He Left Behind A Twisted Mystery After His Belongings Were Found Next To A Frankenstein Skeleton Made Of Five Victims

On October 31, 2003, a 77-year-old man named Libero Ricci set out for his daily walk at 10 a.m. after saying goodbye to his wife and son.

He lived with them in the southwestern suburb of Magliana in Rome. He was a retired interior decorator who used to work for the Vatican.

Libero Ricci usually walked for about a mile and rested on a bench near Magliana's shopping center. He would return by 11 a.m. But that morning, he never came home.

His son, Claudio, spent the rest of the day searching the neighborhood, interrogating shopkeepers and even checking with the local hospital.

No one had seen Ricci anywhere. Claudio reported his father missing that night. His father's disappearance hit him hard. Claudio described Ricci as "a perfectly normal, simple family man" who lived a quiet life and had no enemies.

About four years later, on July 27, 2007, firefighters put out a fire in Via della Pescaglia in the Magliana district of Rome. The fire was later thought to have been set on purpose. It started in a reed bed near a bike path on the Lungotevere. A partially charred but intact skeleton was found in the area.

The remains included a skull, a right femur, fragments of tibia and fibula, some cervical, thoracic and lumbar vertebrae, parts of a left humerus, rib pieces, a damaged scapula and several phalanges and metacarpals.

There was a pouch or crossbody bag next to the remains that contained an ID card and house keys belonging to Libero Ricci.

Investigators analyzed the skeleton further and determined that it had been wearing a blue jacket, a brown T-shirt, black trousers, and beige shoes. Strangely enough, the clothing had not been what Ricci was wearing on the day he disappeared.

Overburn - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only, not the actual person - pictured above is a man walking in the fog

In 2010, authorities tested the skull against the DNA of Ricci's relatives. The results were a surprise because it turned out the skull actually belonged to a female.

They decided to test the other bones and found that the remains were from five different people; three women and two men. These individuals died over a 20-year period between the mid-1980s and 2006.

There was a 40 to 50-year-old man who died between February 2002 and October 2006; a 25 to 40-year-old man who died between February 1986 and October 1989; a 45 to 55-year-old woman who passed away between November 2002 and November 2006; a 20 to 35-year-old woman who passed away between November 1992 and February 1998; and a 35 to 45-year-old woman who died between April 1995 and December 2000.

Authorities considered several possibilities. One theory was that a serial killer had gathered the bones of their victims to assemble a whole skeleton. Another was that the bones were dug up from a cemetery, but no traces of zinc or other metals used in coffins were detected.

The police even looked into any connections with the Banda della Magliana, a crime group in the area that operated from the 1960s until 1999. However, the evidence didn't add up.

The bones must have been brought to the area shortly before the fire was started, or else there would have been signs of scavenging from animals.

Whoever arranged the skeleton was also very familiar with human anatomical structure, as the bones were placed in all the right spots.

Other tests have been performed on the bones to see if they would match any people who have disappeared across Rome, but nothing has been confirmed.

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