ROME — A homeless man was charged with murder Tuesday in connection with the death of U.S. college student Beau Solomon, who vanished just hours after arriving in the Italian capital last week.
Beau Solomon. Courtesy family
The 19-year-old sophomore was due to study at John Cabot University, a small Rome-based liberal arts college.
Solomon's body was found in the Tiber River on Monday.
The visiting student from the University of Wisconsin-Madison as last seen around 1 a.m. on Friday (7 p.m. ET Thursday) while at a pub in Rome. He had arrived in the city only hours earlier.
His roommate became "worried when he did not see Beau at orientation" later in the day, John Cabot University said in a statement issued Sunday.
Investigators identified the accused as Massimo Galioto, a 40-year-old homeless man. He was being charged with "aggravated murder," a police spokesman told NBC News.
After the disappearance, Solomon's parents called their son's credit card company and "realized thousands of dollars had been charged" in Milan to his account, according to his brother Jake Solomon. Milan is about 350 miles north of Rome.
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On Monday, another brother had told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the teen's body had been found with a head wound and blood on his shirt.
"It's a murder investigation," Cole Solomon told the newspaper before the arrest was made.
The personal finance major had been due to participate in a study abroad program.
"We express our most heartfelt condolences to the Solomon family and to all those who loved Beau," John Cabot University said in a statement.
Map showing locations pertaining to the robbery of Beau Solomon. 
Map showing scene and bar locations pertaining to the robbery of Beau Solomon. 

On Tuesday,  police charged homeless forty-year-old Massimo Galioto with the aggravated murder of Beau Solomon, a college student from Wisconsin, US. The police arrested the man after finding the student's body in the  in  on Monday. The defendant has attorney Michele Vincelli.

According to reports, Massimo Galioto is homeless and lived in a tent under a bridge. Italian police said two witnesses reported they saw someone being thrown from the Garibaldi bridge into the Tiber River. The authorities also reportedly obtained CCTV footage near the bank of the river, showing the incident.

A homeless woman sharing a tent with Massimo Galioto said she saw Massimo Galioto and Beau Solomon fighting each-other, and then saw Beau Solomon fall into the river. The woman alleged Beau Solomon was drunk and the company included two people from North Africa.

On Monday, Italian police found Beau Solomon's body near Guglielmo Marconi bridge about three miles (five kilometres) downstream from Trastevere, where the student was last seen at about 1AM in G-Bar in ''Piazza Trilussa'' on Friday night after his first day in Italy. Solomon was beginning a  at . His parents arrived on Monday using emergency passports.

The body had no mobile device or wallet, suggesting to local authorities it was a robbery. The body also had a head wound and bloody shirt, the victim's 23-year-old brother Cole Solomon told the '''' on Monday.

Last week on Friday morning, Beau Solomon's parents received bank alerts. According to the student's brother Jake Solomon, the bank told his parents Beau's bank card was charged "thousands of dollars". Authorities later confirmed the amount as about 1,500  (about 1700). The credit card of the victim was charged in  over 300 miles away from Rome on Friday.

Beau Solomon was aged 19. He came to Italy to attend summer school on Thursday. Beau Solomon did not attend university  next morning, and the institution reported him missing to the local authorities at 9PM.