Lady de Rothschild's death reopened by Italian cops 44 years later

Italian police have reopened the investigation into the mysterious disappearance of the former Lady de Rothschild in an Italian snowstorm in 1980. 

Jeanette Bishop May, the former Lady de Rothschild and a former model, and Gabriella Guerin, her secretary, disappeared in a freak snowstorm in Italy's northern Marche region in November 1980. 

The subsequent search for the pair, involving choppers and dogs, failed and it wasn't until 14 months later that hunters discovered their heavily decomposed bodies near Lake Fiastra in the Sibillini mountains. 

An autopsy revealed that wild boars had ravaged their corpses, erasing any chance that the cause of their deaths would be fully understood. An initial inquiry said they died of hypothermia. 

As a result, the story of the deaths of the socialite and her secretary have taken on a life of their own, leading to wild speculation, including that they were allegedly linked to the mafia, an art theft in Rome, the murder of an Italian antiques dealer and the 1982 death of an Italian banker in London. 

This week, cops in the town of Macerata said they would be hearing testimony from a dozen witnesses who knew both women. 

While chief prosecutor Giovanni Fabrizio Narbone declined to reveal why he had reopened the cold case, he confirmed that a double murder investigation into the women's deaths had been reopened. 

'We reread all the records, to see if there were any glimmers to assess the existence of contradictions, and we felt that there was a chance of getting to the bottom of it,' Mr Narbone told local media.

'The more time passes, the more people who might have been involved in this story, or who knew of it, are bound to disappear.'

Jeanette Bishop May was married to Sir Evelyn De Rothschild, the financier who was part of the international dynasty, between 1966 and 1971, before she divorced him and married businessman Stephen May. 

At the time of her disappearance, she was in the Marche region renovating a home she had recently purchased, and was last seen driving in a Peugeot up a mountain road in poor weather conditions. 

The car was found three weeks later. Investigators found no sign of struggle or force.  

Surveyor Nazzareno Venanzi, one of the last people to see the former Lady de Rothschild alive, told local media at the time: 'In the morning she showed me a gate she liked for the cottage she was renovating. 

'We drank an aperitif before lunch, then she asked me if I wanted to accompany them both in the mountains that evening, but I declined because I was busy. When I learnt they did not return to their hotel, I was worried and notified the police.

'She was enchanting, a former model with fine manners,' he said. 'It was only after her death that I learned she was well-known in England, the former wife of the banker, Rothschild.'