Fresh twist in hunt for ‘Italy’s Madeleine McCann’: DNA tests to be carried out on woman resembling missing girl who vanished on picnic aged three 29 years ago

A DNA test has been ordered on a woman who looks like a missing girl from Italy after her resemblance was spotted by a blogger in Turkey 16 years ago.

Angela Celentano – who has also been dubbed as Italy’s Madeleine McCann – disappeared in 1996, aged three, while at a picnic with her parents in Monte Faito.

More than a decade later, an Italian woman, Vinceza Trentinella, told police that Angela was being kept on the Turkish island of Buyikada, near Istanbul, after being kidnapped as a child.

Ms Trentinella claimed that Angela was living with a man, a self-styled vet, who she believed was her father.

The blogger said she was told the information by a dying priest, Don Augusto, who allegedly said it was revealed to him during a confession.

Upon her return to Italy, Ms Trentinella notified police and gave them documentation – a business card of the supposed father, who had a scar on his neck, and photos of the girl who had a strong resemblance to Angela.

But Turkish authorities failed to look more into the accusation after they were given a fake phone number of the man, Fahfi Bey.

Now Judge Federica Colucci has reopened the case and ordered a new investigation to find the so-called ‘Turkish lead’ to ‘resolve any doubts about her identity’, it was reported in Corriere Del Mezzogiorno.

A DNA test has been ordered on a woman who resembles a missing girl from Italy after her resemblance was spotted by a blogger in Turkey 16 years ago

Angela Celentano disappeared in 1996, aged three, while at a picnic with her parents in Monte Faito, a mountain nestled between Naples and Sorrento on Italy’s west coast 

A representation of what Angela would look like as an adult – her parents have said ‘until I am certain that my daughter is dead, until I have a body to cry on, I will continue to look for her alive’

They asked the prosecutor to hear from the witnesses in Turkey as well as identify the girl in the video taken by Ms Trentinella back in 2009.

Naples Prosecutor’s Office had recently asked for the case to be closed but the lawyers of the missing girl’s parents insisted on a DNA test – which the judge granted.

Judge Colucci has asked to hear from a pharmacist from Buyikada to confirm the scar on the neck of the ‘father’.

They also want a picture of the current partner of the woman who resembles Angela, according to Corriere Del Mezzogiorno.

A lawyer registered with the Istanbul-Buyukada Order will also share identifying materials on the woman from Ms Trentinella’s video.

Several unsuccessful DNA tests have been done in the last 29 years on several suspects who bore a resemblance to Angela.

In 2017, sightings were made in Mexico, and a few years later in South Africa and then in Venezuela.

Her parents believed that a Venezuelan model who strongly resembled Angela’s older sister was their long-lost daughter.

Ms Trentinella travelled to Buyikada herself where she found who she believes to be Angela (pictured far left) and said ‘she doesn’t know anything about her life, she thinks the person she lives with is her father’

‘There isn’t a day that we don’t think about Angela, who has always been present in our lives, even if not physically. We are sure that sooner or later we will hug her again,’ her parents Maria and Catello said 

Her disappearance made headlines across Italy with the Carabinieri, the army, dog units and a police helicopter all joining the search for the little girl

But their hopes were dashed when a DNA test found she was not a match in February 2022.

‘By a bitter twist of fate, there was an impressive resemblance to one of Angela’s two sisters,’ the Celentano’s family lawyer Luigi Ferrandino said at the time. ‘We believed it and hoped it was here, but unfortunately there was a negative DNA result.’

Ms Trentinella was told the information about the current lead after the dying priest who heard the confession felt he could not ‘keep this burden on my conscience’.

The priest told her about a vet living on the island, who he claimed had kidnapped Angela.

Ms Trentinella travelled to Buyikada herself and found the vet called Fahfi Bey at a veterinary practice where she had posed as a tourist who wanted to adopt a kitten from the island. It was here that she found who she believes to be Angela.

‘I knew where to go, what to look for and I found them,’ Ms Trentinella told MailOnline last year.

Speaking about when she discovered who she believes to be Angela and her alleged abductor, she said: ‘It wasn’t easy. He was very nervous. She doesn’t know anything about her life, she thinks the person she lives with is her father.’ 

Ms Trentinella said the man posing as Angela’s father had written a number on his business card, claiming it was his own.

Angela turned 30 in June 2023 and her parents revealed how they still celebrate her birthday every year and buy her a gift, which they put in her wardrobe 

But when Italian police, in collaboration with their Turkish colleagues, called the number a man picked up and said he had never met Ms Trentinella.

It later emerged that this man was in fact called Fahri Dal, meaning that the real Fahfi Bey had given Ms Trentinella had given her a fake number. But despite the discrepancy, Turkish police failed to investigate what could be a key clue extensively.

The investigations at the time faded for years without finding any concrete evidence of this Fahri Bey.

Little Angela had been playing with other children from the Evangelical Community when she went missing, telling her father moments before her disappearance that ‘they won’t let me get in the hammock’.

Catello said he remembered telling his daughter he’d take her to the hammock before turning to speak to his wife, Maria, briefly.

Mere seconds later, when he turned around and reached for his daughter’s hand, Angela had disappeared.

The couple then spent days on the mountain searching for their daughter with the help of their friends and police.

The Carabinieri, the army, dog units and a police helicopter also joined the search efforts.

The little girl had been playing with other children from the Evangelical Community when she went missing, telling her father moments before her disappearance that ‘they won’t let me get in the hammock’ 

Police began questioning everyone who was on the trip, and quickly learned that the last to see Angela were two boys – Renato, 11, and Luca, 12 – with whom the little girl went down a path.

But their testimonies didn’t match – and later, the boys would change their stories before retracting their statements in the first of an endless stream of mysterious incidents surrounding the cold case.

Despite several false-alarms about Angela’s current whereabouts over the years, her parents have spoken about how they will never give up hope. 

‘Until I am certain that my daughter is dead, until I have a body to cry on, I will continue to look for her alive. Even if I have to go to the end of the world,’ her father Catello once said. 

Angela turned 30 in June 2023 and her parents revealed how they still celebrate her birthday every year and buy her a gift, which they put in her wardrobe.

They hope that one day, they will be reunited with their little girl after so many years.

‘It’s been a hard 30 years for us,’ her father said. ‘There isn’t a day that we don’t think about Angela, who has always been present in our lives, even if not physically. We are sure that sooner or later we will hug her again.’