Sumith Prasad
Netflix’s crime film ‘The Catholic School’ centers around the students of St. Luigi High School, exploring their lives and the conflicts they face. The most prominent storyline of the Italian film follows Angelo Izzo and Gianni Guido, two students studying at the prestigious institution, who team up to torture and rape Donatella Colasanti and Rosaria Lopez. Angelo and Gianni are joined by their friend Andrea Ghira, who tortures and rapes the two girls like his friends. The film ends with a revelation that the real-life Ghira died in 1994. But how did he die? Let’s find out!
Andrea Ghira Died From a Drug Overdose at Age 40
After the Carabinieri officials had rescued Donatella and discovered Rosaria’s dead body, they arrested Gianni and Angelo in no time. However, Ghira managed to escape upon getting tipped about the same. As per reports, it is believed that Ghira flew to Spain and joined the Spanish foreign legion, an elite unit of the Spanish army, under the false identity of Massimo Testa de Andrés. As per sources, he was expelled from the legion in 1993 due to the lack of adequate psychophysical conditions. After his expulsion, he started to stay in Melilla, an autonomous Spanish city located on the east coast of Morocco, North Africa, where he apparently ran a kiosk and lived with a girlfriend.
Ghira died on September 2, 1994, at the age of 40, due to a drug overdose. He was found seven days after his death. As per the testimonies of the neighbors, he was a drug addict. He was buried in the monumental cemetery of Melilla under his fake name. In 2005, a DNA test proved that Massimo Testa de Andrés was actually Andrea Ghira. Comparison of the fingerprints of Ghira and the ones taken from the corpse played a pivotal role in affirming the identity as well. In October 2005, Ghira’s family released a statement that his mother, Mrs. Maria Cecilia Ghira, handed over several documents to the Carabinieri that proves the death of her son.
However, the mystery that revolves around Ghira’s death didn’t settle with the DNA test. The Carabinieri in Rome suspected that a man who was pictured using one of the surveillance cameras in the city in 1995 is Ghira. Over the years, according to reports, his sightings have been reported in several countries like Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, etc. Donatella never believed that the man who died in Melilla was Ghira. She had expressed that Ghira is alive and he is in Rome. She also said that the person buried in Melilla is a relative of Ghira, which, according to her, explains the DNA test result. Donatella had also expressed her doubts concerning why the Spanish consulate didn’t notify the Italian consulate in the wake of Massimo Testa’s death in 1994.
Letizia Lopez, the sister of Rosaria, also isn’t convinced that Ghira is dead. In an interview given in 2016, she revealed that she believes he is alive and he had received “help and protection” over the years to hide from the authorities. Letizia also joined Donatella’s brother Roberto to turn to the European Court of Human Rights as they believed that Italy didn’t seek Ghira to arrest him while he was on the run. In January 2016, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Rome reopened Ghira’s case to conduct an in-depth DNA examination using the exhumed body of “Massimo Testa” from Melilla. The experts who conducted the same using bone marrow samples confirmed that the remains of Massimo Testa belong to Andrea Ghira.
Read More: Where is Rapist Giovanni “Gianni” Guido Now?
