Mother of Brit who vanished in Italy a year ago during trip with woman he met online says she has received mystery messages

Daily Mail​

5 days ago

The mother of a British tourist who has been missing for a year after vanishing in Sardinia has been sent messages saying: 'I tried to believe it was an accident.'
Michael Frison, 26, from Chard in Somerset, disappeared in rural Luras on July 13, 2024 while staying with friend Niomi Orlandini, 27, from Jersey.
His mother, Cristina Pittalis, said that the pair had met online in July 2023 and seen each other in person just once before he asked her to join him on the Italian island.
While in Sardinia, Ms Orlandini called Ms Pittalis to say her son had come back from a walk in a confused state, rested, and then ventured off again without returning.
The mother-of-two told The Sun that she has now received 'anonymous and disturbing Facebook messages' from someone she believes may know more.
The messages, she said, 'reference guilty, fear, and the ability to remain silent.'
'I tried to forget. I tried to believe it was an accident. But the fear… it doesn't go,' one message read, according to The Sun.
Ms Pittalis has since moved back to Sardinia, where she was born, in the hopes of finding Mr Frison, but says she has found nothing to explain his disappearance.
Earlier this week, she told Sky News that she was living a 'never-ending nightmare' and called for Interpol to intervene.
Mr Frison, who grew up in Bristol, flew from Bristol Airport to Olbia on July 2 last year to celebrate his 25th birthday and his grandmother's 70th.
He asked his friend to join him on the island and cancelled his return flight home to stay with her for another week.
Ms Pittalis understands that they left the grandparents' home together on July 12 and went to volunteer on a farm in return for food and lodging.
They stayed in a tent near the German couple that owned the land.
Mr Frison went missing on July 13. He is understood to have gone for a walk and returned 'confused', with symptoms of heatstroke.
He left on another walk and never came back. Ms Orlandini found his clothes, including his trainers, nearby.
'Human beings do not disappear from the face of earth without leaving traces unless […] something extremely bad happened to them,' Ms Pittalis told Sky News.
She said it was 'completely out of character' for him to leave barefoot, and assessed it 'extremely unlikely' he was suffering from heatstroke.
He had lived on the island before and knew the climate, she said.
Ms Pittalis previously said the last message she received from her son was the night before he went missing saying he would call her the next day.
The mother revealed in October it was 'out of character' for her son to vanish without contacting his family.
She said she has had no response from Ms Orlandini since she left the island but insists 'I'm not accusing her of anything'.
She previously pleaded to her son's friend, as she believes she may have details regarding his whereabouts.
'I need you, Niomi. I need your help. You've done nothing wrong,' Cristina pleaded in October: 'However, you were the last person to be with Michael.'
A fundraiser has been set up to try and raise funds to get volunteers out to Sardinia in the search for Mr Frison.