I am Emma, I am 23-year-old and I come from Canada, and this is my story in regards to

what happened at Dino M.s.

During the summer of 2013, my best friend Vivian and I decided to do a trip through
Europe. Vivian is German and I am from Canada; we met in Florida while we were both
working on a one year contract with Disney World.
Vivian heard about couchsurfing and introduce me to the idea. After a month of scanning
the site with my profile that Vivian decided to share with me, I started asking hosts if they
would like to host us.
I only would message hosts who had a lot of positive comments and a lot of pictures. I
would also ask for them to add me on facebook.
Padova was our first and only terrifying experience, with "Leonardo M." being our seventh
host. On his couchsurfing profile, it showed he hosted many guests. He did not have a
negative comment, and he had pictures and asked we add him on facebook. Vivian said at
that time that she got a bit of a creepy vibe from his pictures, but I said, no one else is able
to host us and his profile is very reputable.
We arrived on August 25th 2013 in Padova train station somewhere in the afternoon. After
waiting for him for hours, finally, we had a police man in uniform approaching us in a hurry
inside of McDonalds where we were waiting. I didn't even notice he was there until he said
"Couchsurfing girls?" and both Vivian and I were immediately startled/shocked and scared.
It took us a moment to realize he was Leonardo,
He did not make small talk or really properly introduce himself. He seemed super stressed
and said that two other couchsurfers were in the car. This was an uneasy first impression.
While we got into his car we met Chunhua and Yvonne, two other couchsurfing girls.
While driving to his house, he was speeding in the rain. I was quite scared and shocked
with his driving.
Once we got to his house he said he'd show us the rooms and we got settled, while he
quickly skyped his girlfriend. Then we changed clothes and went out for a nice dinner.
I believe it was Ristorante Pizzeria Pago Pago. He was a regular at this restaurant.
We had quite a few drinks and by this time he was buzzed he started becoming very
complimentive to all of us. He told me I had beautiful eyes, which creeped me out since his
eyes freaked me out.
After the restaurant we thought we were going back to his house, but instead he first made
a quick stop at the back of some white building, then he drove to another bar. We asked
what we were doing here? He said we can't end the night now.
At this time, Yvonne and Chunhua were pretty drunk. Vivian and I were not drunk, but
maybe a little bit buzzed. Leonardo started getting very touchy feely with everyone and
very complimentive.
The night went on like this. It was really annoying and quite uneasy/scary.
The next moming the four of us were left alone Leonardo had to work.
Thats when Chunhua and Yvonne told us that he went into their room last night and tried
to sleep on their bed beside Yvonne. Chunhua said she had to yell at him and point to him
the direction of his room.
That's when I saw a camera on his book shelf ... I freaked! But kept quiet and did not say
anything. I couldn't believe that. I got such a disgusting feeling in my stomach. I thought for

sure something was going on and he was not a good guy. After that I remember walking in
the other rooms trying to see if anything else was suspicious. I remember seeing some
type of ID. The name on it was Dino M.. The picture was definitely him.
We all left the house that morning to go visit Venice. On our way from Padova to Venice
we discussed what had happened more and discussed what we had to do. We decided
that there's not too much of a drastic change we could do. Where would we go last
minute?
We knew he had to start work at 11 pm or 12, so technically we would only have to deal
with him for a couple of hours.
Once we arrived in Padova train station we spent quite a while there to use the wifi.
Ironically, my parents at this time found out I was couchsurfing through my twitter account
and my friends and totally freaked on me. So I failed to mention ANYTHING about our stay
in Padova with Leonardo.
Either we called Leonardo or he called us? He was pretty furious with me on the phone.
He said we disrespected him. That we are so late, and that we should have told him where
we were. Which I agreed with. I apologized and said we got off by the Bingo and are trying
to walk to his home. He freaked even more at me and told me to stay put and that he
would come and pick us up with his car.
Once in the apartment he settled down again. We had dinner then and he brought out
sparkling wine. We said we did not want to drink much, so he just filled some small
glasses. Then he wanted us to try another wine he had, some special home-made wine.
He told us it was very strong.
When he said this, I got another gut feeling of uneasiness, but was still pushing it to the
back of my head. I am a pretty good drinker when it comes to alcohol, and do not get
drunk after two glasses of wine, but immediately after the wine he kept asking Vivian if she
was getting sleepy. He asked her at least twice.
And she really did look tired, in fact all of us did, and I could feel my body being so heavy,
everything slowing down, and I felt exhausted and drunk.
I could feel my own eyes being heavy. And I no longer was all there. I felt careless and
tired. I remember him telling us he needed to change into his uniform and go to work. And
then I remember all four of us girls: Vivian, Chunhua, Yvonne and myself in our bedroom. I
went to the washroom and when I came out of it and went into our room, all three of the
girls were passed out in the bed. I remember trying to wake them all up. Saying there
names, then moving them. I was shaking them slowly as I was so tired myself, but none of
them would respond to me. I remember feeling so scared, and I knew we must have been
drugged. I knew it was not just wine. I went on the floor and I remember trying to pack my
backpack. I think from then I may have sat on the bed and put my head down but I do not
remember anything besides last trying to pack and thinking we needed to get out of there.
The next day I woke up, I opened my eyes, Vivian moved and opened hers. We looked at
each other in a glance for maybe a few seconds. We were both still so out of it at this
point. I saw Leonardo sleeping without a shirt on, on the other side of Vivian, she looked at
him, we looked at each other. And again, I went blank. We passed out again.
This does not make sense. We were petrified. But we couldnt move, talk, react. Anything.
We just passed right out again.
We woke up again later in the day. All three of us woke up but Vivian and I were slow and
quiet. Leonardo got right up from the bed and walked out of the room.

I remember us having our bags packed as well as Cydni and Yvonne. Leonardo said he
would drive all four of us to the train station. We met in his living room. He said we needed
to sign his couchsurfing book that he had. This book has all the couchsurfers who stayed
with him, write in the book about their stay and his "hospitality". We wrote in the book
because we felt like we HAD to. How can you say no when you are in his house? I wrote
something like: Thank you for buying us dinner and for all the maps you showed us about
Padova and Venice
He drove us to the train station. When we finally got there all four of us girls took the train
to Venice. Vivian and I spent a few hours there until after dinner time to take our train to
Austria. Chunhua and Yvonne looked for a hostel/hotel to stay in Venice for their one more
night and we promised to all keep in touch and talk about this more.
I Vivian and I took the train to Austria.
Once there we went to the police to report what happened to us. We went in and talked to
one police man... I know I was trying to hold back my tears.
He said he could not really help us because none of us is Austrian and asked us why we
did not report it in Italy. We said we were scared to go to the police in Italy since he,
himself was a police and how could we do that?
From there we carried on with our travel. In Copenhagen, Denmark we go also
couchsurfed with another host.
Vivian and our host kept trying to push me to write a negative review about him. At first I
didn't want to but then I realized it was the right thing to do. I messaged Chunhua and
Yvonne to do the same so we could all stand up for one another. I posted everything on
his wall.
He immediately threatened me. He wrote a negative comment on my profile calling me a
liar. He wrote me a message on facebook saying that I better delete my comment or he will
report me to the head of couchsurfing and get me removed. He also said he is a cop and I
am lying and committing a crime and if I dont remove my post he will report me to Italy
and they will send me back home to Canada and I will get kicked out of Europe .... I did
not reply to him.
And now, it was too much and I felt I did my part and thought that no one would take us
too seriously at this point, since we tried already. I began to cut it all out of my memory ...
or try to. And for.the first time since all of this, I am now starting to bring it all back up.