The family of a London scientist followed his travels across Colombia using location-sharing on Google Maps before he disappeared.
Children found parts of Alessandro Coatti’s dismembered body in a suitcase while playing near a sports stadium in Santa Marta last week.
Two more packages of body parts were later present in separate locations across the town, which is a tourist hotspot on the Caribbean Sea.
Alessandro, who worked for the skilled body, the Royal Society of Biology (RSB) in London, went on holiday in South America.
His family have revealed that they followed his movements using location-sharing within the lead-up to his gruesome murder.
‘He was very near his mother and so they spoke each day,’ his uncle Gianni Coatti, 67, told The Times.
Mr Coatti added that Alessandro told his mother he would go to a ‘club in Santa Marta the night he disappeared, but she saw from his GPS signal that he went to a unique area’.
Alessandro’s mother tried calling him but couldn’t reach him,’ he said.
‘She was alarmed because if he said he was going to do something, he would do it.’
Sandra Lovato, the scientist’s mother who lives along with her construction employee husband Gabriele Coatti near Bologna, posted on Instagram: ‘Alessandro, I miss you a lot. I can’t breathe. I miss you, I miss you a lot.’
In a separate post, she said: ‘Hi, my love, I’m waiting for you at home.’
Santa Marta Mayor Carlos Pinedo Cuello has offered a £9,000 reward for information resulting in the arrest of those chargeable for Alessandro’s murder.
13 similar murders have taken place within the region where his body was present in the last yr alone – sparking fears that Alessandro can have fallen victim to ‘vigilantes’.
Nonetheless, that is believed to be the primary time the victim is a foreign tourist.
‘This can be a small city, and these sorts of cases don’t occur to tourists – let alone foreigners,’ local Natalia Villamizar told Metro.
RSB said in a tribute that it ‘is devastated to announce the death of former colleague Alessandro Coatti’.
The tribute added: ‘He was a passionate and dedicated scientist, leading RSB animal science work, writing quite a few submissions, organising events, and giving evidence within the House of Commons.
‘He left the RSB at the tip of 2024 to volunteer in Ecuador and travel in South America.
‘Ale was funny, warm, intelligent, loved by everyone he worked with, and can be deeply missed by all who knew and worked with him.’
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