The mayor of a Colombian coastal city offered a reward worth more than $ 11,000 for any information that leads to an arrest after the dismembered body of an Italian biologist was discovered on Sunday in a suitcase. The friends of Alessandro Coatti, 45, reported him disappeared on Saturday, a few days after his arrival in Santa Marta, reported the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.
He was staying in an inn in town, said the newspaper.
A head, hands and feet were found in a suitcase on the outskirts of Santa Marta on Sunday, El Tiempo reported.
The Italian national had worked as a scientific policy agent at the Royal Society of Biology in London, a student in the United Kingdom before leaving and volunteering in South America last year, CBS News Partner Network BBC News reported.
Royal Biology Society 
“He was a passionate and dedicated scientist, leading the work of animal science RSB, writing numerous bids, organizing events and providing evidence in the House of Commons,” said the Royal Society of Biology in a statement. “Ale was funny, warm, intelligent, loved by all those with whom he worked and will be deeply missing by all those who knew and worked with him.”
El Tiempo quoted a worker from the local hotel, saying that Coatti was doing research on local animal species and had asked questions about the village of Minca, about six miles south-east of Santa Marta.
Santa Marta is a popular destination for tourists, but the city of 500,000 recorded 194 murders in 2024, according to the Associated Press.
The mayor of Santa Marta, Carlos Pinedo Cuello, said that the murder of Coatti would not “remain unpunished”.
“Criminals should know that crime has no place in Santa Marta. We will pursue them until they are translated into justice,” he said in a state-of-the-of-the-date.
