Daniele Potenzoni, who disappeared 10 years ago in the metro in Rome: the many slopes of an absurd yellow. The Father: « The state left us alone »
The 36 -year -old autism patient on June 10, 2015 was lost sight of the nurses while he went with other disabled people to the papal hearing. Dad Francesco Potenzoni: « He is not the son of a minister and nobody looks for him »
In Rome more torva and black of the unsolved crimes and the stories of malagiustizia, from Emanuela Orlandi icon of unrelated mysteries to too many victims of femicidefrom youth gang unpunished to racket boss of Elemosine, there is one absurd history what remuneration Many and leave you breathless. Daniele Potenzoni36 years old, early baldness, Stort nose for a remote accidentfragile young man made even more disoriented by the spectrum autistic, He disappeared exactly 10 years ago under the sky of Rome And since then and has been as vaporized in the Ponentino.
Disappeared. Dissolved. Swallowed in who knows what Speloncawhile the city continued to pulsate, live, love. A nail has not returned to him. Never recovered a shred of dress, a pedal. CErca for a few months With decreasing commitment, since then the melancholy young man with a boxer face has been confined to the boundless prairie of the Missing Peoplewhere to wait for them for bring a flower On the tomb there are only family members …
The father: « I accuse the state »
Dad Francesco Potenzoni, for friends Franco, retired worker, two other sons in addition to Daniele, his beloved wife Rita always at his side, that June 10, 2015 He remembers him in a trembling voice of indignation: « I had put it in the hands of people who I considered expert To give him some serenity, e they didn’t bring me back. I trusted and I was wrong! Then it happened even worse. In ten years Daniele has never been searched seriously And I know why: He is not the son of important people, of ministersbut of simple people like us. That’s all. The state has left us alone, it’s a shame! » In these hours Dad Franco also wrote one Public letter to his son, hoping for read. We will see it at the end of the journey.
The disappearance in the metro
10 -year back machine. Daniele Potenzoni, inhabitant with the family a Pantigliate (Milan), the day before he had started with the other guests of the Day center of the ASL of Melegnano (another municipality of the Milanese hinterland) for a short stay in Rome. Travel by train, the night in a bed & breakfast near the station. The groupaccompanied by two nurses, On the morning of 10 June 2015 The mobile scale goes down to Termini to take the Metro A. The goal is to go to the Vatican to assist to the hearing of Pope Francis. Daniele is dazed, pending. As usual, his defense are the cigaretteswho frantically seeking in his pocket and smokes continuously.
Daniele in the wagon
The dozen patients entrusted to the two accompanying persons is now on Banchina towards Ottavianomore crowded than usual because one of the many strikes of the Roman means of transport has just ended. The convoy arrives. Warm wagons. One of the nurses shouts: « Force you! » A moment later, the behind: «No, it’s too full! Let’s take the next! » It is in this double contradictory order that fate is accomplished: Daniele enters the hatched passengers’s crowdwhile all the others make a Mopist back. And they remain on the dock. Sliding Doors. The metro starts again. Easy to imagine Daniele Spasatowith her eyes wide, in the throes of the heartbeat e scratching his nosehis recurring tic.
