In the last hours, the Corrientes Police arrested Arturo “Antoñito” Villalba, the main accused of the double femicide of Marisel Isondú Fernández and her little sister Aitana.
The brutal event, which is being investigated in the context of an alleged sexual attack, occurred on Tuesday in a house in Parada Acuña in Colonia Libertad. Since then, the troops deployed a major search operation to find the suspect.
After almost a week, during searches in rural areas, GTO capital personnel located an abandoned box and discovered that Villalba was hiding there. After the arrest, he had to be transferred to the Curuzú Cuatiá Hospital, where he was admitted under police custody due to dehydration, according to local media.
The spokesmen highlighted that since the day of the double femicide the Police “deployed different search and search tasks in the area to find this person.” The main hypothesis was that he could be hiding in the surrounding mountains.
More than 200 troops from different areas that are based in the southern part of the province participated in the operation, as well as different units of Regional Unit 3 of Curuzú Cuatiá, Regional Unit 5 of Libres and the Rural and Islands Police.
The case is being handled by the deputy prosecutor of the Fiscal Unit for Concrete Investigations (UFIC) of Monte Caseros, Federico Gutiérrez.
The double femicide of Marisel and Aitana
According to the first examinations, Marisel’s body had two fatal stab wounds and blows consistent with machetes on her forearms, which could be an indication that she tried to defend herself from her attacker.
For her part, the girl could have been strangled with the cloth belt of her overalls and was the first victim, since that garment did not have blood stains, unlike the rest of the house.
During the raid, a knife, three cell phones and some bloody slippers were found that were on the bed where the girl’s body was also found, a source close to the investigation told Radio Dos.
Meanwhile, about 15 meters from the house, the police found a fallen chair, a jacket and a cut cable, which means they assume that the accused tried to take his own life but without success.
The bodies of the victims were found by the older sister’s partner when she returned from work. Precisely, her testimony was also key to identifying the main suspect in the case.
According to Miguel Zárate, before entering the home he saw Villalba, an acquaintance of his whom he had offered accommodation days ago because he did not have a permanent home, running out of the place, with a knife in his hand.
Only when he entered his house did Zárate understand the reason for his friend’s escape. Marisel’s body was lying on the floor in the room with several defensive wounds on her arms and two stab wounds in the chest, which would have been the cause of her death, and Aitana was lifeless on the bed. (Source: TN – Cover image: courtesy of Los Primeros)
