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The story I have for you today is wild. It has art world, heist drama. It has mysterious telegrams, a snowstorm,
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ransom plots. This is the story of Janette Bishop May and Gabriella Guerin. On the morning of Sunday, November 30th,
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1980, snow is falling in Sarnano, Italy. It's this medieval hilltop village turned ski resort tucked into the base
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of a mountain range. The kind of place that looks like something out of a fairy tale almost. I think uh my daughter
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would call it Arendelle essentially. But this isn't a picturesque blanket of snow
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that we're talking about. Right now there is a fullon snowstorm. One that is worrying a local surveyor. This guy
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named Nazareno Vinanzi. And he's worried because just the day before, so that would been Saturday, November 29th, two
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women walked into his office to hire him for a project. And in conversation and over snacks as they like went about
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their stuff and talked about what they were doing, it came up that they were planning to take a drive up into the
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mountains later that afternoon, which he was like absolutely not a good idea because of the impending snowstorm. But
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he was afraid that maybe they hadn't listened because after they left he expected to hear from them again. But it
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was now 24 hours later, full storm here now and he hasn't heard from them. And are these two like locals who would
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be used to the weather, know what to expect. So one is and one isn't. 40-year-old
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Janette Bishop May, she lives in London normally, but she just bought a country house nearby. She was trying to line up
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contractors and stuff for a renovation. That's actually why they were meeting with the surveyor,
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but her friend with her, 39-year-old Gabriella Guarine, she lives in Italy, like not this part exactly, but she is
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there with Janette to translate for her. So, when the surveyor guy starts getting
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nervous, he starts making calls first to the boarding house where he knew that the women had been staying, and they
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confirm his fears. The owner says that the women never came back the night before. So, then he tries the man who
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sold Janette her house. Maybe, just maybe, she decided to spend the night at her new place, but he says no. And he
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adds that Janette actually asked to meet him yesterday, but then she never showed
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up. So now Nazareno's really worried. And so he goes straight to police and reports Janette and Gabriella missing.
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And at first, police are probably thinking the same as most people probably would, right? Two women
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unfamiliar with the area. They drive into a mountain snowstorm and they get stuck. Maybe they lost their way. Maybe
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they pulled over to wait it out. Now, when they're reported missing, like the storm is still raging, so they can't do
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anything in that instant. But as soon as it calms down a little bit, police launch a full search effort. We're
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talking helicopter, dog, ski patrol, volunteers, like they're all scouring the mountain for these women, or even
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their car, which is this small dark colored hatchback with license plates from a city called Sienna. And Sienna is
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about 3 hours away. So, a car with those plates would kind of stand out here, right? It's not like they're unheard of,
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but like easier to look for, for sure. And at the same time, investigators start piecing together the women's last
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known movements. And some of it tracks, right? Like witnesses report seeing their car
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heading down toward the mountain at around 100 p.m., which was like right after Nazareno said that they left, but
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then either they changed their minds or they went up the mountain and came back.
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And like it was just like a quick trip because somebody sees them again at 4:15 in town. and it's this employee of a
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construction store and he knows it was them at 4:15 because he actually saw them earlier with that surveyor. They
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had like come in to pay an invoice. But the interesting thing is that he says at
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4:15, Janette is wearing different clothing than she was before. So, I don't know
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that that means they did or didn't go up the mountain. Like I said, it would have
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been a short trip. But if she changed, she at some point in time had to go back to like where they
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were staying to change her clothes. Correct. The thing is though, we don't have any sightings of them between 1 and
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4:15, especially like we don't have anyone at the boarding house who saw them in that time. There are however
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people who saw them after that. Witnesses remember seeing them heading to their rooms and they remember seeing
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their car parked out front of the boarding house at around 5:00 p.m. And this is notable because this is about
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when the street lights come on. And around this same time, they see the women actually like driving away from
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the boarding house. So like we know they're there after 4. We know at 5 they're driving away, but we don't know
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where they go at 5:00. There aren't any other sightings of them or their car for
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the next 2 plus hours until around 7:20 p.m. when their car is seen heading downhill from the town center with two
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people inside. Why would they wait until 7:20 to leave then and go to the mountain presumably? Like this is
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happening in a snowstorm, right? And it makes you think that they didn't go before cuz if you did, then
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why would you go back in a snowstorm, right? And listen, I don't know for sure if they were going to the mountain at
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that time, right? Like you said, they could have gone up and come back already, right? Like the way it works is you have
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to like go down the hill to like the base and then go up into it. So just cuz they were going down doesn't mean they
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were. But it's kind of like the assumption everyone is making. And to your point, it makes no sense to do that
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when the storm is like beginning. Like, you know, you're going to be putting yourself in a bad spot. Like, you're
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already warned at 12:45 when you leave, don't do it. Why would you do it at 7:20?
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So, police don't know where they were going, if it was even them. But in all this time that they're searching, there
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is still no sign of Janette, Gabriella, or their car. And by this time, it's Sunday afternoon, and the storm is
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picking back up. So, the mountain search is temporarily called off. Now, it's around this time that Janette's husband,
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Steven, arrives in town. Now, he's been notified about her disappearance. He's ready to help any way he can. Starting
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with more background on his wife, who turns out is the ex-wife of Evelyn D. Rothschild, one of the richest men in
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the world at the time. Janette and Evelyn met when Janette was a model, and they were married for 5 years. That's
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actually how Janette and Gabriella met. Gabriella worked as a cook for the Rothschilds in the UK. And even after
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Janette and Evelyn divorced in 1971, Janette and Gabriella stayed close. So close even that Janette is the godmother
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of Gabriella's daughter. And then Janette met Steven a few years after her divorce and then they got married in
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1977. Now Janette's mom said in an interview with the Evening Standard that her and Evelyn's relationship post
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divorce was amicable. So, if she had enemies, they probably weren't in her past marriage, right? But her being the
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ex-wife of a Roth's child is enough to draw attention and set off a media frenzy because abductions for ransom are
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happening all over Italy at this point. I mean, well, like a lot of people know about
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John Paul Getty, but I had no idea that between the 1960s and the 1990s, over 700 people were abducted by organized
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crime syndicates. Yeah. In Italy. and they were held for ransom. So if someone thought a member of the Rothschild
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family was alone in a small town village, like that is a potential gold mine for the wrong person. I mean, and
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you're not even going to believe this. So just a year before this, a British businessman named Roth Child was
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abducted in Italy by criminals who thought that his name was Roth'schild. I mean, you truly can't even make that up.
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I know. But that all that to say, would they even know that she like at one point in
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time was a Rothschild? She hasn't been married to one in years. And you can't like Google her right now.
