Gozo girl’s disappearance in 1911 troubles relative seeking her remains

Sunday newspaper Illum today features the disappearance of 6-year-old Modesta Cefai in 1911 – a mystery which to date has yet to be solved. But time has not healed the wounds caused by Cefai’s disappearance, as a hundred years later, a relative of Cefai is determined to find her remains.

The incident occurred on 27 August 1911 when the 6-year-old girl walked out of her home in Rabat, Gozo, never to be seen again.

Nine hours later, Cefai’s father had filed a police report, and the police had spent the whole night searching for her. However, the search was all in vain as police had not yielded any results.

Two days after her disappearance, the girl’s father, Giuseppe Cefai accused 50-year-old Lorenzo Frendo of kidnapping his daughter and of taking her to his house. Investigations into Frendo’s residence yielded no results.

More ‘witnesses’ came forward with alleged sightings: Marianne Sacco claimed that she had seen Modesta walking by herself in Xaghra, while Maurizio Cauchi had told police that he had seen blood-stained rags – believed to have been part part of the dress the girl was last seen wearing – in Triq Kercem.

The rags were then shown to the girl’s mother, but she had confirmed that these did not belong to her daughter.

In 1968, a new inquiry into Modesta’s remains was reopened after workers uncovered human bones in a Rabat house. The discovery sparked rumours that the bones belonged to the 6-year-old girl, but again, there were no results, with police denying that such a discovery was ever made.

But a hundred years later, Modesta Cefai’s sister’s grandson, university lecturer Joe Azzopardi, remains determined to find the remains of six-year-old Modesta Cefai.

“My dream and that of Modesta’s relatives has always been to find her remains so that we will be able to give her the burial she deserves,” Azzopardi told Sunday newspaper Illum.

Read the full feature article in today’s edition of Illum.