“He kissed me—and then he left forever.”
That last kiss stays on my skin like a wound that never stops burning. Riccardo called me from the line at the ski lift, then came back just to lean down and ask for a kiss. A simple gesture, full of love. I didn’t know it would be the last one.
That night he told me, “Mom, Mom, we’re having so much fun at the Constellation.” He was happy. For the first time in his life he had a group of friends, people to go out with, to ski with, to finally feel part of something. I could hear it in his voice—he was calm, light, alive. And today that voice is what I miss more than anything in the world.
I don’t feel anger. I feel a pain with no bottom, no edge, no end. But I want justice to be done. Knowing that someone has been arrested is something—but it is not enough. My son did not die because of fate. He died because someone didn’t check, someone didn’t protect, someone allowed a place to become a trap.
Riccardo wanted to be a criminal lawyer. He wanted to defend those who had no voice.
Now that voice is mine. And I will keep using it for him, so that no other mother ever has to live what I live: waking up every morning and no longer having a child.
Crans-Montana tragedy: separate investigations and serious charges against the Morettis
Two days ago, Swiss authorities questioned Jacques and Jessica Moretti in two separate hearings, as required in particularly sensitive cases. The couple, owners of Le Constellation in Crans-Montana, are now under investigation for multiple counts of involuntary manslaughter, arson, and negligent injury following the devastating New Year’s Eve fire that turned a night of celebration into disaster. Jacques has been arrested, while Jessica has been placed under house arrest.
Jacques described the moments immediately after the fire erupted, recounting his desperate attempts to save Cyane Panine, the 24-year-old waitress who died in the flames.
“I tried to resuscitate her for more than an hour,” he said, adding, “I raised her boyfriend like my own son. We tried together until the rescuers arrived and told us it was too late.”
Jessica, meanwhile, conveyed the drama of those chaotic moments, recalling an evening that had seemed calm at first.
“The night had begun without any warning signs,” she said, with only a few customers present until around 1 a.m., and no hint of the disaster to come.
According to the couple’s account, the fire started during the service of sparklers — small decorative candles placed on bottles to make the evening more spectacular. The young woman seen in videos, standing on a colleague’s shoulders while holding a bottle and a sparkler, was not a customer but one of the club’s waitresses.
This detail radically changed the perspective on the incident, highlighting the risks linked to certain practices at the venue, which had already been flagged in the past by authorities. Jessica reportedly explained:
“It wasn’t something we always did. It wasn’t the first time, but I never stopped it — and I never ordered it either.”
She also described how sparks from the sparklers reached the soundproofing panels on the ceiling, causing the flames to spread rapidly.
“I sensed a movement in the crowd, and immediately afterward I saw an orange light in the corner of the bar.”
Within minutes, the situation spiraled out of control. The venue was ordered to evacuate, firefighters were called, and her husband received an emergency message:
“There’s a fire at Constel, come immediately!”
Jessica described what happened as “the tragedy of my life,” reflecting on the irreversible trauma caused by an event that began as a celebration and ended in catastrophe — with the girl in the helmet at the center of an episode destined to mark Crans-Montana forever.
