Italian adult-content creator Carol Maltesi was killed in January 2022 after being lured into filming a custom OnlyFans video.
Carol Maltesi was born on September 23, 1995, in Sesto Calende, a small town north of Milan. Her parents, Fabio Maltesi and Giuseppina “Lily” Maltesi, divorced when she was four years old. After the separation, her father moved back to the Netherlands, remarried, and had other children.
Maltesi stayed in Italy with her mother, who became her main parent. As a child and teenager, she was known for being outgoing and active. She took dance lessons, rode horses, read often, learned several languages and enjoyed traveling.
In 2013, she started university and studied fashion and design, planning a future connected to that field.
While in school, she met a man identified publicly as “Luca,” a name used to protect his identity. He was two years older, and they entered a serious relationship. In 2015, when Maltesi was 20, she became pregnant.
The pregnancy was unexpected and caused stress because she was still studying, but she and Luca decided to have the baby and raise the child together. After their son was born, she left university and focused on being a full-time parent.
The couple moved to Verona, Luca’s hometown, where his relatives lived. Maltesi found a job at a shoe store, and the arrangement provided support while they adjusted to life with a young child.
Several years later, when their son was three, Maltesi began an affair with a man identified publicly as “Simone,” also a protected name. The relationship was kept secret for months. Luca learned about the affair in December and ended the partnership.
Maltesi did not have a stable place to live in Verona after the breakup, and most of the local connections were tied to Luca’s family. She returned to Sesto Calende and moved into Simone’s parents’ home. Simone’s parents allowed her to stay but did not want a child living there.
Maltesi did not move her son away from Verona, where he had already settled into daily routines, so the boy stayed with Luca. She transferred her job to another branch of the shoe store.
At the end of 2019, she also faced a family medical crisis because her mother was diagnosed with ALS, also called motor neuron disease. Maltesi helped with her care while trying to rebuild her own life after the move.
In February 2020, Italy entered a strict phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. The shoe store closed, and Maltesi lost her job immediately. She had no regular income and had to rely financially on Simone’s family, which she found uncomfortable.
Travel restrictions also prevented her from visiting her son in Verona. With limited options, she looked for a new way to work and focused on building an online presence. She started posting on Instagram and opened a YouTube channel. Her early content centered on fashion, lifestyle, and behind-the-scenes clips.
The accounts did not gain the fast growth she wanted, but she noticed that comments about her appearance increased when her posts were more revealing. As she tested what attracted attention, she shifted toward more sexualized images.
Later in 2020, Maltesi created an OnlyFans account under the stage name “Charlotte Angie.” She also updated her other social media to match that identity. She began posting explicit content and quickly gained many subscribers.
The number grew into the thousands, and she earned significant monthly income. For months, she told no one close to her, including Simone, even though she was living in his family home.
Because people around her believed she was unemployed, she also had to hide how she was getting money. Her subscribers began requesting more extreme material, and she accepted those requests as paid work.
At some point in 2020, someone close to Simone’s family discovered the account and told him. His parents learned about it as well and strongly disapproved, especially because they believed filming was happening under their roof.
Maltesi continued running the page. In October 2020, she posted online that she was looking for a photographer. A man named Davide Fontana contacted her.
Fontana was 42, worked as a banker, and was married. He also tried to build a public image online, with an Instagram account that had more than 10,000 followers. He ran a personal website described as a fashion and food blog, and he presented himself as interested in technology and photography.
He arranged a photo shoot with Maltesi in a hotel room. After the shoot, he offered her money for sex. She agreed, and the two began meeting repeatedly for the same pattern: a shoot followed by paid sex.
Over time, Fontana’s interest changed from a business arrangement to a personal one. In January 2021, he messaged Maltesi that he did not want to remain only a client and wanted a closer relationship.
In February 2021, Simone found out about Fontana and ended his relationship with Maltesi. After that, Maltesi began a relationship with Fontana. He then told his wife about the affair and said he wanted a divorce.
The relationship quickly became tied to Maltesi’s online work as well as her private life.
Fontana began appearing in Maltesi’s OnlyFans content, filming sex scenes with her in their apartment. He also took a share of the profits as her business manager and co-star. Maltesi’s audience grew, and she built a strong public profile, including more than 30,000 Instagram followers.
She was reported to be earning about €10,000 per month. As her visibility increased, she began being recognized in public. Fontana reacted with jealousy and controlling behavior, which created tension. Maltesi proposed an open relationship, and they agreed.
After that arrangement began, Simone started appearing again at the apartment. During this period, Simone’s car was parked outside and its tires were slashed, though no one was proven responsible.
Maltesi’s work expanded beyond subscriber content. Adult film directors contacted her for professional shoots, and she began appearing in pornographic films with other men. She traveled for filming, worked with different studios, and performed live in strip clubs across Italy.
