Venice, September 15, 2026 – On the morning of Tuesday, September 15, a body was found in the lagoon, in the area of the Campalto island: it is that of Gabriella Querino, the 26-year-old missing after the boating accident that occurred at dawn on Saturday, September 12 in the Tessera canal, in which her husband 25-year-old Sean Michieli died.
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The body was noticed by a passerby and the final confirmation is awaited. The discovery came after 3 days of nonstop searches in the Venetian lagoon and after, only on Monday evening, a woman on board a vaporetto reported the presence of a presumed body in the water in the area of Fondamenta Nove.
The body was found in the area of the Campalto island, far from the point in the Tessera canal where the operations had initially focused.
The alert was given by a passerby who noticed the body and alerted the authorities.
The decisive report
Firefighters, carabinieri, police, and coast guard were engaged, after 72 hours from the serious accident on Saturday morning between a water taxi and a small boat right in front of Tessera island.
Her presence on board is confirmed by a handbag with documents and personal effects, which divers found on the seabed near the crash site.
A report received on Monday evening to the authorities was decisive.
Mayor Venturini: “A great pain”
On social media, the Mayor of Venice Simone Venturini announces the discovery of the body: “Unfortunately, the body of Gabriella Querino has been found in the lagoon – he writes –. News we never wanted to read. With this discovery, unfortunately, the last hope is extinguished and a tragic story that has kept our entire city breathless these days ends in the most painful way. At this moment, every word is insufficient in the face of such great pain. My thoughts go to the families of the two young people, their friends, and all the people who knew them and cared for them: to them I express my sincerest condolences and the sympathy of the Municipal Administration and myself.” He also thanks “all those who, tirelessly, took part in the searches during these difficult days – he concludes –. Today Venice stands united around two families struck by an immense loss.”
The Saturday accident
The tragedy of Sean Michieli and Gabriella 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 at off the Tessera island, a short distance from the airport of the Veneto capital.
He died yesterday; doctors declared his death at the Angelo di Mestre hospital after waiting six hours to complete the verification process. She was found on September 15 in the Venice lagoon, thoroughly searched by Carabinieri and Firefighters.
An autopsy will be performed on Sean’s body, which will help gather useful elements about the dynamics of the accident, which have not yet been clarified.
Michieli’s family said the two were almost inseparable on the boat and therefore, most likely, had left 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. In fact, Querino now seems to have been found.
The investigations: the taxi driver under investigation, the only witness
Meanwhile, the Venice Prosecutor’s Office is moving on the accident. Reconstructing the crash dynamics with certainty is not simple, because the only witness is the taxi driver, who is now under investigation in the case opened for nautical homicide. The prosecutor in charge of the file is Daniela Moroni, who opened a file for nautical homicide against the taxi driver, a 38-year-old Venetian.
However, the man is not the only one who can provide his version of the events: in the cabin, he was carrying two American tourists, luggage, and boarding passes ready to board a flight that was to take them back to the United States after their Italian vacation.
And then there are two other water taxi drivers: the first who passed by the crashed boats without stopping, the second who accepted to take charge of the foreign couple and get them to the terminal on time – as suggested by the Suem staff.
To understand the dynamics of the accident, investigators have ordered a series of checks, with experts appointed by the Prosecutor’s Office, on the sunken small boat. From the surveys, they will try to understand the speed of the vehicles, their direction, and how the impact occurred.
For the Michieli family, what is emerging in these hours is a second tragedy that occurs in the same waters where 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 barge carrying fuel.
The accident happened a short distance from Fondamente Nove, in front of the cemetery island of San Michele. At that time, a violent storm was underway, accompanied by gusts of wind. Nineteen years later, Sean’s heart stopped beating on a hospital bed on the mainland while his wife, who never knew that relative, is missing in the same waters.
The taxi driver: “I didn’t see her, I only heard the impact”
“I didn’t see her. I didn’t see the small boat in the canal, I only heard the impact. I stopped immediately, I looked to see what had happened: there was the boat sinking, there was the injured young man, and indeed I immediately called 118, I asked what I should do. But I never saw Gabriella.” The taxi driver speaks through tears to Il Gazzettino: “Michieli’s ‘hood suddenly cut my route, I couldn’t avoid the impact because I didn’t even see it coming. I clearly remember the silhouette of the 25-year-old, I didn’t see a second body.”
