He was a fugitive in Brazil at the time of his disappearance, in later years they never had any searches anymore.

Several collaborators of justice spoke of Bardellino's death. All claimed to have known the circumstances directly from Mario Iovine or by people close to him, but to this day there is no version worthy of being trusted, but doubts were nourished also fueled by sources judged to be reliable. For example, years later, the former director of the military secret services , Cesare Pucci, in the Anti-Mafia commission , said that there was no evidence that he had been killed and that until his body had been found, he should be considered alive .