Death Spurs Trans-Atlantic Battle

After years of accusations flying back and forth across the Atlantic, an Italian man will learn Friday if he will be charged in the death of his American girlfriend.

The girlfriend's family accuses Carlo Alberto Ventre of kidnapping the child he and the woman had together, then killing Toni Dykstra after she traveled to Rome to get their daughter back.

Dykstra's twin, Teri Martinez, tearfully told 48 Hours correspondent Bill Lagatutta, "I miss her laughter. She was really funny. We would laugh about everything. And there's so many things I want to tell her."

Dykstra's mysterious death in Italy came in Ventre's apartment. He says the death was an accident, and that he loved Dykstra.

"I'm very sorry for what happened," he says. "The tragedy should have never happened but, unfortunately, it happened."

Their relationship began to fall apart, Lagatutta says, when their daughter was born.

Dykstra's father, Milt, and her stepmother, Betty, say Ventre had become obsessed with the child.

"He started his abuse the day the child was born," Betty says. "He would not allow Toni to have her. And he used threats. He physically hit Toni. He physically beat Toni."

In 1998, after the couple split, Ventre took their daughter with him to Italy, without Toni's permission, Lagatutta says. She argued to an Italian court that her daughter should be returned to her. She won the case.

But the day before she was to bring her daughter home, Lagatutta says, Toni Dykstra went to Ventre's apartment outside of Rome, where she died.

Her relatives think they know how.

"I think Toni was sitting there," Milt says, "and he went out and got this hatchet and walked up behind her and smashed her head. That's what I believe."

Ventre insists it was an accident, and that Toni fell and hit her head.

The Italian courts sided with Ventre and let him go, leaving the Dykstras furious. They wanted Ventre charged with murder.

"I hope that there really is a trial," says Martinez. "And I hope that all the facts come out. Not just his side of the story."

The Dykstras were given custody of the child, and that made Ventre furious.

He returned to the United States, where he was arrested for, then convicted of, kidnapping.

Now, six years later, through the efforts of the Dykstras, he has been deported to Italy, where the authorities are reconsidering murder charges.

In the interim, a custody battle fought in Los Angeles resulted in a court awarding custody of the daughter to Ventre's brother and sister-in-law, who live in Las Vegas.

"We lost the custody case," Milt Dykstra told The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen Wednesday. "They took the child away from us in the middle of the street in downtown Los Angeles."

Gloria Allred, who represents the Dykstras, called the latest custody decision "outrageous," telling Chen that two experts testified that the girl should be left with the Dykstras, and one expert backed Ventre's brother.

"The court felt that Milt had anger about Carlo because Milt believes that Carlo killed his daughter," she said. "And for that reason, apparently, transferred guardianship to the brother."

Betty Dykstra told Chen she and Milt speak with their granddaughter at least once a week and they write, communicating "as best we can for her age level." She is almost 10.

"As far as we know, she's all right …" Betty says. "We're not happy with the way she's being raised, of course."

Milt says he's "not very optimistic" Ventre will be ordered to stand trial in his daughter's death, "based on the past history of what the Italian government has done. He was arrested the day he admitted that he murdered her, killed her, and two days later they let him go. He's been out free since."

Allred adds: "While he was in the custody of the immigration and customs enforcement agency, after we called them to be picked up after he was convicted of kidnapping this child, the deportation judge said that she found evidence that he had tried to solicit the murder of Milt and Betty, and now charges have been filed against him in L.A. County for that charge of soliciting their murder."

How is it, Chen asked, that Ventre isn't in custody in Italy at the moment?

"Great question, Julie," Allred said. "Apparently, he's free. And I am going to Rome for this hearing. And I'm hopeful that he is going to be prosecuted on a charge of murder, if there is evidence sufficient to support it. And, apparently, they do not have a bail system because he's walking around free. I don't know if he's at the beach or a restaurant, but I do know this: Toni … is six feet under in the grave, and we want justice for this mother who just went to Italy to try to rescue her daughter after he kidnapped her.

"She (Toni) had been documenting in court declarations, saying Carlo was threatening to kill her ... Then she went to Italy, and the worst happened. She in fact died in his apartment.

"We're fighting for the truth, we're fighting for justice, and we think it's time, long overdue, to hold a hearing to determine if he should be held criminally culpable for her death."

Betty described Toni as "a fun person. She always had a large smile on her face. She was always happy, eager to learn. She was very intelligent. She was a wonderful mother. She loved her children. We have three motherless children because of her death. Her girls now are 14, 12 and almost 10. … She had two girls when she had this baby. And they're entering their teenage years without their mother. And she adored those children."