Kidnapper Deported to Italy to Face Charge of Homicide

An Italian man who abducted his daughter and allegedly acknowledged killing her mother has been deported to Italy.

Carlo Alberto Ventre, 57, was questioned by Italian authorities and released after his return to Italy on Wednesday, according to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials.

He is scheduled to appear in an Italian court on Sept. 30 in a homicide case in the death of Toni Dykstra, the mother of his daughter.

Dykstra, a paralegal who lived in San Pedro, had trailed Ventre and her daughter to Italy. After she found them, an Italian court ordered the child returned to the United States. But the day before Dykstra, 29, and her daughter, Santina, were to leave in 1998, Dykstra was found dead on the floor of Ventre’s apartment near Rome.

Italian authorities said Ventre told them he shoved his wife in self-defense after she attacked him with an ax. He said she struck her head on a fireplace.

Dykstra’s father, Milt Dykstra, said Friday he was “ecstatic” that Ventre had been sent back to Italy. He said he did not believe Ventre’s account of his daughter’s death.

Ventre, who had met Dykstra in the United States, returned to the country in 1999 after Milt Dykstra was awarded custody of Santina under the Hague Convention. Soon after his return, he was convicted of international parental kidnapping charges.

Ventre was turned over to immigration officials after serving a 364-day sentence. He was held without bond while he fought efforts to deport him.

An immigration judge ruled in 2002 that Ventre could be deported, and three weeks ago the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a stay of removal, allowing his deportation.