The body of Agostina Vega, 14, was found on Saturday, May 31, in an open field in the Ampliación Ferreyra neighborhood of Córdoba, a week after the teenager disappeared from her home in the General Mosconi neighborhood. The case, which began as an investigation for unlawful deprivation of liberty, turned into homicide. There is only one detainee. These are the protagonists of the case that shocked the country.
Agostina Vega
The victim was 14 years old and lived in the General Mosconi neighborhood of the city of Córdoba. On Saturday, May 23, at 10:30 p.m., he left his house under the pretext of going to his grandfather’s delicatessen, a few meters from his home. It never arrived. Instead, he took a bus to Claudio Barrelier’s house, in the Cofico neighborhood. She told her friends that she was going to surprise her mother with the help of her “boyfriend.” Security cameras show her entering that home. He didn’t come out alive. His remains were found seven days later, about 17 kilometers from the main suspect’s home.
Claudio Barrelier
The only one arrested in the case. Former partner of Agostina’s mother, he maintained a bond of friendship with her after the separation. He was the last person registered with the teenager alive. From the beginning of the case, his statements were contradictory: first he denied having seen the minor, then he introduced the version of a red car that the cameras did not record, then he stated that the girl who appeared in the video was his own daughter, and finally — on the Friday before the body was found — he acknowledged that it was Agostina.
He has a record of unlawful deprivation of liberty qualified in the context of gender violence. He was detained for 20 days in May 2025 and was released on bail. He worked in the Municipality of Córdoba, belonged to the Los Ranchos faction of the Instituto Atlético Central Córdoba fans and was active in Peronism. The investigation determined that he drove a black Ford Ka—borrowed by his lover—to the area where the victim’s remains appeared, on holiday Monday, May 25. The telephone antennas place it in that sector between 11:45 and 12:15.
Melisa Heredia
Agostina’s mother. She had a romantic relationship with Barrelier and maintained the relationship with him after the breakup. The same day his daughter disappeared, he had participated with the suspect in an amateur soccer game and at the birthday of a mutual friend. In the early hours of Sunday, worried about Agostina’s absence, she wrote to Barrelier: “What did the agog ask of you today (..) That she asked for your number.” He responded that the minor had asked him to take her to a friend’s house, and that she was not mobile. Before her daughter’s remains were found, Heredia was hospitalized for dehydration and was in intensive care.
Gabriel Vega
Agostina’s father, a former police officer. When her daughter disappeared, she was in Merlo, San Luis. He arrived in Córdoba two days later and became actively involved in the investigation. He met with Barrelier before his arrest and recorded the meeting. “I was hand in hand with him and recorded it. There is evidence of everything he says. They are quite complicated things,” he declared. He was in the clearing of Ampliación Ferreyra when they found the remains. He criticized the mother’s environment, with whom he does not have a good relationship.
Loneliness
Barrelier’s lover. His name was mentioned by Melisa Heredia in the case, although for the moment he appears only as a witness. The prosecution is investigating their possible connection. It was she who lent Barrelier the black Ford Ka that, according to the investigation, would have been used to transport Agostina’s remains to the open field where they appeared. “I want them to investigate that woman. She manages it a lot. She is Claudio’s lover. I don’t know her last name,” Heredia declared.
Raul Garzon
The prosecutor in charge of the investigation. He has experience in high-impact cases: he led the investigation into the death of babies at the Maternal Neonatal Hospital in Córdoba, which ended with the conviction of nurse Brenda Agüero. In the Vega case, he faced questions about the delay in activating the Sofia Alert. On Friday he publicly acknowledged that the search included the possibility of finding the minor “lifeless.” On Saturday, in a tense press conference, he confirmed the identity of the body found and announced that the cover would change from unlawful deprivation of liberty to homicide.
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