The mother of a British man who has been missing for nearly a year after vanishing on a walk in Sardinia says she feels ‘completely let down’ by Italian police.
Michael Frison, 25, from Chard, in Somerset, disappeared after going for a trek in rural Luras on July 13.
He had extended his stay on the island to meet up with pal Niomi Orlandini, 27, from Jersey who was the last person to see him alive.
Michael’s heartbroken mother, Cristina Pittalis, 49, said the pair had met online in July 2023 before she asked to join on his trip on the Italian island a year later having only met in person once before.
Italian-born Cristina has now criticised her own country’s police force and said she wished it was British authorities who had led the investigation into his disappearance.
She said she had to preserve her own son’s belongings in a bag and criticised authorities for giving his friend’s passport back.
‘I can’t even imagine how Jay Slater’s mum would have felt when her son went missing and she couldn’t communicate in Spanish,’ she told The Sun.
‘I can communicate with the police and they have done absolutely nothing — they have been useless.’
Cristina said the last message she received from her son was the night before he went missing saying he would call her tomorrow and ended it with a ‘I love you emoji’.
Mr Frison, who grew up in Bristol, had been visiting his grandparents while volunteering in the northern side of the Mediterranean island at the time.
He and Niomi left his grandparents’ house on July 12 to ‘volunteer on a farm in the Gallura hinterland’ – a remote area with ‘imperious terrain’.
But two days later Cristina received a Facebook message from Niomi telling her to call the landowner saying he had gone for walk but returned in a ‘confused state’.
‘After resting he ventured out again and did not return,’ she said
‘She [Niomi] found his clothes but personal belongings were all left behind.’
Cristina says they never contacted emergency services about her son and when she flew out to assist in the search they told her he disappeared ‘wearing only his pants’.
Just two weeks into his disappearance, Italian authorities suspended their search.
Cristina says she has had no response from Niomi since she left the island but inists ‘I’m not accusing her of anything’.
The mother revealed in October it was ‘out of character’ for her son to vanish without contacting his family. She has travelled to the island six times in a bid to find him.
She has previously pleaded to Michael’s friend Niomi, as she believes the woman may have details regarding his whereabouts.
‘I need you, Niomi. I need your help. You’ve done nothing wrong,’ Cristina pleaded in October: ‘However, you were the last person to be with Michael.’
A fundraiser has been set up to try and raised funds to get volunteers out to Sardinia in the search for Mr Frison’s. It has raised more than £8,000 so far.
Organiser Evie Baker wrote: ‘Michael had recently arrived at a volunteer site in Sardinia and set up his tent upon arrival.
‘Feeling unwell and unaccustomed to the intense 40°C heat, he was given water and decided to rest. After waking, Michael mentioned he was going for a walk but tragically never returned.
‘When he woke he said he was going for a walk and now sadly he is missing.
‘I can’t tell you how genuinely lovely this family is I’m absolutely heartbroken for them.’