A British scientist who was dismembered and found in a suitcase during a holiday in Colombia may have fallen victim to a ‘vigilante’ killing, it’s feared.
Alessandro Coatti, who worked for the prestigious Royal Society of Biology (RSB), was found dumped in a stream in Santa Marta.
While parts of his body were found in a suitcase by children playing, his torso and other body parts have since been found in a bin bag in a local river.
The region in which his body was found has seen 13 other similar murders in the last year – leading to fears that Alessandro may have fallen victim to ‘vigilantes’.
However, it’s believed this is the first time the victim is a foreign tourist.
Local Natalia Villamizar told Metro: ‘We are all just shocked about this terrible news.
‘This is a small city, and these kinds of cases don’t happen to tourists – let alone foreigners.’
While local human rights activists Norma Vera Salazar told the El Tiempo newspaper: ‘There is a clear pattern to these crimes that have been reported in Magdalena and parts of La Guajira: bodies tortured, dismembered, stuffed in garbage bags or coffee sacks, and abandoned on rural roads.
‘These types of homicides are used by vigilante groups to send warning messages, instill fear, and mark their territory.’
Santa Marta’s mayor Carlos Pinedo Cuello has offered an £10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for Alessandro’s gruesome murder.
He said: ‘I have instructed the authorities to join forces to solve the death of the Italian citizen Alessandro Coatti.
‘We are offering a reward of fifty million Colombian pesos for information that will allow us to identify and capture those responsible.
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‘This crime will not go unpunished. Criminals must know that in Santa Marta criminality has no place.
‘We will pursue them until they are brought to justice.’
Alessandro was a trained molecular biologist, and worked as a senior science policy officer at the RSB.
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The Italian-born scientist had been a post-graduate neuroscience researcher at University College London.
His uncle Giovanni Coatti told Italian publication Il Messaggero that Alessandro was considering moving to South America, and had gone on the trip to check out the country with his return planned for next week.
He was staying at a hostel in Santa Marta’s historic centre, and was last seen on Friday, April 4.
Police are trying to piece together his last known movements, with one investigator telling El Tiempo: ‘The challenge is to reconstruct his route and discover if he was a victim of a trap or if he unknowingly became involved in a risky situation and if there was a woman involved.’
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