Italian Homeless Man Arrested for Murder of Beau Solomon

A University of Wisconsin-Madison student who was in Rome for a summer study abroad program was found dead in the Tiber River on Monday. On Tuesday, an Italian homeless man was arrested for “aggravated murder” in connection with his death, according to Italian authorities involved with the case.

Beau Solomon, 19, arrived in Rome on Thursday to spend his summer studying at John Cabot University. He went to a pub with his roommate Thursday evening in Trastevere, a Rome neighborhood on the banks of the Tiber. Solomon’s roommate said the two lost contact at about one in the morning, and he reported him missing on Friday morning when he failed to attend orientation. His body was found on Monday, roughly 2,000 feet from the pub where he spent his final evening.

“In our family, he is the one who does it all right. He’s an incredible athlete. He is the one that keeps us all together,” Jake Solomon, Beau’s older brother, told NBC News before his brother was confirmed dead. He also noted that his brother was a cancer survivor.

Few details have emerged in the days since his disappearance. According to Italian news reports, over $1,700 was charged to Solomon’s credit card after his disappearance, including a purchase on Friday in Milan, 350 miles north of Rome. Rebecca Blank, chancellor of UW-Madison, where Solomon was a rising sophomore and personal finance major, expressed her condolences on Twitter:

Beau Solomon was a bright and caring young man who lived the Wisconsin Idea. All of us at UW-Madison are greatly saddened by this loss.

— Becky Blank (@BeckyBlank) July 4, 2016

Massimo Galioto, a 40-year-old homeless man from Rome, was detained by Italian investigators Tuesday because he was “seriously implicated” in connection to Solomon’s murder.

Solomon is the third of four brothers. He fought cancer from ages 10 to 12, and took up football, rising through the youth football ranks in his hometown–Spring Green, Wisconsin, a small village 40 miles west of Madison. He was the starting quarterback for the River Valley Blackhawks–a high school in Spring Green–his junior and senior seasons.

In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Jake Solomon said that his brother was the “toughest S.O.B. that we’ve ever met,” and dreamed of becoming a lawyer.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.