Don Gardel, the farmer arrested for killing his pawn and throwing him in a well

Ernesto Azarkevich

02/15/2021 10:39 AM

• Clarín.com

• Police

Updated 02/15/2021 10:39 AM

A rural peon who had been missing since January 4 was found murdered and buried in a water well almost 30 meters deep.

Due to the fact, his last employer was arrested, a farmer who the victim had planned to initiate a labor lawsuit for the five years he worked without being registered.

All roads led to Juan Gardel, the producer who is now imprisoned in a police station in the missionary city of San Vicente, 200 kilometers from Posadas.

The remains of Marcelo Antúnez Sequeira, 33, were found on a property owned by Gardel's son-in-law, several kilometers from the place where the young man had to report to work again.

The Missions Police detailed that on Saturday, the San Vicente Investigating Judge, Gerardo Casco, ordered the search and requisition of the property of "Don Gardel", as he is known, in an area known as Picada Zulma.

In that place they found the laborer's identity document and the clothes he was wearing the day he reported to work.

From there, the police went to Picada El Progreso, where they soon found Antúnez's body, which had been dumped into a disused water well.

The well was covered with dirt and branches, but that did not prevent the smell of the corpse from flooding the place.

Marcelo Antúnez Sequeira.

With the collaboration of the volunteer firefighters of San Vicente, the remains of the pawn were extracted.

His father recognized him because Marcelo was missing a finger and remains of a rustic tattoo that he wore on his body were also found.

Antonio (54), Marcelo's father, got tired of pointing out Gardel as responsible for the disappearance.

His suspicions were not whimsical: his son had had some crossroads with his employer because he

paid very little for the hard work he sent to do on his farm

.

That had led to the employment relationship being severed after five years and the laborer had told his father that he was considering filing a labor lawsuit.

After the disappearance, another version reached Antonio: Gardel blamed his son for the disappearance of two gas cylinders and a lawn mower that he had on the farm.

The well where the body of Marcelo Antúnez Sequeira was found, in Misiones.

Photo La Voz de Misiones.

In an interview with

La Voz de Misiones

, the man said that on December 23 Gardel arrived at his house and after talking with Marcelo they agreed that he would go back to work from January 4.

“That day he got up early, fed a dog and the chickens and after 6 o'clock he went to Gardel's farm.

Some people saw him when he was going there ”, said the man.

That day, Marcelo Antúnez Sequeira mysteriously disappeared.

Gardel denied the employment relationship with the young worker.

He said that he had not seen him for several months and that Marcelo had told him that he was being paid more to transport marijuana.

The farmer even said that the young man was an addict.

And he supported the hypothesis that he had drowned in the Uruguay River while crossing drugs to Brazil.

Antonio Antúnez Sequeira, father of the peon murdered in Misiones.

Forensic doctors established that Marcelo was beaten to death before being thrown into the well.

Now investigators are trying to establish where the crime occurred and if other people were involved.

EMJ