Woman found dead in the bushes. She'd been missing for seven days: "Someone took her there."

Under the scorching July sun, Rome awakens to a body among the brambles of Via del Mandrione. The body is that of Emanuela Ruggeri , 32, who disappeared from Colli Aniene the previous Monday: a girl like many others, yet her end has the bitter taste of mystery in this capital city that seems to have acquired a taste for intricate and cruel charades. What remains of her today is a body marked by tattoos, some disturbing, and a void that widens with unanswered questions. The last clear clue is a message to her mother, Alessandra Loreti, on July 15th: "I've been to the beach." The day before, Emanuela had left the house—wearing flip-flops and leggings—saying she was going to a friend's house for dinner with a third party. However, she never showed up.

Since the following Tuesday, silence. Her cell phone seems to have disappeared, disappearing, with only her documents and purse near her body. It is precisely on that phone that investigators are now focusing their attention: a smartphone's memory could hold crucial details that could help trace the woman's last movements, her acquaintances, and the final seconds of her life, but until it's found, the darkness remains thick. The body was found Sunday afternoon in the bushes, but identification was almost immediate. Impossible not to notice, on the advanced decomposition of flesh, left in the scorching heat for nearly a week, that "666" carved on her left arm—the number of the devil, for those who love macabre symbolism or pseudo-religious Kabbalah. Then the letter "D" on the left index finger, the crescent moon and dot on each hand, a mushroom tattoo, piercings. Signs and imprints of a perhaps restless, certainly not banal existence.

Emanuela bears the truth on her skin, but it remains a puzzle that no one can yet decipher. The body was found by a passerby with his dog, near the tracks, behind the Tuscolano neighborhood, distracted by the holiday. There were no obvious injuries, nothing to suggest femicide. However, the prosecutor's office is proceeding with a "death resulting from another crime" charge, because Emanuela should never have been in that field. She wasn't driving, she didn't know the area, and as her mother emphasizes—alternating between tears and anger—"someone must have taken her there." Furthermore, the area is difficult to access, and the fact that the body was in the bushes fuels suspicions that someone may have hidden it. Finally, no witnesses have emerged to date who saw her on that stretch of road. No cameras appear to have captured her. Forensic police are torn between the autopsy, which took place yesterday at the Tor Vergata hospital, and awaiting toxicology results, while surveillance cameras in the area are being examined. For now, there's no certainty. Initial reports suggest an overdose hasn't been ruled out. Investigators suspect a perfect set-up.

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