He described the man as belligerent and said he had been with a woman and small child.

He had also snapped a photo of all three of them. Now, for the first time, there was a photo of the woman while she was still alive, a key to identifying her.

Chi l'ha Visto? posted the photo on its website -- and waited. Five days later, on June 18, a Russian woman contacted the show to say that she knew the mother of the dead woman. The mother had asked the woman, a friend, to plumb the internet for news after not hearing from her daughter for days. The friend searched online for Rexal Ford, whom she knew the young woman had been romantically involved with. Chi l'ha Visto? was the first result to come up.

Federica Sciarelli, the show's host and a well-known personality, acknowledged during the next program that viewers had made it possible to identify the dead woman, another key moment in the investigation.

"I say this with a bitter smile, but if prosecutors avail themselves of the FBI, we avail ourselves of you, the viewers," she said. "I want to thank you because you're the people who make our program."

The dead young woman, as identified by her mother, was Anastasia Trofimova, 29, and the child was her daughter, Andromeda.

The investigation into the two deaths is continuing, and Kaufmann is in Rome's Rebibbia prison. At a preliminary hearing last week, he exercised his right to not respond to questions.

His lawyer did not respond to numerous attempts to contact him. But a prisoners' rights activist, Elisabetta Zamparutti, said in a phone interview that she had met Kaufmann last week and that he told her he was innocent.

As the case unfolded, the TV show flew Trofimova's father and mother from Siberia to Rome. They met with prosecutors, and her mother, Tatiana Zemliakova, placed a stuffed animal on a memorial in Villa Pamphili park.

On the show, Zemliakova filled in some of the backstory of what had brought her daughter to Rome. She said Trofimova had met a man on vacation in Malta in 2023 who gave his name as Rexal Ford. Trofimova returned to Russia, but he begged her to come back to Malta, Zemliakova said, and Trofimova did.

In June 2024, Zemliakova said, the couple had their daughter, Andromeda. At the end of March, they left Malta for Rome.

Besides being the prime suspect in Andromeda's death, Kaufmann is accused of concealing Trofimova's body, according to Antonio Verdi, one of the prosecutors investigating the case. The cause of Trofimova's death has not been determined. The child was strangled, according to the arrest warrant for Kaufmann.

During a news conference after Kaufmann's arrest, another prosecutor, Giuseppe Cascini, said that the night before the bodies were found, Kaufmann was seen in the park holding the limp body of a child.

For Chi l'ha Visto? the case has been all-consuming, featured in the past five shows. In an interview, Sciarelli said, "We can't stress enough the importance of our viewers, who are like cameras on every street."

Since its 1989 debut, the show says, thousands of people have been found.

Each week, the show starts with several urgent cases, of people who have disappeared in recent days. Sciarelli shows photographs. Family members or friends are interviewed.

Over the decades, Chi l'ha Visto? has built a legion of devoted fans, with an average audience of 1.65 million viewers a week, according to Auditel, the Italian television-rating agency. The show also has some critics, including viewers who accuse it of being overly morbid.

Although Sciarelli is the face of the program, journalists do the legwork while other staff members field phone calls, emails and social media messages.

In the Villa Pamphili case, tips from viewers have not only helped police but led to accusations that they were too cavalier and did not thoroughly investigate whether Kaufmann posed a risk to the woman and child. Reporters from the show spoke to people who said they had seen Kaufmann acting aggressively or erratically on at least six occasions. In some of those cases, police were called but Kaufmann was not detained.

For example, a woman told the show that she called the police June 5 after she noticed a man, who she said was intoxicated, walking in downtown Rome with his daughter in his arms. The man was Kaufmann, she said. In a video taken from an apartment and first made public on a national news program, several police officers are seen speaking to Kaufmann, who tells them, "I'm an American citizen, walking with my child." After some discussion, the police allow him to leave. After the deaths were discovered and he was identified as a suspect, the woman called Chi l'ha Visto? to complain, saying that police had brushed her off.

After a public outcry against the police inaction, Roberto Massucci, Rome's police chief, went on the show recently to address concerns in this case. He said the agents who had spoken to the couple were being closely scrutinized.

Chi l'ha Visto? is on summer hiatus until September, but its newsroom remains active, continuing to take in tips even as most Italians are on vacation.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.