Petition for the presumed death of Elisa Gualandi
Date of the event:
On 15 September 2026 the delegated judge of the Ivrea court, Aldo Di Dario, orders by decree the publication of the petition for a declaration of presumed death of Elisa Gualandi, filed in the interest of her sister Silvia. The notice gives the woman's name, missing for more than eight years, and invites anyone with information to contact the court within six months of the last publication [1].
The disappearance
Elisa Gualandi, born in Rivoli on 16 December 1964, had lived in the city for 53 years and worked as a social worker for the City of Turin. About a month before her disappearance she had moved to Pont Canavese, in the hamlet of Villanuova, where she was renovating a mountain hut in Valle Soana. On the morning of Wednesday 6 June 2018 she went out for a short walk towards the village and never returned. Left behind at home were her documents, wallet, phone, laundry hung out to dry, vegetables prepared for lunch and her cats [1].
The search
Carabinieri, firefighters, alpine rescue teams, the Guardia di Finanza, AIB forest-fire volunteers and the Red Cross took part in the search. In one operation more than 80 people, divided into about ten teams, searched 175 hectares of woods, farmhouses, ravines and the banks of the Soana river, assisted by drones and a helicopter. Further checks were carried out in September 2018 during a training exercise. No trace of the woman was found. The last stretch of Gualandi's route remained uncertain: some witnesses placed her in the village, but accounts of the time of a meeting reported by a neighbour conflicted, ranging between early morning and 11am. The cameras did not record her expected passage and sniffer dogs lost her trail at one point, raising the hypothesis that she might also have travelled by car [1].
The case file
The Ivrea public prosecutor's office opened a file against persons unknown for kidnapping, an investigative hypothesis that does not amount to a finding of a crime. The case was covered several times by the programme "Chi l'ha visto?" on Rai 3, which also relayed an appeal from her sister Silvia, who asked anyone with information to contact the programme or the Carabinieri [1].
Sources
- Scomparsa di Elisa Gualandi da Pont Canavese, dopo otto anni la sorella chiede la dichiarazione di morte presunta — TorinoToday, 26 October 2026