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Yeah. Not just like her walking down the street or something, but her passport still says Janette De Rothschild with it
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just has like this note that she now uses the last name May. So the thinking is I I believe that if someone would
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have seen documentation, right? She checks in somewhere, somehow they see her passport, like that's a dead
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giveaway. Okay. Well, if this is a ransom abduction, there has to be a ransom demand. Like, has that happened?
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No, that's the thing. It hasn't. And from the jump, Steven's not even buying this theory. He says that he and Janette
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lived comfortably, but they weren't as wealthy as people might think. I mean, he works in HR at a department store.
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And according to Town and Country magazine, Janette's divorce settlement from Evelyn had been modest. Like, she
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got a home in London and then a small investment fund. And since then, she's like built a career as an interior
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designer, like an antiques dealer. Okay. But all of that is kind of internal knowledge, right? Like, it's
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totally possible for someone to see her passport, realize who she is or who she was married to, and think that she's a
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lot wealthier than she actually is, right? Again, like Steven's saying, it doesn't make sense for them. I think the
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whole point is like if someone thought she was connected to someone else still, right? It still could be like something
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that someone thought and acted on. Well, and it's especially believable when a new witness comes forward. He
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says that he saw two cars at around 400 p.m. on Sunday. So, this is the day after they go missing and he sees them
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in a town about 10 minutes outside of Sarnano. He said the first car was a bigger car with Sienna plates and there
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were two people inside. One of them looked like a woman. The other person, he couldn't tell. And then the second
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car was a small dark hatchback also with Sienna plates. And like that matches up
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with what Janette's car was. And that car also had two people inside. And one of them looked like Janette. So, we
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talked about this a little bit, but are Santa plates really that out of the ordinary? Like in this region? I'm
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thinking about like seeing a Michigan plate or Illinois plate or an Ohio plate here in Indiana. It's not a ton, but
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it's not unheard of. Yeah. And it is a ski resort, so like one or two cars with Sienna plates, like
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it's probably not a big deal. But I think it's just the fact that they're seeing them like together.
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They're seeing the hatchback. Like it's all it's all the things. And there are a
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few people in Sarnano that start recalling this same thing that in the days before and after the women
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disappeared, there were a lot of cars with Sienna plates. So it must have been like more than usual, enough that it
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raises eyebrows. Now, police can't link any of those specifically like to any of
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this, but it kind of gets them thinking. So, what if Janette and Gabriella were in two separate cars? Like, not that
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they brought two cars, but like that that sighting was real. Like, did someone follow them? Did someone come?
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Like, who did they get separated somehow? Yeah. basically. And if that sighting is
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legit and you combine it with everything else that stood out to an investigator we spoke to, like them missing the
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meeting with the homeowner and possibly going to the mountains more than once, then maybe this wasn't just a wrong turn
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in a snowstorm. Maybe now they're thinking they were taken against their will. Did they ever fully search the boarding
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house where the women were staying? Like was anything missing? So, from what I like I saw, it like doesn't look from
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like what police can tell that anything had been disturbed. I don't know how much they actually tore it apart though
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and like did a detail search. I get the sense it wasn't very much because something interesting is found there
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that like doesn't come to their attention until December 4th when Steven finds it. And what he finds in their
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room was this handwritten note seemingly written by Janette. And it lists a few phone numbers and it has a line that
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just says, "Please do not hesitate." Hesitate to do what? Ex. Yeah. So, I I've gone in circles with so
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many things on this. This is one of them. One of our writers I was talking to thought that maybe it was like a note
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for the front desk like, "Hey, if these people call, like don't hesitate to like approved numbers."
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Yeah. But A, why wouldn't it be with the front desk is my question. B, even if it
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was going to be given to the front desk, like it just hadn't yet, wouldn't you put someone's name and not the number?
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Like if this person calls, what if it's like the opposite? Like maybe don't hesitate to reach out to
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these people for in case of emergency. I don't know. Exactly. Like reach out to them for like
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it doesn't give enough information like and it doesn't add up. Doesn't even make
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more sense after they find out who those numbers belong to. I guess one was to a
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beach club 2 hours south of Rome and the others went to like three different men
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who they were able to or they were at least able to find two of them that I know of. And it doesn't seem like any of
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them have anything to do with any of this. And it doesn't seem like any of the numbers or people connected to the
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numbers get tied to an incoming telegram that gets delivered to the boarding house from Rome shortly after. So, this
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telegram is addressed to someone named Janine May. And this is where things get so weird cuz right off the bat, like the
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telegram itself is strange. Like, it feels like it's for Janette May, but as far as police know, nobody calls her
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Janine. So, like, where did that come from? Yeah, that's off already. All this thing says is I am waiting for
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you. And then it's followed by a Rome address and it's signed by someone named Roland.
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And is this address a house, a a business? Does it exist at all? Yeah, I know. So, this is where things
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get super weird. Not only does the address exist, they don't even have to look up the address to know that it
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exists. They know it because the address is already on their radar in connection to
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another crime. I am popping on to start a conversation about a case. I cannot get it out of my
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head. A true mind bender. A huge twister your way. You gut check all your assumptions. Cuz this is a case that
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starts like so many before. Hi fraud junkies. On December 3rd, so a couple of days
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after the women disappeared, but before that Janine May telegram was received, another mysterious telegram was the
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center of an investigation unfolding in Rome. This one was sent to a director of
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the famous auction house Christy's at its Rome headquarters and it said something like recovery is possible and
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then it directs them to the address that was on the Janine May telegram. But this
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one was signed by someone named Rodrigo. Okay. But recovery of what is possible?
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Probably art. At least that's what police think. Because because of Christy's. Yeah. And because the night after
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Janette and Gabriella went missing, there was a major art theft at Christy's in Rome. Like things are feeling like a
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little backwards, but art probably. Wait, so these two women were somehow tied up in an art theft operation? Is
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that what you're saying? I don't know if they're tied up in it necessarily, but it sure like seems like the two events
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have to be connected in some way, right? Like, right, we have this address, same one being used. I mean, that alone
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is enough to sell me on it, but on top of that, it turns out that Janette does have some connections to the art world
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through her interior design work. So, it's not like it was like completely foreign, right? Like, it's not like if
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all of a sudden people are like asking for ransom and tying me to the art world, like no go.
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But then things get more complicated because while police are trying to wrap their heads around a connection between
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these two telegrams, they learn that three more have been sent to families of prominent people who have been abducted
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in Rome. And again, they instruct them to go to that same address in all of them. And they were addressed to the
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family members telling them again specifically to go to this address or was it like Janette's where it was like
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addressed to her to go. So I know one of them was addressed to the family members. I don't know about the other
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two. So I know one is different than Janette. I don't know about the other ones.
