January 8, 2018
Reports: Italian Gay Couple Found Dead on Vacation from Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
READ TIME: 1 MIN.
A young Italian gay couple died last week by accidentally inhaling toxic levels of carbon monoxide while on vacation, according to local reports.
Alex Ferrari and Luca Bortolaso, both 21, died Jan. 2 after being exposed to fumes from a defective wood-burning brazier while sleeping at a vacation home in Ca di Sotto, Verona, according to Italy's Repubblica newspaper. The couple, who were both students and engaged for a year, were spending the holidays with two female friends, who were staying in another room.
Family members for Ferrari and Bortolaso requested the couple's funerals be held together and the Catholic Church approved.
"The choice of celebrating the funeral of Alex and Luke together is a specific request from their families," Don Alessio Graziani, spokesman of the bishop of Vicenza, told the Italian newspaper Cronaca. "The families, at this moment of immense sorrow, wish to be close with the words of faith.
"Following the death of two young people, every other comment is inappropriate," he added.
The couple's funerals were held on Jan. 5.
