A YOUNG German couple, who on Sunday night abandoned three small children in a pizzeria in Aosta, northern Italy, were found yesterday afternoon by police in a wood just south of the town.
Caterina Remhof (26) and her companion, Sascha Schmidt (24), were detained last night at Aosta police station after being found wandering around aimlessly in the woods.
Remhof and Schmidt initiated a police manhunt on Sunday night when they walked out of a pizzeria, apparently abandoning Remhof’s three children, aged four years, two years and eight months.
Using the excuse that they wanted to smoke a cigarette, Remhof and Schmidt stepped outside the Il Capanno pizzeria.
When the couple did not return, the pizzeria proprietors Carmelo and Francesco Casella found themselves transformed into emergency babysitters. Ms Casella yesterday told reporters: “The children were very quiet, the baby was sitting quite happily in the baby-chair, while the two bigger ones ate their pizzas in total silence.
“When we picked them up in our arms, however, we discovered that their clothes were soaked, still wet from being caught out in the rain on the way here. We got clothes from home and changed all three of them. The poor little things had nothing, no nappies, just wet T-shirts.”
When the couple’s car, an old Ford Fiesta, was found abandoned in a car park on the edge of town on Tuesday, police feared that they might have set off to enact a suicide pact.
However, responding to information from a council worker who had seen them sleeping rough on Wednesday night, police found both Remhof and Schmidt in the woods, tired and hungry but otherwise in good condition.
It transpires that Schmidt is wanted in Germany where he is serving a prison sentence in Attendorm for a drugs-related offence. Ten days ago, he broke his parole and did not return to prison after having been allowed out on a one-day permit.
Remhof also appears to have had a history of domestic troubles since the father of her three children is currently serving a 32- month prison sentence also in Attendorm prison for having killed Summer Rose, a child born to Caterina in October 2006.
Last night, German federal authorities were making plans to return the children to Germany where they will be entrusted to Caterina’s mother. Both Remhof and Schmidt are expected to be sent back to Germany today, with Schmidt returning to prison and with Remhof perhaps facing charges of criminal negligence.