VIDEO | Natisone, the half hour in which the river became a death trap. More searches for Cristian

At 1.29pm Patrizia calls for help for the first time, a few minutes after 2pm the embrace of the three boys breaks up and they are swallowed up by the river: echo what happened in that dramatic half hour

BOLOGNA – The search for Cristian Molnar, the 25-year-old Romanian who went missing on May 31st after being swallowed by the waters of the Natisone river, in the province of Udine, will continue until at least Sunday. While the bodies of the two girls who were with him, Patrizia Cormos and his girlfriend Bianca Doros, were found on Sunday, two days after the tragedy, his has not yet been identified. And the family, in desperation, wonders if he could still be alive. The mayor of Premariacco, Michele De Sabata, said that Cristian’s brother continues to walk up and down the river bank, convinced he can find him. The searches will continue at least until Sunday: the firefighters and civil protection volunteers are scanning the river and the banks. The situation is made complicated by the fact that in the Natisone there are several bends and ravines, where a body could end up under boulders and remain stuck for a long time. This happened, for example, to a diver who died in the river a few years ago. The body was recovered only two years later.

READ ALSO: Patrizia smiling at Natisone , the photo from three years ago at the site of the tragedy
READ ALSO: Natisone, the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating for manslaughter: were there errors in the rescue?

THE VIDEO ‘DOCUMENT’ OF THE ARRIVAL AT THE RIVER

In a video published on Tik Tok and created by a user registered as @chxccosutwitch, you can see exactly the road that the boys took to reach the river. The farmhouse you come across at a certain point, the sign prohibiting swimming. And then the arrival at the pebble beach. The video documentsthe Natisone river as it appeared to the eyes of the three friendsbefore, within half an hour, the situation changed radically. The boy is convinced that he has identified the precise point where the boys were. In the video you can also see the red and white tape put up by the police to fence off the area, where access is evidently prohibited. Here’s what the boy writes: “When I went to the accident site I didn’t believe that was the area due to the low water level of the river. In the videos you will find regarding the accident you won’t even notice the artificial waterfall as the whole valley where I was walking was submerged in water. I later discovered that the car of the 3 boys they found was parked exactly where I parked mine. The video is demonized, like everyone else on my profile, and wants to show > the Natisone in its ‘normal’ form as the kids saw it before the tragic accident. Small off-topic comment: the video also reached newspapers such as “Il Messaggero”. helped spread information”.

@chxccosutwitch ⚠️ When I went to the accident site I didn’t believe that was the area due to the low water level of the river. In the videos you will find regarding the accident you will not even notice the artificial waterfall as the whole valley where I was walking was submerged in water. I then discovered that the car of the 3 boys they found was parked exactly where I parked mine. The video is demonetized, like all on my profile, and wants to show the Natisone in its “normal” form as the kids saw it before the tragic accident. Small off-topic comment: the video also reached newspapers such as “Il Messaggero”. I’m happy that my content helped spread information. #natisone #accident #friuliveneziagiulia ♬ original sound – Chxcco

THE INVESTIGATIONS ON THE RESCUE

Meanwhile, the Udine Prosecutor’s Office has opened a case for manslaughter and wants to understand whether there have been errors or delays in particular in the ‘rescue machine’. In particular, the alert calls received by the firefighters are being examined. Four of them started from Patrizia’s cell phone alone. According to what has been reconstructed, the three boys arrived at Natisone a few minutes after 1pm. They reached the river bank and walked on the pebble beach arriving towards the center of the river, on what will soon turn into an islet and prove to be a trap. It is the same place where they held each other tightly (and were photographed there by some passers-by from the Roman bridge), before ending up in the water, dragged away by the very violent current of the river. Why did the pebble beach turn into an islet?What happened in that half hour? Because in the end it all happened in half an hour.

HOW THE RIVER BECAME A TRAP

Half an hour earlier the three boys were happy and calm taking a walk and taking some photos along the river, half an hour later they called for help because they already didn’t know how to get out of the river. The first time at 1.29pm, the last time at 1.47pm. At 1.35pm he also calls the driver of a school bus, who, passing by the bridge, saw them in difficulty. But the firefighters were already alerted at that point. The desperate embrace of the three boys broke up a few minutes after 2pm. At that point, the three were dragged away and in a few moments they were no longer seen. It happened under the eyes of the rescuers, who between 2pm and 2.02pm had tried to throw a short ball to the boys twice, but they were unable to catch it. They also tried to approach with a ladder from above, but this attempt also didn’t work.

THE BEACH THAT HAS BEEN COVERED

What happened is that while they were on the gravel beach, the river water covered the gravel area closest to the bank, the one they had walked on to reach the center of the river. And they found their way out closed. And they didn’t know what to do. Patrizia’s first phone call was at 1.29pm. There is a photo, also taken by passers-by who were on the bridge, which shows exactly this moment. In the photo, the boys are talking to two workers who are in the vegetation along the embankment. There is no help yet. These are the fundamental minutes in which the boys, if they had chosen to cross that section by wading into the river, would perhaps have saved themselves. However, the current was strong andthe real drama was that Bianca didn’t know how to swim.

THE WRONG CHOICE

They probably didn’t trust themselves to try. Witnesses said that Cristian, after speaking with the two workers, also made an attempt to walk in the water in that stretch, water that reached around his waist. But the current was very strong and he gave up. The path to salvation, however, was precisely that. Not that of remaining immobile in the center of the islet, which will prove deadly. The mayor of Premiaracco told Il Messaggero that the local people know the river well and would have made the right choice, without any doubt. Throw themselves into that band of water (still narrow) and try, walking or swimming, to reach the bank from which they came. They didn’t do it. Probably for Bianca, perhaps because they are paralyzed by fear. At one point, when the water around them became too high, only a rescue from above could have fished them out. But there wasn’t time. The three were carried away by the river a few minutes after 2pm: their embrace dissolved, perhaps one of the three lost their balance, perhaps something hit them (a log?). End.