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And it's weird because like they when I say ransom, they weren't even making straight up ransom demands. They were
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actually like more similar to the Christy's telegram saying like go to this place if you want answers kind of
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thing. And I don't know if those families went to the address or what happened if they did. I just know that
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one of the people who had been abducted, this industrialist is eventually found dead. He had been shot in the head even
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after part of the $450,000 ransom had been paid. The other two people, however, did eventually get
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released. But police are probably feeling like time is running out to track down whoever sent these telegrams.
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Like how dangerous are these people? Now they're able to figure out the addresses
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that the telegrams were supposedly sent from. And there are like a couple different from addresses. But surprise
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surprise, when they look it up, they're able to figure out that the addresses that the telegrams were supposedly sent
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from cuz they're like they're from address. There were a couple different ones. They were different like numbers
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but all on the same street. Mhm. They don't exist or like the numbers don't. The street itself though does
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exist and so police obviously like search it except they don't find anything or like find anyone who knows
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about like the person who would have sent this except when they're doing this like canvasing. They do find
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interestingly that another director who works for Christy's art house or auction
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house actually lives on that street. Oh yeah. which is, you know, a huge red flag. And police search his apartment
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where they find illegal firearms. They find narcotics. They also search his girlfriend's place.
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And according to Corier Deisera, there they find a diagram of Christy's alarm system. So, it's looking more and more
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likely that this director may have sent the telegram to the other director, as well as maybe even planned that heist.
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But even like with all the weird things they collect, apparently there is nothing concrete to prove that this guy
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was involved. And none of the art that was taken is ever recovered. So they can't tie this director to any of the
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telegrams or the ransom plots either. And even though police do arrest him, he is eventually released.
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And all the while, police are still wondering if he has any connection to Gabriella and Janette's disappearance. I
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feel like the key to all of this is this address that everyone was told to go to,
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like that was involved in all the telegrams, which I told you is real. Yes. Okay. So,
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when they go to this address, it does not disappoint. According to the Manchester Evening
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News, they find at this address a group of South Americans living there, one of whom is a woman out on bail who had been
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charged in 1976 with abducting an ambassador to Rome. Oh, I know. Like kind of the thing we're
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looking into. Yeah. So, she and everyone else in the apartment end up getting arrested when
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they find like narcotics in the place, right? They can't time to the abductions. Yes. But they like
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any connection to the Christy's director with narcotics at the other address. No. So, like
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different. Okay. Well, I don't know that it's different, but I just know they didn't find any
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connection to him like except for the telegrams. Like, but on paper, no. No connection except for all the
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connections. Got it. So, but when police start digging into the people who live there, they uncover this whole other
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layer. So, they learn that two people in the apartment had some kind of beef with
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another woman and that she might have sent the telegrams to set them up. Like, she knew police would investigate and
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that they would get raided. Okay, but you got to be real lucky if you just like guess addresses that tie
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back to the street where all the guys lived and that guy also turns out to be shady. Like that's a lot. I agree. I I
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will say sometimes things can be stranger than fiction because when they start like going down this road and
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looking into this woman, what they see is that the Peruvian embassy was on the same street as that like Shady
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Christiey's director and this woman that they suspect was the sender was from Peru. So they're like, I mean, it's a
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street she would have been familiar with or she's connected to the guy, too. Two
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birds, one stone. Police don't think so. They think that she probably saw these big cases in the
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news and took advantage of that because she had some kind of axe to grind. And police just write it off like just
00:21:04
like that. I know. So, just to recap what they're writing off, finding a known kidnapper at the address
00:21:13
that the telegrams referenced. Mhm. Finding a director of the auction house where the heist like where the heist
00:21:20
happened on the same street as the other address referenced. Mhm. I I All coincidence.
00:21:27
I'm having trouble like processing that many coincidences. I know. But police now are of the
00:21:36
mindset that the telegrams were just some kind of hoax. And so they put that line of investigation to the side. And
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maybe because at that point they have a bigger better lead. Almost 3 weeks after
00:21:48
Janette and Gabriella went missing, we are now December 18th, the women's car is found. It's spotted by police on a
00:21:56
snowy roadside about 20 to 30 minutes from the boarding house. And truthfully, I don't even think they know it's a car
00:22:03
at first. Like, it's almost completely buried under a pile of snow. There's just like this part of it that was
00:22:08
reflecting the sun, which is what caught police's eye when they were up in a helicopter. But when search teams dig it
00:22:13
out, they know for sure it is Janette and Gabriella's car. Doors are locked, but they can still see the keys inside
00:22:21
along with some valuables. The car is in neutral with the handbrake pulled, and when they later examine it, the car is
00:22:28
totally fine and working. And importantly, when they got to it, they noticed that the wheels are on top of
00:22:34
asphalt, not a like huge layer of snow, which means that whoever drove it was driving on a at least clearish road.
00:22:44
They stopped intentionally on that road and left it there before the storm came down.
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And is this like up the mountain or like down in the valley like on the way? Okay.
00:22:58
Yeah. So, it's up a mountain road about 4 miles or like 12 minutes from the closest town and not too far from where
00:23:06
they were staying. So, okay, the cars parked on again clearish road at least. If it wasn't
00:23:13
snowing so bad, why would they stop? I don't know. And I mean, I should clarify like just because like they're
00:23:20
not on top of a ton of snow doesn't mean that it wasn't getting bad. But you I mean you know we were in Indiana like it
00:23:25
takes a minute for the ground to actually freeze up hard enough to hold snow especially on a road that's being
00:23:30
driven. So really like what police are thinking is that they pulled over because it was getting really bad. And
00:23:36
in my mind it had been really bad for them not be able to go 12 minutes back to like the nearest town. You know what
00:23:41
I mean? But they talked to some workers who say that they got stuck in a snowbank on the same day that the same
00:23:46
women went missing near where Gabriella and Janette's car was found. Police think that like they saw it getting bad.
00:23:52
They like stopped. They pulled over to kind of like wait it out cuz you are on a mountain. Maybe you don't want to like
00:23:56
drive down in white out conditions. Fair. Sure. But then why leave their fully functioning car to venture out into the
00:24:05
snow? You and I are super familiar with snow. You don't just like get out of a car to wander to go someplace to like
00:24:11
maybe find something. TBD. I know. So yes, like I understand the sitting and waiting kind of if they
00:24:19
decide to go when it's a snowstorm. They're 12 months waiting. You don't feel safe. Sure. Pull off the
00:24:23
road. They think they got out because not too far off the road, it's like a short walk
00:24:30
from where the car is parked, police end up finding this house. So, they learned
00:24:34
that the owner of the house used it as a place for shepherds to stay during the summer, which is like a line straight
00:24:41
out of the Bible. But in the winter, it's typically empty. And the house owner even confirms that it should have
00:24:48
been empty that November/ December because repairs were being done on it. Except when police go to this house,
00:24:54
they search the house, there were signs that someone had been there recently, like the fireplace is full of ashes and
00:25:02
there's burnt furniture and there are used plates and silverware. Was there any like fingerprints or DNA?
