Italian authorities are actively seeking a five-year-old Peruvian girl who vanished from a Florence hotel several days ago, a case reported by Repubblica.
The disappearance occurred on June 10, and Cataleya Mia Chisillo Alvarez, the daughter of Peruvian migrants living with about 140 other undocumented residents at the former Astor Hotel in Florence, was taken away in a suitcase by unidentified individuals.
Only one witness, a three-year-old girl who shared the hotel with Cataleya, saw the incident. The younger child broke into tears as she witnessed a man dragging the abducted girl into the unknown. The witness later provided the first eye-witness account to investigators, describing the startling scene.
In the immediate aftermath, search efforts did not locate Cataleya. The Alvarez family, speaking through their legal representatives, announced plans to conduct their own inquiry into the kidnapping. Following the child’s disappearance, Cataleya’s mother reportedly attempted to take her own life, a distressing act prompted by despair and later treated in hospital.
Miguel Alvarez, Cataleya’s father, suggested the kidnapping might be an attempted extortion aimed at pressuring illegal immigrants, noting prior tensions with the Astor hotel’s occupancy. On the following Saturday, authorities evacuated all 140 migrants from the property.
“I believe this is a kidnapping, possibly for extortion, though I cannot say for certain,” Miguel Alvarez told reporters. “My daughter is innocent. I want peace for my family. I love them.” He later conceded that Cataleya may have been mistaken for another child and abducted by error, expressing his willingness to cooperate with investigators.
Florence police conducted a thorough search of the hotel building, inspecting every floor and room, yet the girl and any trace of her remained elusive. Italian law enforcement officials have cautioned that the likelihood of finding Cataleya alive is diminishing with each passing day.
According to La Repubblica, the father’s latest remarks might illuminate aspects of the case. He recounted several events from the last few months at the hotel, which had been illegally occupied by migrants. Although the specifics were not disclosed, Alvarez testified to prosecutors for about an hour, intending to shed light on the environment surrounding the disappearance.
Meanwhile, a video circulating on local social networks appeared to show Cataleya expressing her wish to visit her family, calling out for her mother and asking for help. The voice in the clip urged anyone who sees the kidnapper to contact police and expressed hope for a swift recovery since every second counts. However, experts quickly determined the recording was machine-generated, a synthetic voice likely produced with neural-network technology.
La Repubblica reports that the Astor Hotel began hosting illegal residents in September of the previous year, expanding from 54 families with 19 children, largely from Peru and other Latin American countries. Over time, the area saw an increase in informal settlements and crime, prompting concern among nearby residents who observed a rise in violent incidents linked to the immigrant community. Local witnesses cautioned that some criminal elements were operating around the hotel, engaging in extortion and other offenses.
One migrant, identified only as Manuel, described an atmosphere of violence and chaos at the Astor site. He fled Ecuador for Italy in 2012 and recalled several violent actors who had begun to threaten neighbors. He reported a troubling incident in May, when he was allegedly assaulted and thrown from a third-floor balcony, injuring his arm.
Preliminary investigations indicate Cataleya was left unattended for a lengthy period, with investigators estimating at least one hour and forty-five minutes elapsed between the abduction and the initial report. Florence police have pledged to review surveillance footage from roughly 1,500 city cameras in an effort to trace the intruders’ movements and reconstruct the sequence of events surrounding the disappearance.