A man and his partner began to be tried this Monday in
Corrientes
for having murdered and buried a friend in the patio of their house in order to steal 80,000 pesos from his salary.
The Prosecutor's Office announced that they will be charged with the crime of qualified homicide, which provides the only penalty of
life imprisonment
.
Mateo Benjamín Pérez Saucedo
was 22 years old and worked in the bakery of a well-known market in the provincial capital.
On Monday, February 6, 2023, after finishing his work day, the young man mysteriously disappeared and his body was only found a week later, more than a meter deep, in the backyard where
a couple lived with their three small children
.
According to the reconstruction carried out by Justice, that day, at night, Pérez Saucedo left his work at the “La Reina” bakery and butcher shop, on Maipú Avenue, and boarded a bus with Marcelo Alfredo Ruiz Díaz, a colleague. of work.
They both went to the victim's house, where he changed clothes and left his bicycle.
In the same vehicle they continued their journey to the house where he would finally be murdered, but on the way they stopped at the ATM next to a service station located on Maipú and Fragata Libertad.
Pérez Saucedo
withdrew 40,000 pesos
, leaving a similar sum in his account.
Mateo Pérez Saucedo (22) was murdered and buried in the patio of a house in Corrientes.
What promised to be a pleasant evening with his co-worker in the house located on 492 Street, almost Tafí del Valle, in the San Roque Este neighborhood, mutated into a brutal attack.
Investigators concluded that the defendants stole the young man's money and attacked him with beatings.
The autopsy revealed injuries on the forehead, left cheek and left chest area.
Still alive, Mateo was tied with ropes and a gag was placed on him so that he would not ask for help.
For prosecutor Sonia Mesa, Ruiz Díaz
strangled him
with his own hands until he took his life.
That same morning, the couple dug a well almost a meter deep in the backyard of the property.
There they placed the body in the fetal position and lay down to sleep.
A few hours later
they went to an ATM and took out the other 40,000 pesos
that Pérez Saucedo had saved.
The young man's mother was the one who went to the police on Tuesday, worried because her son had not returned and no one knew anything about him.
Investigators soon established through security camera images that Pérez Saucedo had left his job with Ruiz Díaz and they both boarded a gray truck.
The accused only told the police that he had exchanged a few words on the way out but did not know the direction he had taken.
Some
cracks in her account
of him ignited the agents' suspicions.
On February 8, prosecutor Sonia Mesa ordered a raid on the suspect's house.
When they searched it, they found that she had the young man's debit card.
And in the backyard
a recent movement of earth was evident.
It was the prosecutor who ordered an excavation in search of the body, which was almost a meter deep, in a fetal position and with its hands tied.
House arrest for the accused
Pérez Saucedo's friend, 39, and his wife, Johana Yanina Lobato (36), were prosecuted for the crime.
For the prosecutor, the woman participated in the homicide, but since last year
she benefited from house arrest because she has six children
.
On the first day of the trial, three relatives of the victim and a commissioner testified, without providing relevant data for the case.
The trial will continue this Tuesday and it is likely that on Friday the Court made up of Juan José Cochia, Ariel Héctor Gustavo Azcona and Román Facundo Esquivel will issue its verdict.
EMJ