American national sentenced to life in prison for murders of partner and infant daughter in Rome - Toronto Star

FILE - Forensic police work at the site where the body of an infant and the infant’s mother were found in Rome’s Villa Pamphili park, on June 7, 2025. (Francesco Benvenuti/LaPresse via AP, File)

ROME (AP) — An American man was found guilty by a Rome court Thursday of murdering his partner and their infant daughter, whose bodies were found naked in a city park, the LaPresse news agency reported. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Francis Kaufmann, 47, fled to the Greek island of Skiathos after the killings in June 2025 and was extradited by Italy to face trial for the murders of Anastasia Trofimova, 28, and their daughter Andromeda, who was nearly a year old.

The bodies were found in Rome’s Villa Pamphili park. Trofimova, whose body was found under a black bag, had been killed several days before the infant, who was found in nearby undergrowth. Neither had identification.

Kaufmann, a self-described filmmaker using the alias Rexal Ford, had secured $1 million in Italian tax credits for a film that was never made. The scandal prompted the resignation of the head of the Culture Ministry’s film department.