Venice, September 14, 2026 – The tragedy of Sean Michieli and Gabriela Querino, married for three months, began shortly before six on Saturday morning, when the small boat they were traveling on collided with a water taxi off the island of Tessera, a short distance from the airport of the Veneto capital.
Sean Michieli has died
He died yesterday, doctors declared his death after waiting six hours to complete the verification process. She is missing in the Venice lagoon, searched palm by palm by the Carabinieri and Firefighters.
Regarding the outcome, no one had any illusions already from yesterday afternoon. The checks to declare the 25-year-old, a fisherman for generations, dead were completed after 9 p.m. last night.
Gabriela missing
The search for the 26-year-old of Brazilian origin, immediately infected by her husband’s passion for this profession, was suspended at sunset. For several hours on Saturday, it was not certain that both were on board. But Michieli’s family said the two were almost inseparable on the boat and therefore, most likely, they had gone out together from Burano, where they live, in search of bait. And, when on Saturday evening the Firefighters recovered the wreck of the small boat, the Carabinieri found some elements that suggested her presence on board. For now, however, Querino has not been found.
The search continues
The Firefighters deployed divers from the regional unit, the helicopter, and some jet skis to support the search operations. And today divers and helicopter return to action, because so far it has not been enough. The waters of the Lagoon are muddy, it is difficult to orient even within a few meters and, to further increase the difficulty of the search, there is the alternation of high and low tide. Last year a fisherman’s small boat was found off Punta Sabbioni and the fruitless search went on for weeks.
The investigations and the only witness
Meanwhile, the Venice Prosecutor’s Office is moving on the incident. Reconstructing the dynamics of the crash with certainty is not simple, because the only witness is the taxi driver. Before dawn, in the dark and fog of the Lagoon, no one but him saw anything. And obviously there are no cameras. It is therefore difficult to assign blame and responsibility. The Prosecutor’s Office has opened a file which, following Michieli’s death, contemplates the hypothesis of the crime provided for by article 589 bis, which regulates road homicide and nautical homicide.
This is the second tragedy for the Michieli family
For the Michieli family, what is unfolding in these hours is a second tragedy that occurs in the same waters on which they have earned a living for generations. In 2007 his uncle Endrius, who was 19 years old, died in a collision between his small boat and a tanker carrying fuel. The accident happened a short distance from Fondamente Nove, in front of the island-cemetery of San Michele. At that moment there was a violent storm, accompanied by gusts of wind. Nineteen years later, Sean’s heart stopped beating in a hospital bed on the mainland while his wife, who never knew that relative, is missing in the same waters.
