Three new arrests including a commissioner and a constable in the Lone case | Two cars identified by the scent of the missing child in Corrientes
There was a complete twist in the case of the missing child in Corrientes: an arrest warrant was issued for a couple who were present at lunchtime at the place where the boy set out in search of oranges.
When the child was reported missing and the police arrived, the couple stayed for a while and Commissioner Maciel authorized them to leave because he had a medical shift: the Commissioner is the third suspect of some kind of cover-up, considering that he should have not allowed these two people to leave. The logical thing would be that they continue to help look for the child.
The great news is that these two people – a man and a woman whose last names were Perez and Calabay – left in a red Ford K where smell tests conducted with police dogs indicated with 100 percent certainty that Lone Pena was there. Furthermore, the tests show that the child was alive at the time, as these dogs recognize the same scents. Lone’s odorous remains were found in a white Ford Ranger truck – also owned by the couple.
Therefore, the first three detainees would have nothing to do with it and the main suspects would become this couple, who would have kidnapped him for unknown purposes and moved to the city of Corrientes, as shown by security cameras. Commissioner Maciel, from the city of 9 de Julio, has also been arrested.
There is a suspicion that there may be a tip-off within the family environment. The mother said – upon learning of the disappearance – “They took him away.”
This turn coincides with what happened this Friday, when the federal judge of Goya, in the province of Corrientes, opened a new investigation into the disappearance, looking into the possibility that he had been kidnapped, not that he had been lost in the Corrientes region.
The investigation runs parallel to the investigation that the provincial judge continues regarding “abandonment of the person” against the three original detainees. This parallel case was announced due to the strengthening of the hypothesis that the crime is “human trafficking”, which is federal in nature.
In the past few hours, the anti-smuggling fiscal unit headed by Alejandra Mangano was already informally working on investigative measures in search of the debt. As the hypothesis of a kidnapping gained strength, a case was opened in the federal justice system, led by judge Cristina Pozar Penzo and federal prosecutor Flavio Ferrini.
So far the only “clue” that led to the hypothesis of a kidnapping was that eight days after the incident, the little boy did not appear, despite searches conducted in the area where he was last seen and for several kilometers around.
The focus began to change after two of the first three detainees testified. In the first instance, Monica Milapi did so and her lawyer assured that her testimony would “change the angle of the investigation.” A few minutes later, Antonio Benítez, the minor’s uncle, did so and revealed the basic elements.
According to the letter that Benítez sent to the prosecutor Guillermo Barri de Goya as a statement, it appears that the lunch on Thursday, June 13, passed without problems and first he went alone in search of oranges and a few minutes later, Daniel Ramírez, Mónica Milpi and the children
He also detailed that he had peeled an orange from Lone and his son Joaquin at the time when Daniel Ramírez received a call and his partner came to them to listen to Milpi. The detainee explained that after a while he left and a few minutes later the other adults did the same with the minors. According to Benítez, it was halfway through when a girl turned around and said that Lone was missing, which is why everyone returned to the orange tree, but the little child was no longer there.
At that time, Benítez called his wife Laudelina and asked her if Lón was at Catalina, his grandmother’s house, but the answer was negative. With this news, both Laudelina and José, the father of the 5-year-old boy, joined the group to look for him. Benítez stressed that all the people he was with during that period could confirm his statements.
Jorge Monti, a lawyer for the originally detained couple, said that his clients had “never refused to testify”, but that there was a suggestion that it was their constitutional right: “There was no agreement to remain silent, far from it. During these days there were procedural events, the prosecutor’s office is far away in Goiás, and that is why the testimony was delayed.” and he added that “On Thursday I went to the women’s police station where Milpi is detained, I spoke to her and she informed me that she was going to make declarations and answer questions, I did not want to oppose it because it is an excellent way to defend herself.”
The lawyer explained that the couple he is defending did not know Lone and that on the day of her disappearance, it was the first time they had seen her. And he said something very important: “The minor was not lost. When they told the mother that they could not find her, her first reaction was ‘they took her away.’
After a 12,000-hectare search with night vision drones, tactical divers, dogs, the Buenos Aires and Chaco police and the Buenos Aires Penitentiary Service, the only thing that has appeared is the child’s shoe. Three detainees have been detained only to abandon the man: so far nothing other than negligence is suspected.
Lone was discovered by chance without any concrete evidence as a possible human trafficker for exploitation: this is what the protocol indicated. If he had been murdered or had been in an accident, the most logical thing would have been that the body would have appeared.