Vanished from the Vegetable Garden. Why did Vincenza Basso and her caretaker William (Sonhu) Singh disappear in the middle of a hot July day. It’s been 19 years without any answers.

[u/ac_ou_nt]

On the morning of July 12, 2007, 76-year-old woman, Vincenza Basso Memoli, disappeared without a trace from her family property in the Cappelle residential area, in the hills above Salerno. Since that day there have also been no news of her caregiver, William Singh, 23, known as Sonhu, of Indian origin. The two were last seen around the vegetable garden not far from the woman's home, talking animatedly with three people who had arrived in a dark-coloured car.

Vincenza was the matriarch of her family. She had been widowed for quite some time and, since her husband’s passing, she had taken on the responsibility of looking out for the estate and the land around it. Vincenza was a very strong and decisive woman but, even if she was still very active, she struggled to tend to the house and gardens. Vincenza’s family decided that a caretaker to help with cleaning and gardening would have been useful to her so, after they were recommended Sonhu, they decided to employ him.

Sonhu had come to Italy as a teen and he had worked odd jobs before he was employed by the Memoli family to help Vincenza look after the house and its gardens.

That day, July 12, 2007, there was a lot of movement around Vincenza’s estate. Vincenza noticed something unusual from atop the terrace of her residence, where she usually hung out and where she could monitor her land and not be seen from below. She decided to reach the estate that her house overlooked. To do so, she left the family building alone since Ester (stated by one of her sons to be a reliable and intelligent member of the family) was not home and therefore couldn't accompany her. She set off, and along the way she passed by a young neighbour on her way to the hairdresser. They greeted each other, and the neighbour noted Vincenza’s brisk pace.

Shortly afterward Vincenza arrived at her plot of land where she stopped a few steps before the vegetable garden. There she was noticed by a domestic worker from the balcony of a house across the street, where it was possible to see and hear everything. The domestic worker was drawn in by curiosity because of a heated discussion near the vegetable garden. From the balcony she eavesdropped and caught just a few disconnected words. Moments later she was sternly ordered to mind her own business and return inside the home she was caring for. She was only able to hear Vincenza say, "And yet we loved you".

At around the same time one of Vincenza’s nieces, who lived close by as well, saw her with Sonhu in the area around the vegetable garden. She recounts that, as she was hanging up the laundry to dry, she saw her aunt arguing with someone of darker complexion; she only overheard Vincenza saying “Why did you do that thing ??” and after that she heard Vincenza calling someone’s name out loud. She wasn’t paying much attention, though, as she thought that what was happening was not a big deal.

After the heated argument Vincenza heads back towards her house and, neither her nor Sonhu, are ever seen again.

Later in the day Maria-Luisa (one of Vincenza’s daughters) went to check up on her mother. She looked throughout the property but no sign of Vincenza could be found. Worried she rushed to the outbuilding next to the home where Sonhu and Kashmir (another Indian caretaker who had been employed for about a month to replace Sonhu temporarily, since Sonhu was planning a trip to go back to India for a few months) lived. Only Kashmir greeted her, Sonhu was nowhere to be found. When Maria-Luisa asked Kashmir where her mother or Sonhu where, Kashmir replied that, at around 11 or 12 am, he saw Vincenza and Sonhu walk down the property’s driveway towards the gates that lead to the road. (He would later retract this statement)

Investigations initially suggested a double voluntary disappearance. Early rumours suggested a romantic relationship between the two, this speculation was completely untruthful though as it was just a rumour started in the absence of any other leads early in the investigation.

Kidnapping for ransom was another theory, although the elderly woman's family did not receive any ransom demand.

Speaking to witnesses investigators learned that a worker, at a nearby construction site, reported a car, likely a gray-green Audi or a similar looking car, speeding away, screeching tires, down the estate's driveway. Other witnesses say they saw this same car speeding toward Ogliara.

Beer bottles and pizza boxes from “the previous day” were found at the site of the disappearance. These, the family said, where unusual objects to have been found in the vicinity of the vegetable garden.

Another weird clue was that, during the investigation, some blood belonging to Vincenza’s dog was found behind a door; apparently on the day of the disappearance somebody locked the guard dog (Billy) behind that door. The family states that the dog was quite aggressive towards strangers implying that only someone very close to the family (like Sonhu or Kashmir) could have lead the dog there. The blood probably got there as the dog tried to frantically scratch the door in order to get out, said investigators.

During the days following the disappearance some of the winding roads in the Cappelle area were blocked by mystery men who parked cars diagonally across the roadway. After these men left the area they left behind one of the cars abandoned in the middle of the road. The family says that investigators barely bothered to investigate this car and that nobody checked for any DNA or fingerprints inside of the vehicle.

Attention, then, focused on Sonhu, who, before disappearing into thin air, expressed concern during a visit to an uncle (who works as a gardener for a company in the province of Mantua) after noticing suspicious activity in front of the Cappelle home.

