Missing Ukrainian student found dead in Italy in apparent suicide, authorities say
An 18-year-old Ukrainian girl who had gone missing in southern Italy was found dead on July 8 in what Italian authorities say may have been a suicide, Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne reported.
Mariia Buhaiova, born in 2007, disappeared on July 4 after leaving a tourist village in Carovigno, a coastal municipality in the Apulia region, where she had been completing an internship.
The student's body was discovered on July 8 by a search team with sniffer dogs in a secluded area near the state road, just outside the village, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
Italian investigators say the young woman died by hanging. Her body was found in the Mediterranean scrub, concealed in a location difficult to access. Footage from a nearby beach security camera had reportedly captured Buhaiova walking along a dirt path toward the area where her body was eventually found.
The condition of the body suggests she killed herself on the same day she disappeared, according to ANSA.
The Ukrainian Consulate confirmed to Suspilne that the process of identification is ongoing. Officials have contacted Buhaiova's family.
According to ANSA, Buhaiova had reportedly left her belongings behind in her room, including identity documents, money, and a handwritten note with phone numbers. Italian authorities have seized her mobile phone, which she was carrying at the time.
Consulate officials told Suspilne that she was one of several Ukrainian students participating in a short-term internship program organized through a Slovak university, aimed at providing practical work experience in the tourism and hospitality sector. Such internships are common across Europe, especially in high-demand tourist regions like Apulia in Italy.
People who worked alongside Buhaiova described her as calm, introverted, and often kept to herself, unlike her peers who socialized in groups after work.
