Man Unknowingly Films Girlfriend's Final Moments: 'I'm Destroyed'
A nurse fell to her death in an unexpected tragedy just moments after her boyfriend filmed her climbing an Italian mountain.
Valentina Fino, a 31-year-old woman from Bologna, Italy, was hiking in the Apennine Mountains with her boyfriend, Andrea Pedata, on Aug. 10 when tragedy struck.
During an attempted summit of Alpe di Succiso, Fino fell from a cliff and dropped some 100 meters. She ended up in a steep ravine with fatal injuries, and rescuers were not able to do anything for her by the time they arrived.
According to Italian publication la Repubblica, Fino was a dedicated nurse with a passion for solitude in the mountains.
“She was a very sweet but determined girl, she had a strong motivation for this profession,” Fino’s thesis supervisor Gianluca Montefrancesco said. “I have followed many thesis students, but I have seen few so gifted.”
Fino graduated in 2016 and followed her profession to Germany, but eventually moved back to Italy and worked for a non-profit providing regional medical care until her untimely death.
“She worked for a long time in neonatology at the hospital in Munich, then in Bolzano, since 2020 she had returned to Bologna, living in Loiano,” Montefrancesco said. “She loved the mountains very much, she told me that she liked the silence she felt in the middle of nature.”
Pedata, Fino’s boyfriend, was left devastated by the incident.
“Above all, she was very conscientious and meticulous in studying the routes,” Pedata told il Resto del Carlino. “Anyone who has been in the mountains with her can confirm this. This gives me the certainty that she would never have taken a path if she had considered it dangerous , especially having a careful eye when walking it with me.
“Unfortunately, something terrible happened. I still can’t explain it. The pain is too strong. I heard a scream and I saw her fly. I leaned out and she was no longer there.”
Pedata scrambled down the ravine’s sheer face, eventually reaching Fino and realizing the severity of the situation.
“Somehow I reached her,” he said. “She was still breathing. Without touching her I tried to call her, but she was unconscious.”
A rescue helicopter was called in, and lowered a team down to Fino’s position in what Pedata called an “impeccable intervention.”
Unfortunately, the state Fino was found in meant that the rescuers were powerless to help. She died shortly after her extraction from the ravine.
“I’m destroyed,” Pedata initially said to il Resto del Carlino following the accident. “I can’t even find the words to describe what I feel, it hurts too much.”
A video taken by Pedata shortly before the fall shows Fino making her way through the mountainous Pietra Tagliata pass.
Chilling footage filmed by Andrea Pedata shows his girlfriend, Valentina Fino, shortly before she tragically slipped and fatally fell 330ft down the mountain while he looked on in horror.
The video was filmed while the couple were climbing the rockface of the Pietra Tagliata… pic.twitter.com/kyjDQKKLWY
— Morbid Knowledge (@Morbidful) August 14, 2024
Fino’s funeral was held on Aug. 13, according to il Resto del Carlino.
The final farewell was attended by Fino’s family, Pedata and a crowd of colleagues and friends. The Archbishop of Bologna, Matteo Zuppi, also sent the grieving family a message of support.
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