The crime of Agostina Vega became one of the most resonant police cases in recent years in the province of Córdoba. The 14-year-old teenager had disappeared on May 23, after leaving her home in the General Mosconi neighborhood with a truck, and for a week she was intensively searched by family, neighbors and security forces. The investigation took a decisive turn when security cameras and different expertise placed the minor in contact with Claudio Barrelier, a former partner of his mother, who ended up being the only one arrested and charged in the case.
The case fell under the purview of prosecutor Raúl Garzón, who maintained from the beginning that Barrelier was the last person who had seen the minor alive. Surveillance camera images showed the teenager entering the suspect’s home in the Cofico neighborhood. Initially, the accused denied any encounter with the young woman and even his defense stated that the person recorded in the videos could be his own daughter. However, with the progress of the investigation and the weight of the evidence, the accused modified his story and ended up acknowledging that the young woman had been at his home.
This weekend, searches carried out in a vacant lot in the Ampliación Ferreyra neighborhood made it possible to find human remains that were linked to the missing teenager. In addition to Barrelier, the file involves people from his environment who were incorporated into the investigation for the loan of vehicles, telephone communications and suspicious movements recorded during the days after the disappearance. The prosecution also does not rule out expanding charges if elements emerge that indicate collaboration or cover-up.
The accused’s file had a police record for a case of unlawful deprivation of liberty in a context of gender violence and he had regained freedom months before. Regarding the latter, an aspect reverberated in the media when it became known that Barrelier is an employee of the Municipality of Córdoba and had participation in political structures linked to local Peronism. In fact, the godfather of militancy in the Justicialist movement is the councilor and lawyer Ricardo Moreno. This fact raised strong questions about judicial controls and also about the municipality for allowing the employee to continue carrying out public activities despite his criminal record.
At first, Moreno’s name appeared because the person who served as defense attorney for the main defendant at the beginning of the case was Jorge Sánchez del Bianco, son-in-law of the Córdoba councilor. In this regard, various opposition sectors demanded public explanations after recordings and statements linked to Barrelier’s employment within municipal structures emerged. Political requests were even announced to investigate responsibilities and promote institutional sanctions.
“All of this is advertising. Professionally it helps me a lot. They know me more than they know me and well, this always has me in the mouths of each of the future clients who are going to come to my studio,” was heard in an audio attributed to Ricardo Moreno, which was leaked on social networks and the media. “I made a kid come to work with a blank certificate of good conduct, he had no criminal record and well, then the kid had a snot, what’s my fault? Just as I made 500 enter the public administration, and well, one out of 500 is within the rules of the game, brother,” he confessed.
The link between Moreno and the alleged femicide, however, had its turning point with what happened in May 2025. According to the judicial investigation, Barrelier was charged with the crime of illegitimate deprivation of liberty after a 20-year-old girl reported that she had been held against her will inside the home at 878 Del Campillo Street, in the Cofico neighborhood, the same address that a year later would be linked to the case for Vega’s femicide.
According to the complaint, the accused took her to the place under different pretexts and, once inside the house, threatened her with a weapon, took her cell phone and forced her to stay in a room. The victim later stated that her hands and feet were tied with adhesive tape and that she managed to escape half-naked to ask the area’s neighbors for help. The episode was noticed by merchants and neighbors of the neighborhood, who assisted the young woman when she ran out of the house. The complaint led to the arrest of Barrelier and a case that included accusations of aggravated unlawful deprivation of liberty and injuries.
However, the accused remained detained for only 20 days. He was later released after paying bail and under a series of conditions imposed by the prosecution, including the obligation to appear periodically before the Court. During that process he was defended by Ricardo Moreno himself. So far, there is no judicial accusation against the Justicialist councilor in the case, but the alleged political connections deepened the public impact of the case.
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