An Italian court on Thursday sentenced American Francis Kaufmann to life in prison for the murder of his Russian partner, Anastasia Trofimova, 28, and their 11-month-old daughter, Andromeda. The bodies of Trofimova and Andromeda were discovered in a Rome park in June 2025.
Prosecutors stated that Trofimova was killed first. CCTV footage reportedly showed Kaufmann carrying the infant into the Villa Pamphili park and returning alone about an hour later. Kaufmann, who is from California and also used the name Rexal Ford, left Italy shortly after the discovery of the bodies and was later apprehended on the Greek island of Skiathos.
Kaufmann's defense team argued that the case relied on circumstantial evidence and lacked definitive proof of his involvement in the killings. However, the court, composed of two professional judges and six lay judges, found him guilty and imposed a life sentence, which includes three years of daytime solitary confinement.
Trofimova, originally from Siberia, met Kaufmann in 2023 while on vacation in Malta. Their daughter, Andromeda, was born in June 2024, and the family subsequently relocated to Rome. Kaufmann had presented himself as a film director or producer.
An initial police investigation struggled to identify the mother and child. The case gained traction after being featured on a television program dedicated to missing persons and unresolved cases. A viewer reported seeing police interact with a bleeding man accompanied by a young woman and a child in Rome less than three weeks before the bodies were found. Investigators found records of this incident, which showed police had stopped Kaufmann on June 5, 2025, when he was alone with Andromeda and appeared visibly intoxicated. Prosecutors believe Trofimova was already deceased at that point and suggested that greater police intervention might have saved the child's life.