Authorities in Greece have arrested an American man suspected of killing a woman and her baby, whose bodies were found days earlier in a park in Rome, Italy.
A 46-year-old man going by the alias Rexal Ford was detained Friday on the Greek island of Skiathos under an Italian arrest warrant. Prosecutors in Rome cited “strong evidence” linking the man to the deaths of a 30-year-old woman and her infant daughter, CBS News reported.
Their naked bodies were discovered on June 7 in Rome’s Villa Pamphili park, with no identification on them. While the woman’s cause of death remains unclear, authorities said “there is a reasonable suspicion that it is a double murder.”
Investigators believe the baby—estimated to be between six and eight months old—died several days after her mother. The woman’s body was found beneath a black bag, while the baby was discovered in bushes several hundred yards away, the New York Post said.
It was later revealed that the suspect was using a false identity: His real name is Charles Francis Kaufmann, of California, but he has reportedly been using the alias “Rexal Ford” with a U.S. passport since 2019, the English-language Italian outlet La Voce di New York reported.
Kaufmann was spotted with the woman and baby in Rome on several occasions, and they were traced to a shelter for the needy near the Vatican, according to Corriere della Sera. They reportedly spoke English, and the woman introduced herself as “Stella Ford,” while Kaufmann introduced her as “my wife.”
Speaking at a news conference in Rome, the city’s chief prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi said Kaufmann fled Italy for Skiathos on Wednesday.
“It is not exactly understandable that someone who was with a woman and a baby girl, once the woman and the girl died, whom he carried in his arms, would then leave the country without calling for help, without seeking assistance,” Lo Voi said, according to CBS News. “In itself, that doesn’t look good.”
Kaufmann reportedly told multiple witnesses in Rome that he was a film producer scouting locations for a new project. Police identified him as a suspect after finding his fingerprints on the bag that covered the woman’s body, and later tracked him to Skiathos using cell phone data.
Ford will appear in court for an extradition hearing once his warrant is forwarded to Greek officials, People said.
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