Morena Verri (20), Brenda Del Castillo (20) and Lara Morena Gutiérrez (15) They disappeared on Friday, September 19, when they got into a white van at the La Tablada roundabout, in La Matanza. Five days later, at dawn on Wednesday the 24th, their bodies were found buried in the garden of a house in Villa Vatteone, Florencio Varela, with signs of extreme torture and mutilations. Lara had the five fingers of one hand cut off and an ear amputated, Brenda had multiple puncture wounds and a devastating blow to the head and Morena was beaten to death, with a cervical fracture.
A brutal murder like rarely seen. The victims are victims, although knowing their psychology helps to understand an increasingly worrying phenomenon: how drug trafficking has gained ground in Argentina by co-opting vulnerable young people.
Teenagers. Brenda Loreley Del Castillo She lived in Ciudad Evita with her mother and siblings, and as the mother of a baby she tried to support the home with formal jobs such as serving at a kiosk and selling online, although close friends admit that she sometimes had to resort to informal jobs to make ends meet. His lawyer, Javier Baños, tells NOTICIAS that they have not yet managed to build a clear profile: “I don’t know if they ‘worked together’, I don’t have that information. About the party, I understand, from comments, that they would have been offered $300 each to act as a sort of ‘presence’, but nothing precise. They are all sayings of sayings. Over the days we discovered what her course was, but I understand that Brenda was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Regarding her son Lucca, barely a year old, Baños confirms “that he is in the care of his immediate family” and adds: “Brenda’s parents are very affected. They are humble people. We have not investigated their means or ways of life. We focus attention on what concerns research. It is a case of great repercussion that affects the entire Argentine society. What happened is an aberration. If as a society we are not mobilized by this situation, I understand that we are lost.”
Morena, Brenda’s cousin, shared aspirations, shortcomings and ties with her. On social media, hours before the disappearance, she published a photo inside the van, showing utensils of “Baby Yoda” and “Luigi”, cute little dolls that were nothing more than devices to consume “Tusi”, the drug they supposedly used when they went out together. For its part, Lara, the most effervescent and histrionic of the three, at only 15 years old, lived with her grandmother and according to her neighbors she was sweet and shy.the complete opposite of how he showed himself on networks and when he went out at night.
Television record. Weeks before the crime, Lara starred in a television mobile on Sergio Lapegüe’s program in America, presenting herself under the name “Luna” and claiming to be 20 years old. In that report she confessed that she was a prostitute: “If they pay in dollars, the better,” she said. She also reported abuse during her work: “We are naked, they take photos of us… they throw hot water on us.” This public intervention did nothing more than open a window showing all the rawness of their vulnerability.
After the discovery, leaks circulated about Lara’s forensic report that described atrocious mutilations. However, his mother, Estela, came out to deny them and assured that these versions do not correspond to official reports. He also demanded that the media stop blaming the victims and that the memory of his minor daughter be respected.
The most widespread hypothesis by the prosecution maintains that Brenda had stolen a shipment of cocaine weighing about three kilos, belonging to the drug-criminal gang led by “Pequeño J”, arrested late on Tuesday, which would have triggered revenge. In parallel, the presence of the Tusi drug is inserted into the plot, since the young women would have been summoned to a party with the promise of safe fun, a lure for the horror that awaited them.
That night they boarded the truck with a forged license plate in Bajo Flores, traveled through La Matanza and arrived in Florencio Varela, where they were tortured and part of the torment broadcast live in a closed Instagram chat, before being murdered and buried.
Presumption of guilt. The case allowed the arrest of at least nine people. Among the accused are Magalí Celeste González Guerrero, Andrés Maximiliano Parra, Iara Daniela Ibarra and Miguel Ángel Villanueva Silva (all transferred to the Melchor Romero prison); Víctor Sotacuro Lázaro (alleged support driver, detained in Bolivia); Ariel Giménez, identified as the one who dug the grave; Florencia Ibáñez, Sotacuro’s niece present that night; Matías Agustín Ozorio, accomplice of the gang leader, detained in Peru; and Tony Janzen Valverde Victoriano, alias “Pequeño J”, identified as the intellectual author, also in Peru. Prosecutors charged them with aggravated homicide with premeditation, treachery, cruelty and gender violence, in addition to related crimes such as cover-up.
“I am very struck by how quickly all the arrests were resolved,” a renowned criminal lawyer tells NOTICIAS. who frequents television media but does not sponsor any of the protagonists of the event. “They found the leader of the gang, his right hand man, the one who dug the grave, who they cleaned and even found all the cell phones (which were going to be examined on Friday the 3rd). They even say that they have the video that was broadcast live. It seems like a job done by the North American police. Although it is an aberrant crime that exceeds what is known, this level of efficiency seems suspicious to me. Or they want to close the case because someone higher up accepted that The third lines got out of hand and handed everyone over; Or are the political parties going to start, prior to the elections, to dispute over the resolution of the case,” he reflects.
This triple femicide reveals a dark plot that has unfortunately been entrenched for a long time in the country.. Structural inequality, exploitation and drug trafficking. Three young women deceived, tortured, murdered and buried. Now society demands truth and justice.
