Family and friends of a 19-year-old American student found dead in Italy held a candlelight vigil in his hometown in Wisconsin on Monday. The suspect, Massimo Galioto, was stopped by officers Monday night and is “seriously suspected of aggravated homicide”, police said Tuesday in an email.
Advertisement
Police said they were looking into the possibility that Solomon was robbed by someone else, then went to the riverbank under a bridge where he got into a scuffle with Galioto, who then pushed him into the Tiber.
Policemen work in the place where the body of American university student Beau Solomon was found tangled in vegetation in the Tiber River on Monday, three days after he went missing in Rome.
The site was underneath Garibaldi Bridge, one of the busiest bridges in Rome, which connects the bar-filled Trastevere neighborhood to the other side of Rome’s historic center.
Solomon was one of about two-dozen UW-Madison students enrolled in a summer study overseas program managed by John Cabot University, UW officials said Tuesday.
Other Italian news outlets cited witnesses who claimed to have seen a person push or throw someone into the Tiber early Friday near Garibaldi Bridge.
An autopsy will probably be carried out Tuesday, police said. It wasn’t immediately clear how Solomon ended up in the water, but the police official said they believed Galioto pushed him.
John Cabot, an English-language university in the Italian capital, said it had been alerted by Solomon’s roommate that he had lost contact with Solomon around 1 a.m. Friday and was anxious when he didn’t show up for orientation later that day.
Solomon’s family was in Italy and John Cabot University was in contact with Italian authorities, the U.S. Embassy and his U.S. college, its president, Franco Pavoncello, told The Associated Press.
John Cabot is a four-year university located in Trastevere.
“He wanted to graduate in three years”, Cole Solomon said, calling his brother ambitious.
Beau Solomon had just completed his first year of study as a personal finance major in the at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a statement issued by the university.
Shortly after the disappearance, his parents called Beau’s credit card company and “realized thousands of dollars had been charged” in Milan to his card – which is about 350 miles north of Rome.
Police are watching surveillance camera footage, tracking the signal from Solomon’s cellphone and investigating the use of his credit card after it was stolen, CNN reported.
In an interview Sunday with the Journal Sentinel, Solomon’s 26-year-old brother, Jake, described the Spring Green native as “an awesome brother” with “a big heart” with dreams of becoming a lawyer.
Advertisement
U.S. Ambassador to Italy John R. Phillips offered his condolences, saying, “I was saddened to learn of the tragic death of Beau Solomon”. “And tonight we remember the good times we’ve had, and keep his family and friends in our thoughts and prayers”.
