In a few days it will be a year since Denise Galatà she’s dead. On that cursed May 30, 2023, the 19-year-old student of the «Rechichi» Institute in Polistena lost her life when she fell from a dinghy she was on with her classmates. Her body was found the next day stranded under a log. The tragedy that occurred on the river is still being investigated today Lao.
The official announcement has arrived: the Castrovillari prosecutor’s office has requested the indictment for the instructor, Gian Piero Bellavista, who was on the dinghy and for Giuseppe Cosenza, the president of the rafting company that organizes the excursion on the river: the two currently declare themselves innocent.
The request for indictment came after a series of targeted investigations and consultancy which demonstrated that on the day of the tragedy it was inappropriate to make the descent along the river.
The family of Denise Galatà who resides in Rizziconi will join as a civil party and is assisted by the lawyer Carmela Macrì of the Palmi court. The preliminary hearing will take place in front of the Castrovillari investigating judge responsible for the area. The two suspects must be considered innocent until a final sentence has been reached.
Denise Galatà, 10 under investigation for the death of the 18-year-old student: also the mayor and seven tourist guides
New details emerged
Among the new details, there would be some important news. First of all, the security measures adopted and the protection tools were inadequate. But not only that: the weather conditions were not ideal for practicing that type of activity.
The student’s death was caused by a traumatic drowning.
The autopsy performed on the young woman’s body revealed fractures to a leg and an arm (but not to the head), confirming the death caused by asphyxia due to drowning. The report – answered the six questions posed by the Prosecutor’s Office.
What happened a year ago
It was the afternoon of May 30, 2023 when the alarm went off following the girl’s disappearance in the water during a rafting excursion on the Lao River. The other participants were returning but Denise was missing. The lifeless body of the student, who died from drowning, was recovered the next day. The opening of the investigation led to the registration of 10 people in the register of suspects, including the mayor of Laino Borgo, Mariangelina Russo, and to the seizure of the rafting structure as well as all the dinghies and equipment used during the excursion.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office of Castrovillari, President Cosenza would not have complied with «the ban on entering the Lao river provided for by the specific municipal ordinance issued in activation of the state of weather alert, allowing the descent which, in the specific case, was carried out by companions not in possession of the necessary qualifications required for the degree of difficulty of the watercourse”.
The guide would have been in possession «of an insufficient federal qualification for navigation of the Lao river considering the III° degree of difficulty with IV° degree passages» and, furthermore, he would have composed «the equipment of the dinghy operated in an inadequate way compared to the contingent conditions, allowing the presence of only girls who, although inexperienced and slender, fell several times during the descent before the fatal event for Denise”. Furthermore, the guide allegedly “neglected and underestimated the critical issues by not interrupting the navigation and tackling the critical stretch of the Lao, in which the girl fell into the river and never got back up”.
Last update: Saturday 11 May 2024, 6.50pm
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
