Equality analyzes the murder of the child in Navarra as a possible case of vicarious violence

The autopsies indicate that Txetxo Apestegui jumped into the void hugging his 7-year-old son Mateo

The Government Delegation against Gender Violence collect data from murder of the 7-year-old boy Mateo Apestegui in the Sierra de Urbasawhose body was found next to that of his father, Txetxo Apestegui Fernándezand which is already under investigation as a possible vicarious violence case.

The institution, dependent on the Ministry of Equalityhas indicated that if the sexist nature of this crime is confirmed, He would be the second minor killed by his father for vicarious violence in 2023 and number 50 since statistics began to be compiled in 2013.

The lifeless body of the 7-year-old boy He was found this Tuesday by the Civil Guard next to the body of his father, 54 years old, in a difficult-to-access area of ​​the Urbasa mountain range.

On Monday, the child’s mother reported his disappearance at the Citizen Services Office of the Civil Guard in the town of Estella-Lizarra, after he went to pick up the minor at school and was told there that he had not shown up.

This is how it began search device at the time of the complaint. From the COS Service Operational Center of the Civil Guard, support was requested from 112, the Community Firefighters, the Regional Police and Environmental Daycare agents to collaborate in the search and location operations.

The device was deployed in the Urbasa Zone, locating the man’s vehicle in an area close to the Pilate’s balconywhich is why the search for that place was intensified.

Sources of the Civil Guardwhich is investigating the case as possible vicarious violence, have specified that the mother and father of the minor They had separated about two and a half years ago. and the ex-husband handled this situation “badly.” Apparently, the last news the woman had from them was a congratulatory call for her birthday.

Mourning on Estaella land

The towns of Estella and Igúzquiza They remain shocked and attentive to news about the circumstances of the event. Stupor and sadness They have spread through the towns of Estella, where the boy was studying and his mother runs a business, and Igúzquiza, where the deceased man lived. Both towns declared three days of mourning, during which the flags of the Town Hall fly at half-mast.

The boy’s funeral will take place this afternoon in Estella, while in the classrooms of the Lizarra ikastola, where he studied, different messages appropriate to the age of the classmates have been conveyed today, who will also be able to attend a private event. at the pediment this afternoon.

Attempt in Fitero

It is worth remembering that, on July 20, a 29-year-old woman He tried to kill his three children, ages 3, 5, and 9, in Fitero. The mother provided to the three minor hydrochloric acid in liquid form (salfumán), and then caused injuries with a kitchen knife about 17 centimeters of leaf. The woman was in company of his three children in the family home. At around 5 o’clock, her husband went to work in Hernani (Guipúzcoa). Around 8:45, she called him with the purpose of announcing that he was going to take “etching” because they were “watching” her” and people talked about her when they saw her. The husband did not give importance to these words, considering that his wife was joking. At one point, between 8:45 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., “with the intention of ending his life and that of his three children,” he gave them salfumán, which they ingested, “and then made several incisions on their bodies with a kitchen knife. about 17 centimeters of metal sheet.”

Two of the children managed to escape and located relatives who lived very close to raise the alarm. As a result of his mother’s actions, the three minors had to be hospitalized due to various consequences, including burns in the mouth and pharynx due to ingestion of the aforementioned acid.

The judge ordered his imprisonment. communicated and no bail for the woman, iadmitted In the first moment at the University Hospital of Navarrain Pamplona, ​​due to the injuries that were inflictedgiven that He ingested “a significant amount of that same corrosive substance and injured himself with a knife, in the abdomen.”

The head of the Court of First Instance and Instruction number 1 of Tudela charged three crimes of attempted homicide. In this sense, the crime of intentional homicide in article 138 of the Penal Code provides for penalties that range between ten and fifteen years in prison, for which the person under investigation could be imposed, given the attempt, between five and ten years in prison, for each of them, as the judge explained.

Infanticide in Mutilva in 2008

While the count of cases of vicarious violence started in 2013, Navarre He had suffered such an event years before. The Provincial Court of Navarra condemned in 2010 to 38 years in prison to a woman who murdered two of her children and tried to kill the other two on February 5, 2008 in Mutilva Alta. The two deceased children were 3 and 7 years old, and the two who survived were 12 and 14. The raid on the house by the police and emergency services prevented these deaths and ruined the plan hatched by the woman, who was trying to remove herself. life.

At the time the events occurred, the parents of the four children They were in the process of divorcing.. According to the prosecutor, the mother believed that “the court was going to opt for shared guard and custody and that consequently, the alimony that was going to be established would be insufficient to support her children, so she decided to end her life.” of these and his own”.

A week before the events, the woman gathered several boxes of a medicine that his own doctor had offered him to facilitate sleep. The woman decided to commit the acts on February 5, a non-school day for the children and on which she knew that they would not get up early, so she prepared 30 pills for the eldest children, 20 for the third and 5 for the youngest, which they He gave the first three in a mixture with orange juice and the little one in the bottle.

The text from the Prosecutor’s Office relates that after taking the pills the children began to have “strange behavior” with double visions and spontaneous laughter and they went to sleep, the two oldest to their respective rooms and the two youngest with her. However, hours later and at dawn, the woman woke up and found that her little children were alive, so she grabbed a cushion and a pillow, with which she pressed the children’s heads, “until certain of his death“.

Urbasa crime

The spokesperson for the Government of Navarra, Amparo Lopezexplained that “certain circumstances remain to be clarified” in which the death of the father and the child occurred in Urbasa.

When asked at a press conference about a possible case of “vicarious violence“, the spokesperson has indicated that the investigation of the event is being carried out by the Civil Guard and an autopsy is being carried out on the bodies to try to elucidate the circumstances of the death of these two people.

In any case, he has asked to have “a lot of sensitivity in such a dramatic circumstance” as this one.

López has conveyed the condolences of the Government of Navarra to the family and surroundings of the deceased and has offered all the support of the Executive in “such a painful situation.”

“Are moments especially difficult for the family“and public resources, he pointed out, have from the first moment been oriented towards the search for the missing together with the State Security Forces.

Now, he said, all the necessary psychological support is being provided, both to the minor’s classmates in the ikastola and to his family.

In addition, the Navarro Institute for Equality works in collaboration with the Estella City Council analyzing the circumstances of the event.