The phone call at home
Research starts between disbelief and guilt. The companions count them infinite times: nothing, Daniele is not there, Daniele got lostlike Andrea in De Andrè’s song, And he cannot return. But that was an antimilitarist hymn. This is the absurd story of a man who fell into the metropolitan bowels. Rome has swallowed it. Vigilantes intervene line Athen the police who received the complaint. The parents are informed in the afternoon. « Have you lost my son? Nooo! He is like a child! »
The multiplication of the impersonator
Dad Franco starts immediately for the capital. In the Rome of Cold Case inherited from the 80s and 90s (Yellow Orlandi, via Poma, The accountant in the closetThe Detective cold at the Ostiense, the state kidnapping of the SuperTecnico Davide Cervia, the disappearance of the judge Adinolfi…) This time to end up in first page And The black fairy tale Of the fragile boy, whom everyone believes they recognize but nobody finds. The hunt is frenetic: for the effect of the tamtam in the media and on the net, ai Police switchboards hundreds of reports accompanied by photo: «I saw it on the tram, it’s him!« » No, he wandered in the Boccea area. » « He asked for money from the traffic light. » « It’s in a video that has become viral on the web … »
The slopes
Research range over several fronts: underground, ai terminus of lines A and Bin the hypothesis that Daniele has never come out, and outside, in the other stations, in parksin hospitals, in hospitalizations for homelessin the gypsies, in doubt that someone may have targeted him. Nothing. For weeks there is no Roman that you don’t look for in face of a clochard on the sidewalk or of the near the bus that of the disabled man became sadly famous. You think everything: Daniele Sedato and forced to ask for alms in another Italian city: Daniele kidnapped by organ traffickers; Daniele abused sexually; Daniele unrelated and used as a « manovalanza » in shady trafficking.
The posters with aging
But they are just conjectures. Zero certainties. In the meantime, ten years have passed since the first posters with the aging of the face appeared almost everywhere And the photo with the blue and celestial striped shirt was hung, well in sight, on the Christmas tree in Termini. It was the Time in which Francesco Totti still playedthe eighth « king » of the Pallonara city, and in the Capitol he ruled a extraordinary commissionerafter Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party had defended his own mayor, Ignazio Marino.
Francesco Totti’s appeal
The captain committed himself launching an appealthen read to the Olympic stadiumbefore Rome-Milan: «Daniele, a schizophrenic boy with Sections of autismbut not aggressive, he lost himself in Rome. He cannot ask for help, food or support. If you meet him on the street, call the police immediately. We do not stay indifferent, we bring home Daniele ». Applause on the scene open from the Curva Sud.
The acting functions of the mayor, Francesco Paolo Troncapassed to the sift the entire network of metroat night, at the stationary service, to look for Daniele (I live, but more likely dead) in some tunnel Or vain-southern in which he could have sneaked, in his desperate errare. Nothing done. On the second anniversary, so, Senior potentials wrote to Pope Francis: « Holiness, I wait for his hug … »
Luca’s song
Lucathe last -born of the house, lover of rap, very attached to the largest brother, He thought he was a contribution in his own wayin music, with one Written song of jet on sleepless nights. First verses dedicated to analyzes with the capital: « Milan-Roma / a train that travels / in melancholy / in thoughts are always there / to 7 months ago / where madness has begun … » in the central verse, the reconstruction when the news came: «At times I remember / that damned day / the Heart broke in a phone call / The blood ice cream in the veins / when dad said / they lost Daniele .. »
The sailing truck and the process
All in vain, elusive, terribly absurd. Meanwhile, the years pass, marked by Birthday wishes made every 28 April by Dad Franco to Daniele; from Apparitions of new impersonalsThat they give vain illusions; from meritorious initiatives as The offer by a street artist of his sailing truckon which Daniele’s « face » was attacked, visible throughout the city, with the offer of a Lauta reward to those who had given news; and from scorching disappointments For the Family Potenzoni, such as the outcome of the judicial procedure with the accusation of abandonment of incapable borne by one of the two nurses, concluded with acquittal In all degrees of judgment.
The letter-appeal
Did Daniele be lost or did he get lost? For Italian justice, the second is worth … « Hello dear son my son – He now writes Franco in the letter-appeal delivered to Courier – I hope with all my heart that you are well. Ten long years have passed since that cursed June 10thfrom that trip to go and see the Pope. I was quiet because you were accompanied by your nurses. But they lost you in the metro of Rome. And from there our pain began, we remained without you, dear Daniele. You We all waitI, the mother, your brothers and your little grandchild. Many are looking for you, volunteers and ordinary people, while I feel abandoned by the statebecause you are not the son of important people, but of normal people ». Strong and tragic words: a tough j’accuseto escape the life imprisonment of waiting: « Don’t think we forgot youwe will always look for you, with the help of the Lord … a big hug, my son … » ([email protected])
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