ROME—Italian police have detained a homeless man in the death of a 19-year-old American student whose body was found in the Tiber River in Rome two days after his credit card had been used in Milan.
Police on Tuesday identified the suspect as Massimo Galioto, a 40-year-old from Rome. In a statement, police said he was taken into custody because he was “seriously suspected of aggravated homicide.” No further details were immediately available.
Police on Monday pulled the body of Beau Solomon from the Tiber. The student from Spring Green, Wisconsin, had last been seen early Friday morning at a pub, shortly after arriving in Rome for an exchange program at John Cabot University, an English-language university in the Italian capital.
The Italian news agency ANSA said preliminary autopsy results indicated that Solomon had suffered injuries consistent with a fall and with days spent in the water. The exact cause of death remains to be determined.
John Cabot University had said it was alerted by Solomon’s roommate, who reported that he had lost contact with Beau around 1 a.m. Friday and was worried when Solomon didn’t show up for orientation later Friday morning.
