THE mother of a British tourist who went missing in Sardinia has appealed for help in tracing a woman from Jersey who may have been the last person to see her son before he disappeared.
Cristina Pittalis, who is originally from Sardinia, says that Islander Niomi Orlandini was with her 25-year-old son, Michael Frison, before he disappeared on 13 July.
A search party later found a pile of Mr Frison’s clothes neatly folded on a wall 200 metres from the farm where he had been volunteering with Ms Orlandini in the island’s rural north.
His disappearance led to a massive search of the arid countryside of Lusan, in the Sassari province of Sardinia but, three months on, not a trace of Mr Frison has been found.
Ms Orlandini had been staying with Mr Frison at his grandfather’s farm in Sardinia and was the person who notified his mother about his disappearance.
She was initially involved in the search for the young man, but left Sardinia on 23 July.
The JEP has tried to contact Ms Orlandini via family members in the Island but had not received a response by the time this newspaper went to print.
There is no suggestion that she has anything to do with Mr Frison’s disappearance, and the States of Jersey Police told the JEP that the force had not been contacted by the Italian authorities.
The prosecutor’s office in Tempio Pausania, which is in charge of the investigation into Mr Frison’s disappearance, was not available for comment.
But the Italian authorities are now treating the search as a criminal investigation after months of considering it a “voluntary disappearance”.
Speaking to the JEP from Sardinia, where she continues to search for her son, Ms Pittalis said Ms Orlandini could have information crucial to finding Mr Frison.
She said now that the investigation was being treated as a criminal matter, any information Ms Orlandini could give about her son’s state of mind five months ago could help the authorities.
“As time passes, you remember things. You remember things that in the heat of the moment you may not have thought were relevant,” she said.
“I just want to know how he was. Did she notice anything off about him?
“I have appealed for her to get in touch with me so many times.
“She is not accused of anything, but the police have got the same questions as me.
“Come and talk to me. Come and talk to the authorities.”
Ms Pittalis said that Ms Orlandini met Mr Frison while he was working as a lifeguard at a Dorset swimming pool in 2023.
She had been travelling around the UK by camper van and stopped at the pool for a swim.
The pair spoke, and she left her contact deals at reception for him.
She encouraged her son to meet Ms Orlandini and they met for a day in Somerset. The pair stayed in touch via WhatsApp and email and when he went to Sardinia to stay with his grandparents, he invited her to stay. She arrived in the island on 11 July.
Ms Pittalis said that Ms Orlandini told her son she was waiting for her father to arrive in Sardinia. He was due to leave on 13 July but decided to stay to keep her company until her father arrived.
Rather than stay with his grandparents, the pair contacted a nearby farm, which was owned by a German couple who were looking for volunteers. It was agreed that the pair could pitch a tent on their land in return for working there for a few hours a day.
Ms Pittalis has learned that on 12 July, Mr Frison was not feeling well and the following day went for a walk in the forest between 2pm and 6pm. He never returned.
On 14 July, Ms Orlandini contacted Ms Pittalis using the Facebook account of the owner of the farm, Till Henning. She said: “Hi Cristina, it’s Niomi, Michael’s friend, I need to talk to you. Can you please call me on this number.”
When Ms Pittalis called, Mr Henning answered: “Michael is gone,” he said, and put Ms Orlandini on the line. She said she was very calm and told her that her son had gone for a walk and had not come back. Ms Pittalis arrived in Sardinia on 16 July, by which time the search was under way.
Since 23 July, when Ms Orlandini left the area, Ms Pittalis has had no contact with her.
Ms Pittalis told the JEP she was convinced that her son was still alive, and that she believed he had been abducted soon after leaving the farm on 13 July. She insists that if he were dead, the sniffer dogs or search parties would have found some trace of him or his body.
“He’s been taken,” she said. “That is my opinion, as a mother.”
She accepts that Ms Orlandini may not want to share details of her son’s state of mind or what he was going through in the days before he left, for fear of betraying his trust. But she is imploring Niomi or anyone who may know where she is, in Jersey or otherwise, to contact her.
“I understand that she wants to be loyal to him, but here we have a mum and little brother who are devastated. There is no [issue of] loyalty here. Even a priest would talk to the police if they know something that would save somebody’s life,” she said.
Anyone wanting to get in touch with Ms Pittalis can contact the JEP by emailing news@jerseyeveningpost.com.
