Castrovillari (Cosenza): Denise Galatà, died during rafting on the Lao river, the Prosecutor's Office requests two referrals to trial

It was the afternoon of May 30, 2023 when the operator of the Operations Center of the Carabinieri Company of Castrovillari, alarmed by the disappearance of Denise Galatà during a rafting excursion on the Lao river, he immediately notified all patrols available who converged to begin the research, which lasted until the night and which allowed us to recover the students of the Giuseppe Rechichi Linguistic Institute of Polistena as well as the professors and guides who had accompanied the school group, helping them climb the steep bank.

Denise, however, was missing from the roll call and from the investigations coordinated on the same night by Dr. Alessandro D'Alessio, Chief Prosecutor of the Castrovillari Prosecutor's Office, carried out by the deputy on duty of the Prosecutor's Office and by the soldiers of the Carabinieri, thanks to the testimonies collected by the same friends of the lass the last moments before the teenager fell into the water and never came back up were reconstructed.

The tracing operations resumed at dawn on May 31st by the various specialized departments of the Arma as well as by the personnel of the Calabria Alpine Rescue and Fire Brigade, allowed the young woman's lifeless body to be recovered who, as the autopsy will clarify, died from drowning.

The consequent opening of theinvestigation, which saw the seizure of the rafting facility as well as all the dinghies and equipment used during the excursion, it focused on weather conditions and compliance with the conduct required.

Precisely at the end of the complex evaluation activity of the elements collected, the Castrovillari Prosecutor's Office requested the indictment for the president of the board of directors of the rafting company as well as the instructor who operated the dinghy on which Denise sat, both accused of manslaughter and to be considered presumed innocent until a final conviction becomes final: the first reason did not comply with the ban on entering the Lao River provided for by the specific municipal ordinance issued in activation of the weather alert state, allowing the descent which, in the specific case, was carried out by guides not in possession of the necessary qualifications required for the degree of difficulty of the waterway; the reference is precisely to the guide since, in possession of one insufficient federal qualification for navigation of the Lao River considered the third degree of difficulty with passages of fourth degree, the equipment of the dinghy was conducted in an inadequate manner compared to the contingent conditions, allowing the presence of only girls who, although inexperienced and slender, fell several times during the descent before the fatal event for Denise. The same guide, among other things, he overlooked and underestimated the critical issues by not interrupting navigation and facing the critical stretch of the Lao, in which the girl fell into the river and never came back up.

The complexity of the reconstructive activity carried out, also through the contribution of qualified technicians, must be underlined, in compliance with the times foreseen for carrying out the preliminary investigations.
The news is provided due to the public importance assumed by the matter and in compliance with the presumption of innocence of the recipients of the request for indictment, a request which must be submitted, in full cross-examination between the parties and, therefore, with the possibility of providing, on the part of the defendants, their own reconstructive hypothesis.