Santina Renda disappeared as she was playing with other children in the neighborhood where she lived with her family. Vincenzo Campanella, a 17-year-old cousin of Santina’s with mental problems, confessed that he had hidden Santina’s body, after she had died in a motorbike accident caused by him. But then he retracted his confession.

Two years later, on February 5, 1992, an 8-year-old cousin of Santina’s, Maurizio Nunzio Renda, disappeared. His body was found the same day; he had been beaten to death with an iron bar. Vincenzo Campanella, after confessing his guilt, was tried summarily and sentenced to 29 years in prison. He was not given a life sentence because he was considered mentally unstable. Santina has never been found.

Victims
 

                      Santina Renda, 8.                                 Nunzio Renda, 6.