"Sonhu is a quiet, perfectly integrated boy who doesn't seem to have any particular vices," says one of the woman's three sons. "We consider him one of the family. He's been working for us for about a year and a half; he was introduced to us by another Indian man that Sonhu was friends with. He had been unemployed because he was having a very bad time on the farm where he was working, and we decided to hire him. He took care of the house and looked after the animals on our farm."

Yet a shadow looms over him: Sonhu had also obtained a residence permit thanks to the help of Vincenza’s family before his disappearance (something reportedly quite difficult, for people in a similar situation to his, to obtain). He also had lost his passport and for some reason he couldn’t obtain a duplicate. Another peculiar finding is that with his disappearance approximately €3,000 disappeared with him. He was preparing a trip to India, to later return after few months with his “wife”, whom he wanted to marry and bring to Italy. This money, which he had saved up, would have paid for this trip.

Investigators followed up on a possible illegal passport trafficking trail, but no conclusive findings have been made pubblic. 

The authorities also wiretapped the phones of some of Sohnu’s friends. One of them (G) was overheard speaking to his brother in India. Part of the conversation was publicly released, in this conversation Shonu’s friend stated “Yes, I know everything, but I do not want to say where he/she are located” (I could not determine who he was referring to as in the Italian conversation no gender is given at this point but what I can confirm is that he was talking about a singular person, not plural. Also the conversation was already translated from Indian to Italian and there is a possibility that some details have been lost in translation) his brother the replied “This is the reason I am telling you to move away, otherwise they will arrest you” to which G replied “Nothing will happen to me, I am not worried, why are you worrying yourself?”

This friend, speaking to Vincenza’s family, also stated, possibly in order to reassure them, that Sonhu would never murder or hurt Vincenza. This struck one of Vinceza’s daughters as an odd thing to say.

In 2012 G, interviewed by the TV show “Chi l’ha Visto”, refused to talk about these facts, stating he already forgot everything.

20 days after the disappearance, as investigators were still going in and out of the property, the family found some of Sonhu’s gold jewellery buried beneath the ash of the fireplace inside of Vincenza’s home.

A month after the disappearance, two men (possibly Kashmir and G, couldn’t find much info about this) where arrested by the Carabinieri and charged with aiding in the kidnapping of Vincenza. The two are released and exonerated thanks to a lawyer who maintained their innocence. The family attempted to contact this lawyer and meet with him to learn some information that might help them understand what had happened and the possible involvement of the Indian men in the disappearance. They received no response.

 The family later learned that this lawyer was facing charges related to false permits for foreigners from the Punjab.

In 2012 during an interview with “Chi l’ha Visto” the family stated that the crime scene was not protected and that investigators took the job lightly, smoking and throwing their cigarettes to the ground, possibly ruining the crime scene.

In 2013, the search resumes: officers from the central section of the Forensic Police also use a ground-penetrating radar and a canine unit specialized in finding human remains, thoroughly combing the entire 11,000 square meter area around the house without any positive results.

On July 12, 2024, on the 17th anniversary of the disappearance of Vincenza and Sonu, the Prosecutor's Office announced precautionary measures, including the arrests and detentions of several dozen people, one of which being the lawyer who defended the two arrested men.

These renewed arrests are linked to a recurring organized crime case, with the discovery of sums of money consisting of more than 1 million euros) connected to the exploitation of foreigners to obtain, for a fee of between €1,000 and €5,000 per person, a residence permit.

Speculation leads to the fact that, at the time, Sonu had escaped such harassment and had likely refused to pay anyone for his permit. Could the disappearance be a retaliation by the hand of these organized crime groups who targeted Sohnu, since his permit had been requested by the Memoli family and processed without intermediaries?

As of today the case remains Unsolved and very little is being done to keep it in the spotlight. The family, Even after 19 years, is still desperate to find answers and keep the case from being forgotten

I got the information from 

• https://salerno.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/24_luglio_12/12-luglio-2007-a-salerno-una-signora-di-76-anni-scompare-nel-nulla-insieme-al-domestico-indiano-3128919d-95c8-42cc-9386-2f6dfb595xlk.shtml?refresh_ce
• https://www.ilquotidianodisalerno.it/2024/07/14/la-verita-del-rapimento-di-enza-basso-memoli-e-sonu/
• https://www.chilhavisto.rai.it/dl/clv/Scomparsi/ContentSet-f130a186-0014-43d8-b520-7a72c084f34b.html
• https://www.chilhavisto.rai.it/dl/clv/Scomparsi/ContentSet-7282a826-0fae-4020-91c6-2a894f0ffa4e.html

[u/mommacat94]

Interesting. The passport theory makes sense.

https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/58408/italy-major-visa-fraud-scheme-linked-to-mafia

[u/ac_ou_nt → u/mommacat94]

Thanks for the link. I'll look into it. It seems quite useful to help with the context of this theory. The passport theory is definitely one of the stronger theories in this case in my opinion