ITALY: Blog Over Kid's Death Gets Cops Investigated

Four police agents are under investigation in Italy for the death of Federico Aldrovandi, a boy who died last fall under unclear circumstances

Initial reports indicated that the boy had died of natural causes, but later exams showed that the boy had stopped breathing possibly due to chest compression

The boy had multiple wounds on his body and the circumstances surrounding his attemped arrest and consequent death never satisfied the family and their legal representatives.

Early this year mother Patrizia opened a
weblog,, that led to country-wide mobilisation, and prompted independent media reports and further investigations.

Witnesses had reported indimidatory pressures attempting to settle the case as 'closed', according to sources.

According to press reports the judiciary says that the investigation is purely 'technical' and 'strategic' and that no new evidence has emerged since the last depositions.

The news comes on the same day that in Tampa, Florida, the similar case of
Martin Lee Anderson, who also died in uclear circumstances during a bootcamp, and whose death was initially filed as due to 'natural causes'

PDM

Rough translation of original blogs post:

> The mother's story on the blog: http://federicoaldrovandi.blog.kataweb.it/
> Ferrara 2/1/06
>
> I'm writing the story of what has happened to Federico, my child. I won't write all about him, it is impossible to tell a life, even if only 18 years /just celebrated./
>
> He died September 25, on Christmas day it /was/ three months...
>
> I've always thought that surviving a son would be an unbearable pain. Now I know that in reality you dont survive the death of a son. I don't say this as a methaphor, thats exaclty the way it is A part of me has /doesnt breath /anymore, has nomore light, no future...

Since breath, light and future were taken away from him.

>
> Saturday September 24 was a serene, happy day...
>
> After school the lunch together, chats, laughs. It was still summer, it was warm. He took his dog-friend for a walk. He didn't do that too often, but that day he went, with his walkman and some music in his ears. Everything that day had a special aura.
>
> To think about that now, it is like as if he had wanted to greet all of us. He had smiles for all, he was joy in person..
>
> He met with/ his mates/, and did his small /job/ bringing around pizza's.
> /
> In the evening the plan was to attend/ a concert (gig?)in Bologna.
>
> Before he left he /came / home, to change his shoes, broken playing soccer...
>
> It was the last time I saw him alive.
>
> He greeted everybody, including his brother who was already asleep, asking me why Stefano didn't /reply/ on his greetings.
>

> Also a girlfriend confirmed to me that that night he was serene, that he had greeted her smiling, with the usual punch on the shoulder and the appointment the day after...
>
> That day after never existed.
>
> At Link, the /gig/ had been canceled. However he spent the night at that venue.
>
> This was said by his/ mates /who were with him, I can't call them friends, and the analyses have confirmed this. One of these boys has sold him some substance, a pill or something similar.
>
> They call it the Saturday night ' plastering' (can translate as sballare like getting stoned or getting plastered) . It is wrong, yes, but it does not cause death.
>
> Federico knew it well. He had /taken part/ in a school project of research and information, promoted by the province. I know that his knowledge was profounder with researches on the ASL sites; he knew the substances and theif effects. He was in his way a hygienist. He took great care of his body, of what he ate. He was /athletic?,/. A splendid boy full of health.

Among his projects there wasmusic, his future, his studies w/ere going to help him build /a future.

> In the near term he had planned simple things: the drivers’ license in a few days, karate, a musical band to organize with his friends, and the everyday day life, trying to be well.
>
> After the night [in Bologna] the group returned to Ferrara, to the meeting point where most of them had left cars and motorcycles. Federico was on foot. He left the house in the car with Michy, who had not gone to Bologna.
>
> /By then it was five in the morning/. The boys later said that they offered him a/ lift/ by car, but Federico didn't feel like going home immediately. He would have walked home. He was close...
>
> From his cell-phone it was possible to trace calls to various other friends. Especially his best friends, more than once, each one. Maybe to ask them if they were still awake and out... it seems that no one answered him. The boys I know told me that they had already turned off their cell-phones and were sleeping.
>
> And then, I don't know what exactly has happened. At that hour I woke up, maybe not completely, asking myself if Federico had already returned home. I felt so tired that I didn't manage to move. Then I heard some /noise/ in his room, and I was certain that he was there.
>
> I woke up again when it was nearly eight in the morning.
>
> Then I started to call his cell-phone, and send messages. Nothing...
>
> It wasn't possible that he didn't respond. If he was late, he always let me know. He said that I /stressed him out/ , but he didn't want to have me/ worry/.

> I gripped myself to the idea that he had probably lost his cell-phone...
>
> Then also his father started to call him. On Federico's cell-phone his father is memorized with his name, Lino.
>
> A voice answered.
>
> Forcing he asked who was on the phone, and has asked to describe Federico.
>
> After this he qualified himself as a police-agent, and to our questions he answered that they had found the cell-phone on a /bench/ near the race-track (horses) /hyppodrome? /and that they were investigating.
>
> And he hung up.
>
> Immediately I searched at the police station, and I have also searched for a friend who worked there.
>
> Nothing.
>
> The /switchboard operators/ gave answers like: we're in /change-shift/ now... I have not been informed..., once we have some news we'll call you...
>
> Nothing for another three hours!!!! Passed in fear and with telephone calls to hospitals, to his friends, and again, repeatedly to the police.
>
> In the meantime Stefano went on his bike to search his brother. I thank heaven that he didn't go to the right place.
>
> The police came to inform us only towards at 11 . After they had brought him away.
>
> His body has remained on the street from 6 to eleven in the morning.
>
> And they haven't called me. He was my son. No one has the right to keep a mother away from her son!
>
> And they told me they had done it for me... Because it would be better if I didn't see.
>
> At that moment I believed them.
>
> The police told that a resident /in the aread/ had called because he had heard shouting.
>
> They told also that he had hurt himself, banging his head against the walls.
>
> This /turned out/ to be false. / It was not confirmed by investigations /
>
> Federico was /disfigured by beatings./
>
> Much time later I got his clothes back. He wore a t-shirt, sweater with hood, and his jeans.
>
> They're completely soaked with blood.
>
> They told he didn't want them to get him. That he had fought and even jumped on top of the police car. The medical doctors examined that he had his scrotum /compressed/, a
>
> ruptured wound on his head, and