Monsignor Salvatore Ligori, the
Archbishop of Potenza, said Tuesday that the church in the
southern city where the body of Elisa Claps was found hidden in
2010 will reopen to worship after restoration work.
Danilo Restivo was handed a 30-year-term in absentia for the
September 1993 murder of 16-year-old Claps in Potenza.
The 48-year-old is serving a 40-year term in Britain for the
November 2002 murder of Heather Barnett in Bournemouth, England.
The 15th-century Santissima Trinità church has been closed to
worship since Claps' remains were found in a roof nook of it.
"I have spoken to the mother of the dear Elisa Claps, assuring
her that I am close to her in prayer," Ligori said.
The daughter of a tobacconist and a clerk, Claps was an honour
student and a devoted catholic, with ambitions to became a
surgeon and work with Doctors Without Borders.
She wrote in her diary that she felt sorry for the insistent
Restivo and, despite misgivings, agreed to meet him at the
church.
Restivo asked for a date pretending he had a love affair with a
friend of hers.
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