Mike Bongiorno’s body found in a ditch

Just a month shy of marking a year since his corpse was stolen, Italian police have found the coffin of Mike Bongiorno containing his remains in a ditch on the the outskirts of Milan.

On January 25 of this year, the Bongiorno family was faced with its second shock when they realised someone had stolen the body of the famous Italian TV star from his tomb by Lake Maggiore.

Mike Bongiorno's family is new preparing a cremation to prevent from such events to happen again.

"We want to cremate his body to protect it," said his widow, Daniela Zuccoli. Police were called on Thursday when a passer-by saw the coffin in a ditch on the outskirts of Milan. It is thought the coffin had been dumped there overnight.

Bongiorno - who died in September 2009, is famous for his quiz shows.

He was born in New York, but moved to Turin as a child. Bongiorno was also a war prisoner and will remain known for his Second World War heroics for the Italian resistance movements. He was captured by the Gestapo and spent time in various German concentrations camps.