Murder of Priest Near Rome: Police Still Clueless Nearly 2 Weeks After Finding Body

The identity of the suspect and the motive behind the killing of a 60-year-old priest and theologian in the outskirts of Rome continued to elude the Italian police on Friday, almost two weeks after the victim's body was found face down in a pool of blood in a hazelnut grove near his community's retreat center.

A police autopsy report said Fr. Lanfranco Rossi suffered several blows to the head with a blunt object and was strangled in San Feliciano, just outside Zagarolo, about 21 miles south of Italy's capital.

Rossi was found dead on April 12 by members of his community, who did not see him at the center that morning, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported.

Investigators theorized that the priest was murdered on the night of April 11. They found no signs of a struggle.

The investigators theorized that the priest was still alive when his assailant left the scene. Rossi later died of asphyxiation. The police excluded theft as a possible motive for the murder.

Rossi, who was known to suffer from insomnia and go to the woods at night to meditate, was only on a weekend retreat at the center.

He taught as a professor of spirituality at two pontifical universities in Rome, namely the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical Oriental Institute.

He is also a member of a new and very small community of priests called the Ricostruttori nella preghiera (Rebuilders in Prayer). The group espouses the deep meditative practice of hesychasm, a form of Eastern Christian ascetic spirituality.

In a message posted on the group's web site on April 19, Father Roberto Rondanina, the superior, said its members are "united in grief" over Rossi's passing.

The superior also said in a previous message that the late priest was "appreciated and respected by colleagues and students" and those who considered him their "point of reference" on spiritual matters.

Rossi's funeral was held on April 18.