Rexal Ford Arrested; – An American man using a false identity has been charged with murder following the discovery of a woman and her infant found deceased in a park in Rome, just days after they were seen together.
A 46-year-old individual who identified himself as Rexal Ford was apprehended by authorities on the Greek island of Skiathos on Friday under an Italian warrant. Rome prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi indicated that there is “strong evidence” suggesting he was responsible for the death of the baby girl, as reported by Italian media outlets.
The cause of death for the 30-year-old woman remains unknown; however, deputy prosecutor Giuseppe Cascini stated that “there is a reasonable suspicion that it is a double murder,” according to CBS News.
Subsequent investigations revealed that the man’s real identity is Charles Francis Kaufmann from California, who had been using the name Rexal Ford with a US passport since 2019, as reported by the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero.
Kaufmann presented himself as a filmmaker and asserted that he was scouting locations in and around Rome, as reported by the English-language Italian outlet La Voce de New York.
The naked bodies of the woman and the baby—whose identities have not yet been disclosed but are also believed to be American—were found on June 7 in the renowned Villa Pamphili park in Rome.
The mother’s body was located beneath a black bag, while the infant was discovered several hundred yards away in some bushes. Authorities suspect that the woman was murdered several days prior to the death of the baby.
The suspect, who had been observed with a woman and child multiple times conversing in English, fled Italy for Skiathos on Wednesday, according to Lo Voi.
The woman, whose identity also seems to have been concealed, introduced herself as “Stella Ford,” and Kaufmann referred to her as “my wife,” as reported by Il Messaggero.
Investigators traced the trio back to a homeless shelter near the Vatican; however, the nature of their relationship remains ambiguous, as reported by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Kaufmann’s fingerprints were discovered on the bag covering the woman and matched a piece of tent material, similar to those provided to individuals without shelter, according to the newspaper.
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