A routine police search in a small Italian town led to a discovery that sounded more like the plot of a horror movie than real life. The incident, which dates back to 2013, resurfaced on the internet after a user shared how a carefully preserved mummy was hidden in the basement of an old apartment in his town in Borgo San Dalmazzo, a quiet town in northern Italy. According to the user and reports, police found the mummified body nearly 17 years after the woman died in April 1996.
The user who shared the incident on Reddit revealed that after a few hours of research, the discovered body was later identified as Graziella Giraudo, who was declared missing in 1996 by her two daughters. The case initially appeared to be a murder mystery of the missing woman, mummified in her home, who had been found after 17 years. However, in the course of the investigation, it appeared that she died after suffering a stroke.
However, the user continues by sharing the “crazy part”: Graziella was popularly known as the “santona” (meaning holy woman in Italian). In her free time, she was said to be involved in spell-making, and such traditions were not uncommon in small rural communities. The user stated that the practice has, though, diminished in the last 20 years.
While the belief in such practices may have largely faded, the user insists that a handful of followers still tend to gravitate around these mystical figures. Thus, townspeople didn’t find anything unusual about it, but her “inner circle,” including her ex-husband and her roommate, believed that announcing her death and making a funeral “would have been too much of a loss” for the community. Thus, they allegedly decided to hide her body in the basement and cared for it over the years.
Her followers allegedly started visiting her remains and were convinced that she would eventually come back from the dead, and she would bring peace and blessings to her loyal followers. According to the user, it was made sure that the body was cleaned and intact, but the body naturally mummified years later, which made the “followers” believe that Graziella was blessed with special powers.
Meanwhile, Graziella’s two daughters were unaware of what transpired behind the closed doors, and they were told that their mother “decided to set off on a long journey.” After the police found out about the events nearly 20 years later, the responsible family members were held responsible and charged with serious accusations. The woman was eventually laid to rest.
According to an IBT report published in 2013, the woman would tell fortunes to the locals in exchange for eggs, chickens, and vegetables and reportedly also acted as a healer. The body of the woman was discovered seated upright, with one hand resting in her lap and the other lifted, with a linen sheet draped over her knees.
The outlet also quoted several Italian media reports suggesting that women’s features, including their skin color and hair, were still recognizable. It is no less than a one-of-a-kind story where what began as devotion eventually turned into a bizarre and disturbing ritual that continued behind closed doors for nearly two decades.