00:25:10
So there's actually a note about them finding unknown fingerprints in the car that they sent off to agencies across
00:25:17
Italy as like I mean they sent Interpool Scotland Yard all of that and they never
00:25:21
say if anything comes of that though I know Jenna actually borrowed the car from a guy could be his blah blah blah
00:25:25
all that to say they never say anything about Prince in the house which I think is kind of weird because I know they
00:25:31
searched it pretty well like enough that they did find hair in the bathroom that
00:25:36
they think might belong to Janette or to Gabriella but in 1980. It's not like they can say
00:25:41
for sure it's theirs at DNA. They're just doing like a visual comparison. Yeah, maybe under a microscope or
00:25:46
something. So, they think that the women had been there. Like again, they pull over. They go to
00:25:52
this house. They even think that maybe they tried to signal for help by lighting fire on the balcony because
00:25:57
they found like burnt wood out there, too. How would all the searchers miss that?
00:26:02
Well, from what I can tell, this house is in a remote spot and I think it got buried in snow during the storm. Like I
00:26:09
don't even know how long a fire outside would have lasted or Okay. But there's fire inside too. You
00:26:15
said there's like ashes there like smoke from the fireplace inside. Yeah. But if you remember like they
00:26:22
don't start the search right away and even when they do they have to call it off for a little bit because the storm
00:26:26
like picks up again. And so like maybe I don't know I'm just guessing but like maybe like when there is a fire going on
00:26:34
there's no helicopters to see the smoke. No one out there to see the smoke. And then by the time that second storm
00:26:38
passes through, like everything's buried in snow and you're not setting fires on
00:26:42
anything. So because they're not there, then police wonder like, okay, did you see
00:26:46
that like all your options for like sending for help are gone? Did they possibly try to venture out on their own
00:26:54
like to one of those nearby towns, right? Car is buried. Can't use that. So they go to this like other local town,
00:27:00
which is another ski resort, to try and piece together what other locals might have seen. But that honestly ends up
00:27:05
muddying the waters even more because no one reports seeing Janette and Gabriella
00:27:11
after the storm. Instead, there are even more reported sightings from the day they disappeared.
00:27:19
Two hunters tell police that around 300 p.m. that day, they saw three people, two that they think were women, standing
00:27:27
near a dark-colored car close to where their car ends up being found. And then the manager of a hotel in town claims
00:27:34
that he saw Janette and Gabriella three times that same day between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. when they came into his
00:27:41
hotel for a drink. And when they left, the manager noticed Janette speaking to a man outside in a car. Now, I don't
00:27:47
have a full description of this guy, but General Carlo Biche Corsetti, that is a
00:27:54
mouthful, but he was an original investigator on the case, told us that the manager described this guy as
00:28:01
well-dressed in a way that stood out to him. So, we've got that. And then around
00:28:05
8:00 p.m., the manager was driving down the mountain to Sarnano when he passed three cars. One of them a dark color car
00:28:12
like Janette's. Now, this doesn't totally add up. because police double check with
00:28:19
Nazareno and the owner of the boarding house and they both say that the women didn't leave the boarding house until
00:28:24
around 9:45 a.m. which automatically doesn't make that that manager's timeline work if he's saying he starts
00:28:31
seeing them at like 10:00 and because of that inconsistency police decide to toss
00:28:35
his whole statement which sends them back to square one but I think that that sighting of her at
00:28:41
3:00 is interesting because is that where they went in between Right. Because we don't have them in Srano
00:28:49
between 1 and 4, right? So, is is that possible? Is that where they went? Maybe not up the
00:28:54
mountain. Doesn't explain why you're still going up there at 7:20. But it could be why no one saw them in
00:28:59
that town. They're at this other ski resort. I don't know. But that sighting up her at 2 p.m. I
00:29:03
think is really interesting because we don't like Right. We have that window. It's in the middle of that like, right?
00:29:10
So, is this where they went in that time? Did they not go up the mountain? They went to this ski resort at that
00:29:15
time. For what? I don't know. Now, at this point, Janette's husband, Steven, had to go back to London. So, police
00:29:22
traveled there to talk to him. In the time since he's been back, he's been looking into Janette's finances. And he
00:29:27
tells police that she had a few bank accounts, some in England, some in Italy, but there hasn't been any
00:29:33
activity in any of them since the day she disappeared. And none of the travelers checks that were issued to her
00:29:40
in November had been cashed either. But in this meeting, he also mentions that Janette did some business with a
00:29:46
gallerist living in London who happens to share a last name with a Sicilian crime family. And this starts to make
00:29:54
police rethink those telegrams. Even if they still can't make a clear connection to the Christy heist, this is
00:30:03
like, I don't know, another red flag. They know mafia bosses apparently used stolen art to launder money. So, did
00:30:11
Janette somehow get mixed up with the wrong crowd? Which, don't get me wrong, I would love
00:30:18
to go back to these telegrams. I think they're very interesting and I have so many questions, but when it comes to
00:30:23
Janette, everything else seems to be pointing to an accident. It's almost like police are going around and around
00:30:32
like in circles, right? like back and forth between theories because even an accident like there isn't one single
00:30:39
theory that totally fits accident. Why stop the car? Why take shelter? And then if you're going to take shelter, why
00:30:46
leave, right? And then what are those like possible sightings of them with other people,
00:30:50
other cars? Then why do they find stuff at that house? I mean, what if they were like held
00:30:56
there, though? I mean, that makes just as much sense as like anything else to me. But by who,
00:31:01
right? That's what they can't get a firm grip on. And listen, they keep getting tips about possible suspects and they
00:31:08
run them down, but then it ends up being nothing. Like, there was one woman who implicated her ex-boyfriend, said that
00:31:15
he was a Brazilian gem dealer who bragged to her about killing two women, but they end up arresting him on
00:31:20
something else. They show his picture around to people. None of those people can confirm that they ever saw him with
00:31:25
the women and they end up releasing him because according to a Scottish newspaper, the ex-girlfriend eventually
00:31:30
even admits that she made it all up to get back at him for their breakup. And amidst all these bogus allegations and
00:31:36
false leads they're chasing down, probably the most promising one gets totally missed
00:31:47
on January 30th, 1981. So, this is almost 2 months exactly after Janette and Gabriella disappeared.
