Italian man lured by Moldovan woman beaten and strangled in Rezeni wood

An Italian came to Moldova at the invitation of a 20-year-old woman, who, together with her partner and another young man, robbed and strangled him in a wood in Rezeni village of Cimislia district. If the court finds them guilty, they will serve life sentences, said Ion Bodrug, the deputy head of the Ministry of the Interior's Police Department, Info-Prim Neo reports. The 64-year-old Italian had American nationality and lived in the United States. He communicated with the Moldovan young woman over the Internet during two months. On April 24, he came to visit her. The girl met him at the airport with a rented car. The car was driven by one of the young men. The other one was waiting in the wood. When they arrived in the wood, the two men beat the Italian, took his two mobile phones, the laptop and €3,000 and then strangled him. The Ministry of the Interior was notified by the U.S. Embassy on May 7, after the man's relatives reported him missing. The Italian man had visited Moldova earlier as a tourist. He owned a chain of hotels in Italy, Cyprus and Greece. The young persons suspected of murder are held in the remand center of the Chisinau General Police Commissariat. The woman and her partner have been earlier tried for theft and, respectively, drug distribution.