Raph Rinaldi, 50, who had worked as a physio for Team GB, planned to meet his brother at one of the peaks of the Italian Alps, but never showed up and searches have drawn a blank
A Team GB physio who vanished whilst hiking in the Italian Alps three years ago has been officially declared to have died due to a tragic accident.
Superfit 50-year-old Raph Rinaldi set out through the peaks on the morning of May 22 2022 with an arrangement to meet his brother Andrea at 4pm so the pair could watch part of the Giro D’Italia bike race together. But following a WhatsApp message sent at 10:14am, Raph was never heard of or seen again, with extensive searches uncovering no trace of his fate.
Now after an application brought by Cristiano Rinaldi – another of Raph’s brothers – at London’s High Court, Master James Brightwell has declared the much-loved Team GB member officially dead, having either fallen to his death or taken a fatal wrong turn and become hopelessly lost in the mountains.
Raph Rinaldi, an Italian national who made himself at home in England, settling in Richmond, south west London, had joined British Bobsleigh as a physio in 2014 before leading the team’s sports medicine department from 2015-2018.
He 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, supporting all disciplines. 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 case reached court three years on after an application by his brother Cristiano for the judge, Master Brightwell, to declare him officially dead, giving his family some closure and allowing his financial affairs and estate to be dealt with.
Cristiano’s barrister Jamie Mathieson told the judge: “This is Cristiano Rinaldi’s application under the Presumption of Death Act 2013 with respect to his brother, Raphael Rinaldi, who must have suffered some kind of tragic accident of the kind which sometimes does befall solo hikers. He was due to meet his brother. On the balance of probabilities, he must have died on the day he was last seen 22 May 2022. He had no child and no spouse or civil partner. His surviving relatives are his mother and his two brothers Andrea and Cristiano.”
The barrister told the court that, as Raph’s last known address was in Richmond, an advert had been published, asking for anyone to come forward who might object to a finding that he had died, to which there had been no response.
“In this case, we know he was clearly alive on the morning and was due to meet his brother that afternoon and never did,” he said. “Whatever misfortune befell him must have happened between the last WhatsApp message he sent at 10.14 am and when he was due to meet his brother at 4pm. You must make a finding as to the date and time of the missing persons death.”
Master Brightwell giving his ruling however said he couldn’t be sure that the missing physio had died the day he vanished. He said: “Mr Rinaldi disappeared on 22 May 2022. He was an Italian national who lived in the UK. He was in Italy that day hiking on his own, having planned to meet his brother Andrea at 4pm that day. After the messages he sent around 10am, there was nothing further. There was some publicity in relation to his disappearance because he was a physiotherapist who had worked for various Team GB teams.
“There was no trace of him found and there has been no contact from him since then. I am satisfied that Mr Rinaldi has died and I aim to make a declaration to that effect. The two likely events are that he suffered some sort of accident which caused an immediate death, such as a long fall, or that he got lost, that some course of events happened, leading to him going missing or lost rather than having just died.
“I must choose a date beyond which it is not really conceivable that Mr Rinaldi would have survived. It seems to me possible that he died as a result of an accident during that day, but it is also quite possible that he got lost and unfortunately died during the following days. If he had suffered a heart attack, he would have been likely to have been found subsequently. 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,” the judge concluded.