00:31:54
Someone calls the Daily Mail's Rome office late at night claiming to have information about the women. The tipster
00:32:03
says that his name is Ian Ser and that Janette got a telegram the day she disappeared.
00:32:09
Another telegram. Well, no, no, no. This is this is the first telegram that she got. But he says
00:32:16
he he says that he knows about that telegram and he says another telegram has been sent to Christy's. The
00:32:21
important part of this is that none of this had been made public yet. Now because it had not been made public, the
00:32:29
editor didn't take this seriously. So like we know this is important, but the editor who took the call didn't
00:32:35
and was like, "Lol, what are you talking about? Bye-bye." Yeah, thank you, but no thank you. So
00:32:39
this kind of just stays in the back of this editor's mind. Doesn't even mention it to anyone. But as more and more time
00:32:47
starts passing, as police start getting hard up for leads and they eventually start telling the public more and more
00:32:53
about the case, he finds out about the telegram. Yes. And that's when he's like, "Oh,
00:32:58
shoot." So the editor first tries calling this Ian Ser fellow at the number that came through on his old
00:33:05
school TX. The number was for an Austrian hotel and magically Ian is still there.
00:33:14
He is there researching a book with two journalists. But get this. When the editor has a reporter reach out, this
00:33:20
Ian guy tells the reporter, "I have no idea what you're talking about. I didn't call you. I don't know anything about
00:33:27
missing women in Italy or telegrams or Christiey's auction house." But whoever made that call had to have made it from
00:33:34
the hotel that Ian was staying at. It's not like they could just like say that because the way that it came through on
00:33:41
the TX like I was talking about, it's basically like a fancy typewriter that automatically records the number that
00:33:47
the message is coming from. Oh, so it's not like the guy even like left the number. It came out of the
00:33:51
machine. Yeah. Yeah. You can't fake it back then, right? So, when they're kind of just like like
00:33:56
stumped, right? Like they're like, "Okay, what? I don't know what this means." That's when the editor
00:33:59
eventually passes this on to police who go and question Ian and the two journalists that are with him trying to
00:34:05
establish some kind of connection between him or Christies or the women or freaking anything in this story.
00:34:13
And it turns out Ian grew a door to door parcel business into this huge logistics
00:34:17
company. Christy's was one of their clients, but they had like tens of thousands of clients.
00:34:26
So, like that doesn't seem like a a good enough connection. Yeah. His wife was a model like Janette
00:34:32
was at one point in her life, but he told police and us cuz girl like the team put in the work on this episode.
00:34:39
They were making international phone calls. He said that he had never met Janette or
00:34:43
Gabriella, who who by the way, like Janette met Gabriella like long after her modeling days. And while we couldn't
00:34:50
talk to the other two journalists that Ian was with because they've since died, their statements are in court documents
00:34:55
and both of them say that they had never heard Ian even mentioned Janette or Gabriella or this case until after that
00:35:02
call from the Daily Mail came in. Yeah, cuz he was like, "Dude, this is weird." So, they've got nothing here and
00:35:08
it like it kind of just goes away. They still will like follow up and question him for years afterwards,
00:35:17
like just seeing if this makes sense, like seeing if they miss something, seeing if stories change, but eventually
00:35:22
they like completely move on from this tip, which I kind of agree with. I feel like
00:35:26
we can cross him off the list, right? Ian didn't have anything to do with this. He doesn't like it seems super
00:35:33
bizarre that he's even involved, but I mean someone staying at his hotel knew about those telegrams called
00:35:41
or somebody like passing through. I mean, they don't have to be staying at the hotel, but they had to have like
00:35:46
been around. Yeah, even if they're just passing through, how do you know Ian's name to
00:35:52
live? I know. This is what I'm saying. It feels like such a spiderweb. Like it's
00:35:57
no wonder people get tangled up in this case cuz you want to just say like oh someone maybe knew Ian and knew he was
00:36:03
staying there and use his name. No, like we know it had to have come from the hotel. So someone had to like
00:36:09
know he was staying there and be there. So what is this person doing in Austria then 2 months after the women go
00:36:14
missing? And it's not even like this is like a bad hoax. This person had to have
00:36:18
actually known legit information that wasn't public, right? Because the telegrams weren't
00:36:22
public yet. Okay. So, did police look at other guests at the hotel? Did the hotel
00:36:29
like keep records of who did what calls? Were any of the employees looked at? Maybe.
00:36:34
General Ali Corsetti told us that he like straight up flew to Austria. Actually, he flew to many countries as
00:36:40
part of his investigation, but he actually couldn't say much more than that. So, I don't know what that
00:36:45
entailed. I have to imagine you look at like everyone who is in that hotel or whatever.
00:36:49
Especially if I'm thinking like employees who are at the hotel would have access to the phones would have
00:36:54
like who knows exactly who knows who's staying there. From the court I will I will say I don't
00:36:59
know what they did from the court records that we have the things I can actually see. It seems like police were
00:37:04
focused on Ian. I don't know how much they checked out other possibilities if at all. And I just know that Ian doesn't
00:37:11
go anywhere. So months pass, the snow melts, seasons come and go, winter comes again, and there is still no Janette or
00:37:23
no Gabriella. So on January 14th, 1982, Steven decides to make a broadcast, like
00:37:30
a public appeal for information. And B, I'm going to have you read the sections for me. One sec.
00:37:38
It has now been a year since the mysterious disappearance of my wife Janette and Gabriella Guin in the
00:37:44
mountains above Cernano in the Marqu region. Gabriella's two small children, 12-year-old Atavio and 4-year-old Joya,
00:37:52
lost their father almost 4 years ago in a car accident. Now, they have been without their mother for over a year,
00:37:58
and it is not fair to ask them to go on living in the uncertainty of what might have happened to her.
