20-05-2025
London-based scientist was lured into a honeytrap through dating app Grindr before he was brutally dismembered in Colombia, police fear
A London-based scientist who was found dismembered in Colombia is feared to have been lured to his violent death through the gay dating app Grindr.
The body of 38-year-old Alessandro Coatti, an Italian scientist working in London, was found across several different locations in the coastal city of Santa Marta on April 6, two days after he was reported missing.
His torso was found miles away from his dismembered legs, head, hands and feet.
Cops has wildly varying theories as to how the scientists, who previously worked at the Royal Society of Biology (RSB) for eight years as a senior policy officer, was murdered, ranging from a case of mistaken identity between battling cartels to a kidnapping at the hands of organ traffickers.
But now cops believe that Coatti, who was in the region as a tourist, was the victim of a gang that targeted foreigners looking for dates abroad.
Sources told a Colombian newspaper that he may have been lured to an abandoned house in the San José del Pando neighbourhood of Santa Marta after messaging someone over the dating app.
Sources added that the gang planned to drug him with scopolamine, better known as Devil's Breath.
While the drug can help alleviate motion sickness in small doses, it can disorient and knock people out in larger doses.
There is even the risk of paralysis if not administered with the correct dose.
Cops have reportedly identified at least four people, including a woman, believed to have been involved in the scheme.
Mr Coatti's head, hands and feet were found in a suitcase near the Sierra Nevada stadium on April 6, two days after he was last seen leaving his hotel by the coast.
His torso and other body parts were then found near the Minuto de Dios bridge a day later, before his legs were found in a coffee sack near the stadium on Tuesday.
Mr Coatti, originally from Longastrino, Ravenna, was visiting the country in the hopes of one day moving there.
His uncle, Giovanni Coatti, previously said of his nephew: 'He wanted to go and live in South America so he went for a trip to see; he was supposed to be back next week.'
The molecular biologist had left the Royal Society of Biology in 2024 to volunteer in Ecuador and travel to South America.
While in Colombia, he had asked about the local area, showing interest in learning about the local fauna and vegetation, Agenzia Nova reports.
Investigators believe he had taken the evening of April 4 to go to a local club before vanishing.
They are still working to understand whether or not he ever arrived, scouring CCTV and phone records.
According to his uncle, he would not have been an obvious target for thieves.
'He never had much money in his pockets, or a watch or other precious objects,' he said.
'All he had was a new mobile phone to take pictures but even that was a cheap one.'
A parallel investigation has also been opened in Italy and his parents have handed over devices containing his last messages.
Local human rights activist Norma Vera Salazar said there have been 13 similar murders in the region in the last year.
This is the first time the victim is a foreign tourist.
The country, long riddled with paramilitary violence and cartel feuds, remains dangerous for tourists, and the FCDO advises against all but essential travel to the Colombia-Venezuela border and northern Colombia.
Salazar warned of a 'pattern' in recent murders where people have been found dismembered and 'stuffed into garbage bags or coffee sacks and abandoned'.
'These types of homicides are used by vigilante groups to send warning messages, instill fear, and mark their territory.'
'Usually this is a way to send a message,' Victor Polo, a journalist for Santa Marta's Caracol Radio, echoed.
