Modena, 31 January 2026 – “Mother, brother and sister of Daniela they are shocked and distressed, now we want the truth about what happened to her.” They say it in a video the two lawyers of the family: Guido Solawho assists mother and sister of Daniela Ruggiand Deborah De Cicco who assists her brother Alberto. They say it later identification of the human remains found last January 1st near an abandoned tower in Vitriola.
The DNA test would have confirmed that they belong to the 32-year-old disappearance into nothingness from the hamlet of Montefiorino (Modena) on 19 September 2024. The bones were found a short distance from the young woman’s house.
“Mom and sister are shocked”
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The two “like me only learned this morning by reading the newspapers that published that the news that would be definitive. Even in this case it was decided not to say anything even to the lawyers”, underlines the lawyer Sola pointedly.
“I repeat, mother and I are shocked, I think understandably, also because of the ways in which they learned that the news would be definitive – explains the lawyer –. They do not intend to release any statement, for reasons that I fully agree with and I believe are understandable to anyone. We are waiting the developments of the preliminary investigation and the consequent further news that will come, if it will come, when it will come.”
The Modena Prosecutor’s Office: “The words of the Ruggis’ lawyer are inaccurate”
Modena prosecutor Luca Masini, who has not released any official information on the identification of Daniela Ruggi’s remains, writes a statement to counter the claims of the lawyer of the mother and sister of the 32-year-old who died. The prosecutor focuses on a video where the lawyer Guido Sola states that his clients “would only have learned from the press and only this morning the news that the human remains found in a ruined building in the Vitriola di Montefiorino area belong to Daniela Ruggi”. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, this is inaccurate news: “On the contrary, yesterday evening 30 January 2026, at the disposal of this Office, the Modena carabinieri had summoned Daniela Ruggi’s family, in the person of her mother and two brothersand they had dutifully communicated to them the sad news of the identity of the person to whom the human remains found belong. The news story, therefore, was published only after the family had received this communication.”
Lawyer Sola replies like this: “The point is: no one doubts that, yesterday, those responsible informed the family. But since, as of this morning, there were those who understood that the news might not be definitiveI am of the opinion that, in these cases – for example in situations of evident fragility resulting, to say the least, from profound suffering and always possible, yet understandable, human refractoriness to the correct perception of serious news -, it may be appropriate to summon, not only the interested parties, but also their lawyers as subjects who ‘exist’ primarily to ensure that clients always and clearly understand what is communicated to them despite possible, even very difficult, psychological situations”.
The brother: “Now the truth about what happened”
Also Daniela’s brother’s lawyer, Deborah De Cicco he published a video in which he claims that “my client Alberto Ruggi was summoned yesterday afternoon, Friday, to have him communicated this dramatic newsor that unfortunately the human remains found in the farmhouse near Vetriola were attributable to his sister Daniela”.
“It’s easy to imagine how this news certainly affected him a lot of anguisha lot of pain and also a lot of disbelief – explains the lawyer –, as well as in me as a defender, as well as in the rest of the family. Now we expect to be able to know some details, in order to understand what could have happened to Danielathe dynamics that could lead to such a sad epilogue of the story of the disappearance, and therefore being able to have a truth, the truth about what happened to Daniela”.
The release of the sheriff’s house
Just as it is discovered that the human remains found belong to Daniela Ruggi, the ‘sheriff’ Domenico Lanza67 years old, the only suspect in the young woman’s disappearance, was able to return to his home in Polinago 14 months later. The house was returned to him after the release from seizure ordered by the Prosecutor’s Office, together with the car and other assets seized at the beginning of the investigations in December 2024. Lanza found the house in very degraded conditionswith clear signs of the search and serious structural problems that make it currently uninhabitable.
According to his lawyer, all the investigations and reports carried out have not highlighted elements that connect Lanza to the disappearance of the woman. The man says he is without electricity, with mold and water infiltrations, and that he does not have the economic resources to fix the house. He is seeking help through the parish and some restaurateurs in the town, who also support him by offering him meals.