00:38:04
My wife's family and I too have endured the anguish and false hopes of a year marked by uncertainty. Despite repeated
00:38:11
searches and police investigations and despite the generous help of volunteers and local residents, this tragic
00:38:18
disappearance remains a mystery. What could have happened? Surely someone must be able to release us from the torment
00:38:25
and uncertainty of not knowing the truth. Was this disappearance the result of a terrible crime? or is there another
00:38:32
explanation? So, I'm really glad that he brought up Gabriella so much in this statement because it really does seem
00:38:37
like all the focus has been around Janette, especially when it comes to like all the foul play stuff. Did police
00:38:43
ever really dig into Gabriella's life? So, this is one of those other things where it's like if they did,
00:38:48
I don't know about it. Like, it's not in any of the official documents or the reporting that we looked at. I think
00:38:54
that police were much more heavily focused on Janette because like the world that she was in, right, the
00:39:00
Rothschild, the it was it felt much bigger, right? Like the world she moved in just
00:39:06
had more connections to what they think could be possible. Like I mean Gabriella
00:39:10
lives a relatively simple life in comparison. Like she provides for her kids the best she could after her
00:39:14
husband's death. She didn't have enemies. She wasn't moving in the same world. So, it seems like the consensus
00:39:21
was that she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. And we even tried to
00:39:25
reach out to her family to ask like some of these questions, but we couldn't get
00:39:28
in touch with anyone who knew her or her kids well. So, this statement goes out because if anyone is still holding on to
00:39:34
tips, police and Steven want to know. So, Steven offers up a reward of up to 100 million l which is like it would be
00:39:42
today like $235,000. and he's basically looking for any information that will help solve this
00:39:47
case. And he says there'll be even more if it leads to finding Janette and Gabriella alive. And this money, this is
00:39:54
everything Steven has to his name. And he is willing to give it all up to bring them home.
00:40:01
And maybe that's what it took. Because within 2 weeks on January 27th, he gets his wish, but not what he'd actually
00:40:11
hoped for. Hunters hiking up the mountain find objects scattered across the snow in a ravine in this like
00:40:20
densely wooded area about eight miles from where the cabin was. They're finding boots, purses, clothing, and
00:40:29
then bones. When police get there and do a formal search right away, they zero in on a
00:40:36
couple of things. First, they find a fork that looks just like the ones at the house that they believe Janette and
00:40:43
Gabriella sheltered in during the storm. The second thing was inside the purses,
00:40:48
which by the way, nothing is missing from. They noticed two watches that they believe belonged to the women. According
00:40:56
to a local Italian newspaper, Janette's watch is manually wound and Gabriella's is like a batterypowered watch.
00:41:03
Janette's stopped on December 12th, 1980 at 7:20 a.m. Gabriella's stopped a week
00:41:10
later, December 19th at 7:30 a.m. So, a week and 10 minutes apart exactly. Kind of spooky, I know.
00:41:20
And when was the car and the cabin found? Uh, so December 18th is when they found
00:41:26
those things. So, basically Janette's manually wound watch stopped 2 weeks after they went missing. Mhm.
00:41:33
Gabriella's battery one stopped 3 weeks after and just 1 day after the car was found.
00:41:39
So, I mean, if they would have waited just a little longer, they might have been found. Maybe if you want to stick
00:41:46
to the theory that they took shelter from the storm in the cabin and then they ventured out to get help, which is
00:41:52
clearly what this is meant to look like. But there are some real problems with that theory now that they have located
00:41:59
the women. First of all, if the bodies were there the whole time, why didn't anyone see
00:42:08
them? The investigator that we talked to said that that area that they were found
00:42:12
in, it was outside of police's official search radius. But a local veterinarian says that he had set a fox trap less
00:42:20
than 15 ft away from where they found the remains, but he never noticed a smell there. I mean, he even remembers
00:42:26
the exact spot when he goes back with police. And sure enough, there is still a bit of trap sitting tied to like a
00:42:31
nearby shrub. Also, like, okay, fine. The guy didn't notice him. What? They both just laid down and died in the
00:42:39
exact same spot. Like, I mean, animals had like gotten to the remains, right? Like, some of them had been scattered,
00:42:43
like bones, but like they're still pretty much intact in their clothes with their bags. Nothing seems to be missing.
00:42:50
Well, and I'm thinking also they were found in January and like not that January like time had passed. Like you
00:42:58
said, seasons had changed. Again, I think it's weird that they weren't found, but I'm just like I also like you
00:43:03
think about two women. Okay, we're going to venture out to get help. They just like what are the odds? I'm I'm saying
00:43:09
that they like even like succumb to the elements at the exact same spot together
00:43:13
and lay down. I'm like, what if like I can see one of them was like, okay, well, I'm going to keep going and I'm
00:43:16
going to get help because now the situation is even more dire, right? And like you need help. I need to
00:43:23
be able to bring people back to you. And like the even the watches, I mean, maybe it's because one was wound, one
00:43:28
was battery. Who knows? It's I just like I think about other cases we've done where people have where they think that
00:43:37
they die in the snow. They're they're not all found like in the same spot. If bodies are found together, it usually
00:43:41
means they died together. And that seems really unlikely when exposure is the cause of death.
00:43:47
Yes. And then more holes are poked in the exposure theory when police talked to a mountain rescue volunteer who
00:43:53
helped with the original search. He remembers that when the searchers went out, the snow was so deep that they
00:44:02
could only get through on skis. So again, the women are waiting until after the storm theoretically to venture out
00:44:10
to get help because they don't think anyone's coming. He doesn't think the women could have even physically made it
00:44:15
to where they were found in that ravine on foot. Especially because, by the way,
00:44:19
didn't mention this, Gabriella was wearing a skirt. So I don't think she would have made it 8 miles. And I go
00:44:27
back to like the fact that they're found together. Janette is not wearing a skirt. Like she was in pants or
00:44:30
something. So theoretically, in my mind, she could have gotten farther if they did at least try, but I don't think they
00:44:36
get the 8 miles to begin with. And there was even still some uncertainty over whose remains were found.
00:44:43
Like there's no DNA testing yet. So Janette ends up getting identified through dental records. There aren't any
00:44:48
on file for Gabriella. So it seems like police are mostly just relying on her clothes and stuff to identify her. And
00:44:55
eventually forensic testing confirms that the remains belong to a woman, but that's like it. I mean, police seem
00:45:00
pretty sure it's Gabriella. I mean, that's who went missing with Janette, and they have Janette, but they also
00:45:07
don't like look at any other possibilities based on the court documents that we read. But that ends up
00:45:11
being like a huge open question to her family. Well, yeah. And again, I have questions about all of this.
00:45:19
Honestly, especially these hunters that found them, like they just happened to stumble on these remains conveniently
00:45:27
right after a reward was announced. Oh, which they fully expect to cash in on, by the way. Just 2 days after
00:45:34
finding the bodies, one of those hunters writes a demand letter to Steven's lawyer for the reward money. Remember,
00:45:40
like all the money to Steven's name. And Steven's lawyer is like, "No, you legally have to tell police if you
00:45:48
find human remains. Like, that's a civic duty, not information." Yeah. And even though Steven's still willing
00:45:55
to pay them a portion of the reward, the hunter ends up suing him for the full amount and wins.
00:46:02
He He sues this grieving husband who put this money up to find his missing wife.
