Tragic update over mystery disappearance of Team GB physio who vanished while hiking after sending brother final message

3 weeks ago 42

A TEAM GB physio who vanished while hiking in the Italian Alps after sending a final message has legally been declared dead.

Raph Rinaldi was last seen setting off on the morning of May 22, 2022, through the mountains.

Raph Rinaldi vanished while trekking through the Italian Alps[/caption]

The superfit 50-year-old had messaged his brother Andrea at 10.14am to arrange meeting later in the day to watch part of the Giro D’Italia bike race together.

But Raph was never seen or heard from again despite extensive searches of the area.

He has now been declared officially dead by a top judge after his other brother Cristiano brought an application to court.

Master James Brightwell concluded Raph either fell to his death or took a fatal wrong turn and got lost in the mountains.

The ruling means his family can now get closure and allows his financial affairs and estate to be dealt with.

Italian national Raph had joined British Bobsleigh as a physio in 2014 after moving to Richmond, South West London.

He later went on to lead the team’s sports medicine department from 2015 to 2018.

Raph was part of the support staff at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and GB Snowsport’s team during the Beijing Winter Paralympics in March 2022.

He also worked as a physio for the GB diving team.

In a statement after he vanished, a spokesperson for The British Bobsleigh & Skeleton Association said its members were “heartbroken” at his disappearance.

Marc Heywood, the BBSA’s director of operations, said: “Raph went above and beyond and made a significant impression on everyone he worked with and his disappearance has come as a major shock for both current and former athletes and staff.”

The judge said there were “two likely events” following Raph’s disappearance.

The first was that he “suffered some sort of accident which caused an immediate death” – such as a “long fall”.

Master Brightwell said Raph also could have gone “missing or lost” before he died through some “course of events”.

He concluded: “On the balance of probabilities, I can be satisfied that Mr Rinaldi died within seven days of his disappearance.

“I make a finding accordingly that he died on May 29, 2022 at 12 noon.”