Piero Fortunato Zanfretta

The Initial Encounter

On the night of December 6, 1978, 26-year-old Piero Fortunato Zanfretta, a private security guard, was conducting a routine patrol near the village of Torriglia in the Genoa province of northern Italy. While investigating unusual lights around a wealthy client's mansion known as Casa Nostra in the hamlet of Marzano, Zanfretta's vehicle suddenly lost power — the engine, headlights, and radio all died simultaneously. Undeterred, he exited his Fiat 126 and made his way toward the garden on foot, flashlight and pistol in hand. What he encountered would become one of Europe's most documented abduction cases.

Zanfretta reported seeing a massive red, oval-shaped object hovering above the property, estimated at over 10 meters in diameter. As he approached, he came face-to-face with what he described as towering humanoid creatures, approximately 3 meters (10 feet) tall, with mottled greenish skin, yellow triangular eyes, red veins across their foreheads, clawed feet, and what appeared to be wrinkled or rumpled skin. In his initial confused state, Zanfretta managed to flee and alert local authorities. The encounter lasted only minutes, but it would haunt him for years to come.

A Series of Abductions

Zanfretta's experience did not end that first night. Just three weeks later, on December 27, 1978, he disappeared again while on duty. His frantic radio call to dispatch reported that his vehicle had stopped functioning. Over an hour passed before police found him on a mountain road, several kilometers from his car, in a state of profound shock and disorientation. What alarmed investigators was that despite hours of rain and cold mountain temperatures, Zanfretta's clothing remained dry and his body was unusually warm — a detail that would recur in subsequent incidents.

The pattern continued. On July 30, 1979, Zanfretta vanished while traveling on his motorcycle. He was discovered approximately 2 kilometers away, running disoriented through darkness, with no clear memory of how he had arrived at that location. Another similar incident occurred on December 2, 1979. These disappearances followed a consistent pattern: brief periods of missing time, return to locations miles from where he disappeared, apparent gaps in memory, and physical anomalies like the unexplained warmth of his body.

By 1981, Zanfretta claimed to have experienced a total of 11 abduction encounters. The pattern of missing time, rapid relocation, and disoriented return became increasingly troubling to both Zanfretta himself and investigating authorities.

Hypnotic Regression and Description

The Genoa police, initially skeptical but unable to dismiss the pattern of events and multiple reports, requested that Zanfretta undergo regressive hypnosis to recover details of his missing time. Under hypnosis, Zanfretta provided vivid accounts of being transported aboard a spacecraft to a brightly lit, uncomfortably hot chamber. He claimed the beings subjected him to examination procedures he experienced as painful. Through a communication device that projected luminous symbols, the entities reportedly identified themselves as coming from the "third galaxy" and expressed a desire to communicate with Earth's population, suggesting they would return in larger numbers.

The humanoids Zanfretta described under hypnosis were between 10 and 12 feet tall, with hairy green skin, yellow eyes, and what appeared to be advanced technology throughout their vessel. These descriptions, combined with the physical evidence of his warm body and rapid displacement, created a compelling narrative of genuine encounter.

Witnesses and Credibility Questions

What distinguishes Zanfretta's case from purely subjective abduction accounts is external corroboration of the initial encounter. When authorities investigated the December 6 incident, they documented 52 independent witnesses in the village of Torriglia who reported observing an intense, inexplicable light source at the exact time and location of Zanfretta's encounter. This significant number of corroborating witnesses to at least the initial phenomenon lends weight to the reality of something extraordinary occurring.

However, the credibility of Zanfretta's case has been contested. Skeptics and scientific researchers have noted that regressive hypnosis, while subjectively compelling to the person undergoing it, is scientifically unreliable and prone to generating false memories and confabulation. The Italian National UFO Center (CUN) issued public statements that it did not consider Zanfretta's testimony reliable, primarily due to the hypnotic regression evidence.

Zanfretta's professional life suffered consequences from the incidents. The Genoa police commissioner revoked his gun license in the early 1980s, effectively ending his career as a security guard — a practical dismissal that implied authorities believed the incidents, regardless of their cause, rendered him unsuitable for armed security work. The case remains Italy's most prominent and persistent abduction account, occupying an ambiguous space between documented anomaly and contested testimony.