Why a Booktrail?
1993, 2010: A true life case with a fictional twist
Blood on the Altar
What you need to know before your trail
One Sunday morning in 1993 a 16-year-old girl named Eliza Claps goes missing from a church in the centre of Potenza, Italy. Shortly before her disappearance, Elisa had met Danilo Restivo, a strange local boy with a fetish for cutting women’s hair on the back of buses. Elisa’s family are convinced that Resitvo is responsible for their daughter’s disappearance, but he is protected by local big-wigs: by his Sicilian father, by a doctor with links to organised crime, by a priest who had vices of his own. Years went by and Elisa’s family could find only false leads.
2002, and Restivo is now living in Bournemouth. In November that year, his neighbour is found murdered, with strands of her own hair in her hands. Once again the police are at a loss to pin anything on him. It’s not until 2010, when Elisa’s decomposed body is found in the church where she went missing, that the two cases are linked and Restivo is finally dealt with.
Locations
Reset- Italy - Basilicata region - Potenza
- A: Chiesa della Santissima Trinità
- B: Potenza police
- C: Potenza Centrale
- England - Dorset - Bournemouth
- D: Capstone Rd
- E: Bournemouth Police Station
Travel Guide
Potenza and Bournemouth
This is the true story of Elisa Claps who went missing from a church in 1993. A woman was murdered in Bournemouth, England in 2002. The same man, Danilo Restivo, was suspected of both crimes.
In 2012, Tobias Jones wrote:
The case gradually became, for many, an obsession, one of the iconic Italian mysteries that enabled people to engage in dietrologia, literally ‘behindery’ or conspiracy-theorising. Claps’ face—her long, dark hair, thick glasses and carefree smile—haunted the nation.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Blood on the Altar
Destination: Potenza, Bournemouth Author/guide: Tobias Jones Departure Time: 1993, 2002
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