She appeared at events described as exotic festivals and also spoke on Italian radio shows about her work. In a Facebook video, she talked about stigma toward women, especially mothers, who post sexual content, and said she did not plan to stay in the adult industry forever.
She stated that her goal was to raise money so she could move closer to her son in Verona and support him financially.
In September 2021, Maltesi met Salvatore Galdo, who worked in the adult industry. They filmed together and then started a relationship. The relationship moved quickly. Galdo proposed, and Maltesi accepted. She told Fontana she was ending their romantic relationship.
Fontana responded calmly and said he wanted to remain friends and continue working with her. Maltesi also explained that she planned to relocate to Verona, which would end the business partnership and cut off Fontana’s share of her income.
He again acted as if he supported her choices. Maltesi believed the separation was being handled without conflict, and she continued filming content with him because they already had shoots planned.
During this period, Maltesi was also taking custom requests from subscribers. These were paid videos with specific instructions, such as outfits, dialogue, and role-play scenes.
Fontana created a fake OnlyFans account, subscribed to her page, and ordered a private video that centered on torture role-play. The request specified that Maltesi should be tied to a stripper pole, gagged, and have a black plastic bag placed over her head so she could not see.
It also demanded that Fontana appear as the co-star carrying out the acts and asked for a real knife to make the scene look more realistic, including holding it against her throat. Maltesi accepted the request and asked Fontana to participate, without knowing he controlled the subscriber account.
The filming was scheduled for January 11, 2022. In the days leading up to that date, Fontana ordered a metal saw, an axe, a fire pit, and a deep freezer through Amazon.
On January 11, 2022, Maltesi went to Fontana’s home to film several scenes. Fontana set up the bedroom with lights and cameras used for their content. They filmed the planned sex scenes first. They then moved on to the custom request.
Maltesi allowed Fontana to secure her to the stripper pole. Her wrists and ankles were bound with duct tape. He placed a gag in her mouth and pulled a black plastic bag over her head. With her movement limited and her vision blocked, Fontana struck her with a hammer.
The blows increased in force until Maltesi suffered severe injuries and lost consciousness after being hit in the head. He then used the knife and cut her throat, killing her.
Fontana stayed in the room for about 30 minutes. He then turned off the camera and deleted the recording. He used the axe and metal saw he had purchased to dismember Maltesi’s body into 15 pieces.
He attempted to burn the remains in the fire pit but did not succeed. He placed the pieces into bags and stored them in the deep freezer. He cleaned the home and washed clothing to remove signs of the killing.
Afterward, Fontana used Maltesi’s phone and accounts to impersonate her. He sent messages to her family, friends, and Galdo saying she had caught COVID-19 and was self-isolating.
He posted videos that had been filmed earlier that day to her OnlyFans account and answered subscriber messages while posing as her. He paid her bills so missed payments would not trigger concern.
As time passed, he changed the explanation and told people she had gone traveling and did not know when she would return. About two months passed with Maltesi not being seen. In late March 2022, Fontana placed the bagged body parts into his car, drove to a cliff area, and threw them off the edge.
A man walking on a path near the base of the cliffs noticed multiple bags that looked like dumped trash. When he opened one, he found human remains and called the police.
Investigators recovered the remains but could not identify the victim because there was no matching missing-person report, and her face could not be recognized. Police focused on tattoos and released descriptions to the public while asking for information.
A man recognized the tattoos because he had seen Maltesi’s adult content, though he only knew the stage name “Charlotte Angie.”
Instead of contacting the police, he went to a local journalist and shared what he recognized. The journalist researched the stage name, identified Maltesi’s real identity, and contacted one of her relatives to ask whether she was safe.
The relative gave the journalist Maltesi’s phone number. The journalist messaged the number on WhatsApp and received replies. He then asked for a voice message to confirm the identity of the person responding, and the replies stopped. The journalist brought the information to the police.
Police interviewed Galdo, who said he believed Maltesi was alive because he had received messages about isolation and then travel. He also said she had been staying at Fontana’s home.
After ruling him out as a suspect, investigators turned their attention to Fontana.
During questioning, and as evidence against him continued to build, Fontana realized he had been caught. He gave shifting accounts, including saying the violence began as role-play and claiming he cut her throat because she was in pain.
Police identified the fake OnlyFans profile that ordered the torture video and found videos on Fontana’s iPhone from the filming session. He was charged with murder.
In June 2023, Fontana went on trial. He pleaded not guilty and continued to claim the death was an accident. The court found him guilty and sentenced him to 30 years in prison.
Maltesi’s family challenged the sentence, arguing it did not fit the seriousness of the crime. A re-sentencing later changed Fontana’s punishment to life imprisonment.
