One of the three arrested for the disappearance of Loan Danilo Peña in Corrientes must change lawyers. Is about Bernardino Antonio Benitezthe boy’s uncle who accompanied him to pick oranges with a friendly couple, an excursion from which Loan never returned.
This was confirmed by Guillermo Barry, prosecutor in the case. He assured that Jorge Monti He will continue to serve as defender of Daniel “Fierrito” Ramírez (49), a friend of Bernardino, and his partner, Mónica Millapi (35). All three are accused of the crime of abandonment of person.
“It was minutes ago. “In principle, he will have an official defense until he appoints a new lawyer,” Barry explained this Thursday afternoon.
Loan’s uncle is 37 years old and is a rural worker in the 9 de Julio area, about 150 kilometers south of the city of Corrientes. He is the partner of Laudelina Peña, who was notified by the man that the boy had gone missing last Thursday afternoon.
Benítez has a criminal record of cattle theft. After telling the family that they could not find Loan, they saw him without a shirt, with a naked torso. He got on his motorcycle and left for the town. “He told us that he was going to fill up with gas and look for some flashlights,” said María Victoria, a witness to the first search. Hours later they saw him again, this time wearing a shirt and in a truck.
None of the three detainees want to testify. “They are hiding something,” said Lidia, another of Loan’s aunts, confronted with Laudelina.
According to the official story, the three people now detained – they are serving preventive detention without a deadline – took Loan and five other minors on Thursday, June 13, to a property 600 meters from the grandmother’s house to collect and eat oranges.
“I don’t understand why they went to look for oranges on someone else’s property, if in my house there are oranges, tangerines… It’s strange,” said José Peña, the father of the 5-year-old boy. It was he who took his son on horseback to visit his grandmother, in the Algarrobal area, far from the town of 9 de Julio. After lunch, he took a nap, at which time the other guests left with the minors.
On Wednesday, meanwhile, Monti had presented a brief to Justice pointing out Laudelina and another woman, named Camila Gomez, who was also at lunch. That is why, furthermore, he had said that “five adults and six children” participated in “the excursion.” But, according to his story, the prosecutor responded that the other companions had returned “halfway.”
Where is Loan: why the kidnapping hypothesis is advancing
This same Thursday, meanwhile, prosecutors spoke for the first time of the kidnapping hypothesis as the main one in the investigation into Loan’s disappearance. This line is supported by the reconstruction of the event that they did together with the other minors.
“The abandonment rating,” Barry said of the cover that still has the case, “could change. We never ruled out the possibility that he had been kidnapped. This hypothesis has gained more strength recently.”
In this situation, the Office of the Attorney General for Trafficking and Exploitation of Persons of the Public Ministry of the Nation has already intervened.
In the story of the other boys there were “coincidences of mechanics, schedules and other aspects about the fact that Loan took a different path than the one that led to his grandmother’s house,” prosecutors explained, in a statement they published earlier this Thursday. .
Since last Friday, hundreds of police, gendarmes, soldiers and volunteers have been searching the El Algarrobal area. In all that time they could barely find one of the boy’s sneakers half buried in the mud, in the opposite direction to which he had to walk to return to his grandmother’s house.
For now, investigators have in their possession 1,600 sheets with the result of sweeping cell phone antennas in the area. They also requested an expert report on the phones that were seized from the detainees and their families. They want to know if the antennas were “impacted” by another contact that could have taken the child. A Luminol test will also be carried out on two seized cars that also belong to the suspects who are in pretrial detention.
