Captain Francesco Schettino (REUTERS)
ROME — The Moldovan blonde spotted with the captain of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia, Francesco Schettino, on the night of the disaster, told Italian investigators she is in love with him.
“Yes, it’s true. I am in love with Captain Schettino,” Domnica Cemortan, 25, told prosecutors, Italian newspaper La Stampa reported Thursday.
Cemortan, who has joint Moldovan and Romanian citizenship, previously said she was not Schettino’s lover, saying he was faithful to his wife.
She also reportedly told Italian investigators that she was on the bridge as a “guest” of the captain at the time of the crash, despite Schettino claiming that only authorized staff were on the bridge at the time.
Survivors claimed that they saw Cemortan dining and drinking wine with Schettino shortly before the 17-deck vessel ran aground, but she has always denied this in media interviews, calling him a “hero” who “saved lives.”
The cruise ship ran aground on rocks Jan. 13 with some 4,200 people aboard and is lying on its side off the Tuscan island of Giglio. A total of 17 bodies were recovered, and 15 people remain missing. Among those missing is the Minnesota couple Jerry and Barbara Heil.
Schettino is under house arrest facing charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship.
Meanwhile, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Thursday it opened a preliminary criminal investigation into the January crash of the cruise liner.
Prosecutors said any French nationals who were on board would be questioned to “determine the circumstances of the sinking and the evacuation procedure,” as well as “the personal injury and the psychological impact on the victims” when the ship ran aground.
Four French nationals were among the 17 people confirmed dead, and two others are still missing.
Of the 4,299 passengers aboard the liner when it sank on the night of Jan. 13 off the island of Giglio, 462 were French.