22 February 1981, Rossella Casini (photo), a 24-year-old student at the University of Florence, disappears in Palmi (Calabria), presumably a victim of 'ndrangheta [Thread] >> 1
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Rossella is 21 and studying for a degree in Education at the University of Florence when, in November 1977, she meets Francesco Frisina, a student of Economics at the University of Siena, who is renting a flat in the building where Rossella lives with her family in Florence >> 2
Their relationship is a normal happy one until Rossella accompanies Francesco for a holiday, staying with his family at Palmi in Calabria in summer 1979. While she is there, on 4 July, Francesco's father, Domenico Frisina, is shot and killed >> 3
Unbeknown to Rossella, the Frisina family belong to the Gallico 'ndrina and Domenico is a victim of the rival Parrello & Condello 'ndrine. Her boyfriend has brought her into the midst of a bloody mafia war >> 4
Despite the shock of this realisation, Rossella stays in Palmi to comfort Francesco after the loss of his father, her love for him outweighing any fear she feels. She stays right up to 9 December, when she returns to Florence >> 5
The same day, Francesco takes part in a "punishment raid" against Francesco Condello, in revenge for his father's murder, and sustains a serious head wound in the gunfight. When Rossella arrives in Florence and learns of this, she immediately heads back to Calabria >> 6
Francesco has been admitted to the Neurosurgery department of the hospital in Reggio Calabria. Determined to get her boyfriend away from the poisonous environment of Calabria, she succeeds in securing his transfer to the Careggi hospital in Florence in February 1980 >> 7
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