00:46:08
And he, like I said, he ends up winning. He gets the full reward plus interest. But it doesn't seem like police ever
00:46:16
look into any of the hunters as suspects. And maybe that's because at this point they're not looking at this
00:46:24
as a murder at all anymore. Especially when the medical examiner's report comes in on April 3rd. It shows there is no
00:46:32
physical evidence of trauma. So like no blunt force injuries, no stab wounds, bullets, and which again we're just
00:46:38
probably dealing with bones, but you can see that on the skeleton. And so going off of what he has, the medical examiner
00:46:43
thinks that the cause of death is probably just exposure. And based on what quote unquote he says, logic, he
00:46:51
believes that the women likely died sometime right after they went missing. But there's no way, he says, to tell how
00:46:56
long the remains had been in the ravine where they were found. So, the Emmy rules their deaths as accidental deaths
00:47:02
from exposure to snow. Steven gets permission to fly Janette's remains home to London, where they're cremated.
00:47:09
Gabriella is buried in her hometown, and a prosecutor moves to close the case. Close the case with so many open
00:47:19
questions yet. Mhm. I'm with you. Steven is with you. According to Town and Country magazine
00:47:25
in 1982, he reaches out to two journalists at the Sunday Times who have been reporting on the case. I mean, like
00:47:32
he can't let it go. So, he asked them to do their own investigation. And after months of work, the
00:47:39
journalists come up with a brand new theory that they publish in this 20page feature on November 7th, 1982. You
00:47:48
ready? Sure. So they think that Janette set up a meeting in the mountains to sell an
00:47:55
antique. But who she thought was a buyer was actually part of a Sardinian abduction ring and they abducted Janette
00:48:04
and Gabriella. And when the abductors thought that the women knew enough to identify them, they killed them. Right?
00:48:11
Like we know there's no ransom note, right? But the journalists alleged that if a note went to a family like the
00:48:17
Rothschild, the journalists say that they would keep that kind of thing quiet. Why?
00:48:24
Partially for safety. Like I mean they have money to hire people outside of law enforcement to advise them on things
00:48:30
like this, right? Like so why risk getting police involved if kidnappers are threatening
00:48:36
who they think is your family member? Who was your family member? They kind of keep it in the family.
00:48:40
Yeah. And plus, like I remember this from the Getty kidnapping. The Gettys didn't want to publicize or pay the
00:48:45
ransom at all because they thought that that would lead to more family members getting kidnapped.
00:48:51
I would think that like at least they would tell Steven, but again, maybe Steven would tell police because this
00:48:56
kind of seems wild to me to like protect your whole family and just like like leave her family wandering forever. But
00:49:02
this is the theory. And whether that theory is true or not, it gets enough attention that investigators actually do
00:49:07
take a deep dive into the evidence and reinterview witnesses. So like closed no more. This time around, they notice
00:49:15
another problem with the initial like theory or ruling or decision. And it comes to something so basic.
00:49:22
It turns out the women probably couldn't have seen the house from the road where
00:49:27
their car stopped. I had this question to begin with cuz like they pull off on the side of the road because it's so
00:49:32
bad. It's so bad and they don't want to stay in their running car. I've driven in really really bad snow
00:49:38
and visibility is like zero. It's so bad they don't want to drive 12 minutes back to the town,
00:49:42
right? But they can see like they get out of the car because why? In theory, they're going to seek shelter
00:49:51
in this house. But if it's so bad that they can't drive the 12 minutes back, how can they see the house?
00:49:58
They can't. So they're just getting out of their car into the white void of a snowstorm.
00:50:04
Yeah. So So when you put it that way, like yes, they would have left their perfectly fine running car to just walk
00:50:10
into the woods in a snowstorm, which is bananas. Bonkers. All that to say, when they're
00:50:18
found and their stuff is found, there is a fork from the house. So, and there are hairs in the house. They
00:50:25
make it seem like they were there, right? So, how did they get there if they went there?
00:50:31
Or who took them there? Because you would have had to know that this house was there to get from the car
00:50:35
to the house in a snowstorm. It makes me wonder like is the house not a shelter place but like a meeting
00:50:41
place. M. So it was like a pointed place that they were going to or someone took them to right like like
00:50:46
someone took them there like a rendevous point. Uh yeah, I don't know. I don't know. So
00:50:51
listen. Okay. So they're looking into this now cuz they they've realized they had this big flaw in their initial
00:50:56
theory. Yeah. And when they dig, like when you actually like go down this road, the
00:51:02
police end up learning that there may have been a connection between Janette and a very dangerous man who they
00:51:11
discover also has ties to the Christy's heist. Christy's back. Christy's back. So, as they're
00:51:18
interviewing and then reintering people for this new investigation, police speak
00:51:22
to one of Janette's friends who they show photos of people that they think she might have known. So they end up
00:51:27
showing her pictures of some guys that they think might be connected to Janette. And the friend recognizes one
00:51:34
of them, this guy named Sergio Vicari. He is an Italian antiques dealer and reported drug dealer who'd lived in
00:51:43
London until he was stabbed to death in his apartment on September 15th, 1982, which is after the women have like
00:51:53
disappeared, whatever. So, police in London were still investigating Sergio's murder when they searched his safe
00:52:00
deposit box and found photos of stolen antiques, some of which, by the way, were taken during Christy's heist in 80.
00:52:09
They shared that with the Italian police looking into the heist, which is how Sergio got on their radar. So, thank God
00:52:16
they had reopened this investigation cuz I almost wonder like if it had been closed and nobody was thinking about it,
00:52:20
like would this have ever been like brought up, tied back together? So, they keep going down this road. I
00:52:27
mean, this finally feels like it has some real weight to it and like maybe can explain the things we couldn't
00:52:33
before and it keeps getting more solid. Through a man who knew Sergio, they find
00:52:39
out that there was a name written in Sergio's diary, Janette. No last name though. And that guy remembers that next
00:52:47
to her name he saw a phone number. Problem is police can't track down Sergio's diary. So they can't track down
00:52:54
the number or tie it to Janette in any way. But even without the diary, the more police look into Sergio, the more
00:53:01
they think they may finally be on the right track because Sergio may have been involved in another mysterious death of
00:53:09
an Italian banker. So, I know I'm getting on a little bit of a tangent, like you got to understand who this guy
00:53:13
is. I'm like, the world that we're operating in. So, a British journalist tells police that a source, he can't say
00:53:20
who, but it's someone in the antique dealing world who has come up in the investigation before. This source told
00:53:27
him that Sergio had something to do with the death of a man named Roberto Calvie.
