Tragic teen’s mum was told daughter was dead on live TV after 42 day search…before shocking twist blew the family apart
THE agony of searching for her missing daughter was etched on the face of grief-stricken Concetta Serrano as she appealed for help on TV.
But moments later, in an astonishing twist, she heard the words she had been dreading since 15-year-old Sarah disappeared – as cameras continued to roll.
The cameras continued to roll as Concetta struggled to make sense of the news that her own brother in law had confessed to the grisly killing.
Now Disney+ are retelling the bizarre but true story of the murder case and the dark secrets and unspoken family grudges that surrounded her mysterious disappearance.
Each 80-minute episode of the drama This Is Not Hollywood tells the story from the point of view of one of the main protagonists — Sarah, her cousin Sabrina, uncle Michele and aunt Cosima, played by Federica Pala, Giulia Perulli, Paolo De Vita and Vanessa Scalera.
On 26 August 2010, teenager Sarah left her home in Avetrana, a small town in Puglia, Italy, to walk the short distance to her uncle’s house, where she had arranged to meet her cousin Sabrina, a 22-year-old beautician for an afternoon at the beach.
Sarah never arrived.
Her baffling disappearance plunged the whole town into turmoil and the close knit community bonded together to help police scour the area.
But while they combed the town for clues, Sarah’s body lay buried at the bottom of a well – where it was eventually discovered 42 days after she was last seen alive.
She had been strangled.
But the watching world was stunned further still when Sarah’s heartbroken mother was told on live TV that her daughter had been murdered – and that her brother-in-law Michele Misseri had confessed to the killing.
Concetta Serrano was filming and appeal for more help in the hunt for Sarah, on Italian TV, when she was given the devastating news that her child’s body had been found.
Visibly shocked, she murmured, “My brother-in-law is innocent” and “I can’t believe it.”
Concetta was being filmed in the dining room of the alleged killer when reporter told her about his confession.
Prosecutor Franco Sebastio told a news conference that police had dragged Sarah’s waterlogged and decomposing corpse from a water tank after her uncle had led them to a spot covered by stones and leaves.
Michele claimed that he had discovered Sarah’s burnt mobile phone while working in the fields.
He went on to confess that he had strangled his niece after she refused his sexual advances.
But even after the TV reporter had informed Concetta of her daughter’s death on air, the programme-makers continued to film her – despite her clearly being in shock.
It was only after several minutes that they asked her if she would like filming to stop, to which she replied quietly, “It is better.”
The decision to inform Miss Serrano about her daughter’s death during a broadcast was strongly criticised by many horrified viewers.
When a clip was shared on YouTube there was a torrent of furious protests, with viewers saying they were disgusted.
One wrote: “If you’re a human being with the least heart, you can’t do something like this.”
But Paolo Ruffini, the channel controller, defended the manner in which the news was broken to 3.5 million viewers.
“The programme tried to manage a very tragic affair in the most delicate possible way and I have to say the presenter achieved it,” he insisted.
Rape confession
During the search for Sarah, her uncle Michele had been filmed crying as he revealed he had ‘found’ her mobile phone under a pile of olive leaves,
It then emerged that shortly before her death, Sarah had complained to her cousin that she was being molested by Michele.
He was charged with her murder and, following a 15 hour police interrogation, he confessed to strangling Sarah – adding that he then raped her before throwing her body into a well in the countryside outside Avetrana.
Sabrina led the hunt for her cousin, and had given tearful TV interviews imploring people to come forward with any information about her whereabouts.
And after her father was arrested, Sabrina announced: “He must pay for what he’s done.”
But in a bizarre twist, just a few days later, Michele retracted the confession – and pointed the finger at Sabrina, accusing his own daughter of the crime.
If you’re a human being with the least heart, you can’t do something like this
Disgusted viewer
Michele claimed that Sabrina had been the one who lured Sarah down to the family’s garage – where he strangled her while his daughter pinned her arms down.
Sabrina denied any involvement in the killing.
Sabrina’s younger sister Valentina and her mother Cosima also insisted she was innocent of any crime.
But forensic examination of Sabrina’s mobile phone revealed ‘discrepancies’ in her version of events on the day that Sarah disappeared, and that of her father and other witnesses.
Cosima was later arrested for her involvement in the murder too.
Cosima and Sabrina were convicted of murder in April 2013, while Michele was sentenced to eight years in prison for hiding Sarah’s body.
During the trial it emerged that Sabrina was jealous of Sarah’s romance with a local boy called Ivano Russo.
They had both been dating him at the same time – but he dumped Sabrina just a few days before Sarah was killed.
Lawyers said jealousy drove her to murder.
In January 2012 Ivano told the court that he had been in relationships with both Sarah and Sabrina at the same time – and the jury was shown a selfie that Sarah had sent to him shortly before her death.
He said: “Sarah saw me as a father figure. Every now and then we hugged.”
Ivano went on to describe his relationship with her cousin, adding: “At a certain point, however, I saw ambiguous attitudes on her part, compliments that went too far.
“A few days before Sarah died, I decided to end the relationship because she didn’t convince me.”
In 2015, Italian courts upheld the life sentences for Cosima and Sabrina.
The appeals court in Taranto also upheld an eight-year term for Cosima’s husband Michele for hiding Sarah’s body.
“Even though Sarah has been buried, this is a story that has no end,” said her father Giacomo when the family relocated out of the area.
The Disney+ drama has been mired in controversy.
TV bosses were forced to change the name of the show following a legal wrangle.
Just as Avetrana – This Is Not Hollywood was about to air, the town’s mayor, Antonio Lazzi, argued that the series would ruin the reputation of the are, and demanded that the title be changed.
Eventually the court ruled in his favour, the name of the town was dropped from the the title, and the drama was eventually released today.
Drama behind the series coming to air
THE vicious murder of Sarah Scazzi shocked Italians across the country – and now more than a decade on, a new drama based on the case has courted controversy too.
The show, which focuses on the 15-year-old’s killing in 2010, was planned to have the title Avetrana – Qui non è Hollywood (This Is Not Hollywood) when it aired on Disney+ this month.
But now, after complaints including from the municipal government of Avetrana, which is where the crime occurred, the town name’s has been stripped from the series’s name.
It followed Judge Antonio Attanasio ruling in their favour and suspending the release of the show until a hearing – much to the delight of campaigners, including the town’s mayor Antonio Iazz.
He said: “We believe we have so far preserved the image of the community we represent… Avetrana cannot and must not be identified with the terrible [murder].”
Major Iazz added they would “continue to act, where necessary, to safeguard the rights” of residents in the area and ensure “name of Avetrana is removed from any form of publicity”.
To prevent the show’s release from being delayed director Pippo Mezzapesa and producer Matteo Rovere agreed it would air as ‘Qui non è Hollywood’ or This Is Not Hollywood.