RIMINI – It has been 25 years since the tragedy, but for Teo Kaikonen Marangoni, time seemed to stand still that evening.
This is the mother’s first confession to the Italian mediawhose son Pauli died after a driver from Bosnia and Herzegovina ran into him with his Porsche.
It was June 21, 2001, when her son Pauli Jako Hirvi was injured and killed in Piazzale Gondar, after being hit by a young man who was speeding in his yellow Porsche. Behind the wheel was Omer Halilović, originally from BiH, who also had Dutch citizenship.
Death on the spot
Pauli practically died on the spot, and several other people were injured. Halilović escaped together with his cousin SS (also from BiH, settled in the Netherlands), who was driving another Porsche. The two cousins were racing along the coast of Rimini, when Halilović lost control and hit Pauli.
In those days in Rimini, this was the main topic. Because Pauli, although he was born in Finland and lived in Italy since 1972, was very well known and loved in Rimini. He moved to Rimini with his mother as a child. He worked as a restaurateur. He was engaged in volunteerism. He had many friends. The two friends were even with him that evening in Piazzale Gondar, when Halilović hit him while Pauli was on a scooter. “It could have been a mass tragedy. They could have killed a lot of people, not just Pauli,” says mother Theo.
Mother saw the Porsche the day before
She still harbors anger at the way the Dutch judiciary acted. The two cousins fled Italy and immediately returned to the Netherlands after the tragedy. The SS surrendered a month and a half later: he agreed to a sentence of one year and two months. Halilović was sentenced to three years and 10 months, but it was not until 2006 that the Dutch authorities announced that they had arrested him for extradition, which Italy had requested several times, thanks to the interventions of Sergio Gambini, the deputy at the time.
“Since then, we don’t know anything anymore,” Teo spreads his hands and adds: “We don’t know if the person who killed Pauli really served his sentence. For years, I asked myself a thousand questions, every day. I saw that yellow Porsche that ran over Pauli the day before tragedy and thought: he is driving too fast, he could hurt someone.”
“He still lives with me”
But Tea says that she realized some things over time: “I realized that God wanted it that way. He wanted to call Pauli to heaven, even though he was young. And I no longer feel hatred towards the one who killed him.”
It takes courage to come to such a realization. Tea also had a lot of strength thanks to her other children, Marko and Martina Marangona.
“They were very attached to Pauli. Everyone loved Pauli. But he’s always here with me: I feel him.”