00:53:33
Roberto was the chairman of a Vaticanbacked bank that collapsed in June 1982 after an investigation showed
00:53:40
that the bank had committed massive financial fraud involving like secret offshore accounts, unauthorized loans,
00:53:46
and I mean they had ties to mafia groups. After all of that, this Roberto guy fled to London, and then he's found
00:53:52
hanging under a bridge 12 days later. His death gets ruled a suicide. Like, all done. Now, this journalist source
00:54:00
says that he knows Sergio is connected to Roberto's death because once when he was in Sergio's car, he had opened
00:54:08
Sergio's bag. This is the point where he's like alone in the car with the bag and he says a few photos fall out. One
00:54:14
of them was Roberto and then there was another photo of Janette. And the journalist tells police
00:54:22
that the source was still in the car with the pictures when Sergio came back. And Sergio actually told him that he was
00:54:31
involved in Roberto's death. What did he say about the picture of Janette? According to the source, nothing. Which
00:54:39
makes this a great lead that they can't do anything. Right. That's kind of a dead end.
00:54:44
Even though they are now more convinced that the women met with foul play, they still can't say when or how. Even the
00:54:53
why still feels fuzzy. Mhm. And they definitely can't say who. So without any suspects to charge,
00:55:02
even though like they feel like something different happened, the case still gets closed out in October of
00:55:09
1989. Okay. Do police ever retest the physical evidence from the house or the remains
00:55:17
or anything? Not that I can tell. I mean, certainly not before 89. and like there wasn't a
00:55:22
whole lot new knew they could do. I know that according to an Italian daily newspaper, so in uh 2005, a biology
00:55:28
professor actually reached out to Gabriella's family asking to analyze her remains. Like I think they were hoping
00:55:33
once and for all to confirm whether or not the remains belong to Gabrielle. Remember there's kind of like a question
00:55:38
about that. So her family lets this guy exume the remains. They also give him a DNA sample.
00:55:46
But this is so weird. when he runs the tests, it's only Gabriella's DNA that is present, no one else's, which like feels
00:55:54
like you're like, "Yeah, so what? No big deal." You would kind of expect something from Janette, right? Because
00:56:01
like back in the day, like this is happening in '8s, so they're kind of just like pushing everything
00:56:06
together, but not even pushing like even with how they were found, like animals like could
00:56:10
have moved stuff or whatever. back in the day like what they had wasn't advanced enough like the their type of
00:56:15
tech or whatever to like separate the remains when they were processed right you have like certain bones and and you
00:56:20
can probably guess based on height or whatever but I think everyone kind of expected
00:56:26
some mixing and like we said like Janette's remains end up being cremated and Steven refused to provide any
00:56:33
samples though like like I don't even know like what samples he would have so answers about like what what could
00:56:39
have been hers or not hers like that's long gone It's just like a weird thing. Again, I don't know that it means
00:56:43
anything. It's just like strange. And if you like look into this case, you're going to see it pop up. And for people
00:56:48
who want to get really conspiratorial, I think it it lends to that like, well, was Janette actually dead? Again, they
00:56:54
IDed her though through dental record. I don't know. I don't know. But it's like
00:56:58
things I've seen people spiral on. So, this testing gets done, but it doesn't bring police any new leads. And the case
00:57:06
again goes cold and interest waines until 2013. That's when a photographer named Marco Achetti makes some wild
00:57:15
claims which brings the Vatican back to this case and an old Crime Junkie episode. So we did a fan club episode
00:57:26
about the 1983 disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi. She was um the 15-year-old girl
00:57:32
who went to a Vatican City school. I'll link to it in the show notes if you guys
00:57:36
need a reminder. But Marco is the guy who claimed responsibility for her kidnapping. While he was already in
00:57:42
prison for running over a 12-year-old boy. So when police had questioned him about Emanuela, Marco says that in the
00:57:50
80s he was involved with this secret group that acted on behalf of religious figures who opposed mainstream Vatican
00:57:58
politics. They and he says like back to this case that they wanted to recruit Janette for some kind of blackmail plan
00:58:07
like they wanted her to falsely accuse the president of the Vatican bank and this is the bank that Roberto Calvie
00:58:16
chaired. they wanted her to accuse him of sexual assault, which so he throws that out there and then he makes a 180
00:58:25
degree turn and says that they never actually got in contact with Janette and that her death doesn't have anything to
00:58:31
do with him. So, so why bring her up at all? But okay, is there any connection between Janette and Emanuela or does
00:58:40
this guy just confess to everything for fun? Like, if I remember correctly, like
00:58:45
he they never actually found a connection. No, I don't think there's any connection
00:58:50
besides like him, right? Like he's just like bringing it up in both his versions. Like Janette and
00:58:54
Emanuela were like tangential pieces in his group's Vatican blackmail plot. And like when I tried to like see if there's
00:59:03
any like ties, like the only thing I could find was that Steven hired the same lawyer as Emanuela's family, but
00:59:10
that's about it. And Emanuela's family has been clear that they think Marco made up the allegations involving their
00:59:16
daughter for attention. So if that's true, it's very possible he's doing it again.
00:59:21
But I mean, it's a clickbaity story. So it's no wonder that the media just kind of runs with it when it happens, which
00:59:31
like, you know, it's like double-edged sword, right? Like it's it's media attention, but it's like the
00:59:38
wrong kind. But it does bring attention back to the case. And maybe because of that, maybe
00:59:44
because of something else that's happening that we don't know. I do know that just in November of 2024, Janette
00:59:50
and Gabriella's case got reopened as a double murder investigation. And the one thing they said is they did this based
00:59:56
on inconsistencies that they found in witness statements, which like which witnesses
01:00:02
when? Yeah. Would love to know. But like we're 7 8 months now into the reinvestigation and
01:00:09
they haven't shared much more than that. Like I spiral and I'm like okay are we talking witnesses that get tied up in
01:00:14
this like art whatever? Are we talking about like the people in the town? Like there's so
01:00:20
many options for I know witnesses. I know. And if what we need is stuff from witnesses like time's running out
01:00:27
to get to the bottom of this mystery. Steven is still alive as is Gabriella's daughter Joya. But so many people, some
01:00:36
witnesses included, maybe even suspects, are being lost. Two families, have been
01:00:41
waiting for answers for over 40 years now. And according to a Joya told an Italian news outlet last year, hope is a
01:00:47
hard thing to have anymore. I mean, she's been let down too many times. But she also said that knowing the truth,
01:00:53
like whatever the truth is, it might finally lift her burden that she's carried for over 40 years. So, if anyone
01:01:01
listening has information about Janette and Gabriella's case, it's not too late to come forward. You can contact the
01:01:08
local prosecutor's office in Italy. And we are going to list their contact information right in the show notes. You
01:01:14
can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkypodcast.com.
01:01:19
You can also follow us on Instagram at crimejunkodcast. We'll be back next week with a brand new
01:01:23
episode. [Music]