A piece of acrylic glass struck and killed Brother Rogério Renato Mateucci at Taliesin West in Scottsdale on Oct. 16, Scottsdale police confirmed.
Police described the acrylic as roofing material that broke free in the wind, according to Officer Aaron Bolin of the Scottsdale Police Department.
Taliesin West remained closed while authorities investigated the death of Mateucci, 55. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation was cooperating with the investigation, Scottsdale police Sgt. Allison Sempsis said.
A photo provided to The Arizona Republic by Mateucci’s colleague, Vidal Martins, showed a curved panel of acrylic glass believed to be the one that hit Mateucci lying on the ground near Taliesin West.
Sempsis confirmed Oct. 21 that it was indeed a piece
of acrylic glass that struck Mateucci.
Exactly where the panel came from and how it became unsecured remained unclear.
“I think the security measures must be taken, because it’s a public place," Martins said of the material that struck his friend.
Mateucci was rector of Brazil’s Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná. He was among four university leaders visiting Arizona with a larger delegation of Brazilian university officials, said Martins, who traveled with him.
Scottsdale’s building inspection team had not received a request to inspect the property after Mateucci's death, Kristen Landry, the city's Planning and Development Services spokesperson, said on Oct. 21.
The department generally inspects permitted construction or responds to requests from other departments, she said. The city does not generally inspect storm damage and had no permitted projects or inspections recorded at Taliesin West since 2023, Landry said.
She said she did not know the extent of the damage or whether repairs would require a permit. No application for that work had been submitted, she said. She directed questions about any continuing investigation to the city's police and fire departments.
Scottsdale Fire Department Capt. Dave Folio said firefighters responded Oct. 16 but declined to discuss what they did at the property. The Fire Department typically reinspects a building only if its safety systems were compromised, Folio said. Issues involving the building itself fall under building code enforcement, he said.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation has not answered The Republic’s questions about the roof’s inspection history or precautions taken during high winds at the time of the incident.
Foundation representative Jan Bracamonte did provide a statement from CEO Joe Spector offering condolences and saying Taliesin West would remain closed until further notice. The statement did not address The Republic’s safety questions. Bracamonte said she expected the foundation to provide an additional statement by Oct. 22.
Taliesin alumni express support
The Taliesin Fellows, an alumni organization of the former Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, also expressed support for the foundation in a statement from William Blair Scott Jr. The school operated at Taliesin West in Scottsdale and Taliesin in Wisconsin before closing in 2020.
The Fellows have no role in the properties’ daily operations and no knowledge of the specific circumstances, Scott said.
“We have the utmost confidence in the management and staff with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation,” Scott said.
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Rey Covarrubias Jr. is a reporter for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Email him at: rcovarrubias@azcentral.com, and connect with him on Instagram, Threads, Bluesky and X (formerly Twitter) at @ReyCJrAZ.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Police reveal what struck and killed visitor at Taliesin West
