There was no third party intervention. The court determined that Eduardo Ariel Menchi, alias “Chispa”, designated as custodian of the false lawyer Marcelo D’Alessio, was in principle a suicide. This is corroborated by the analysis of the crime scene, the autopsy, the gunpowder in his hands, the testimony of the witnesses and the recorded messages that he left his ex-partner and his children minutes before his death. The tenor of those messages, to which he agreed infobae, show a man emotionally collapsed because his wife had abandoned him hours before. Menchi understood that there was no other way out than to shoot himself in the head in the bathroom of his apartment, on January 18, the anniversary of the death of the federal prosecutor. Alberto Nisman.
The alerts were turned on by who the deceased was. Not only in the investigative prosecutor’s office itself, in charge of Edgar Orfila, who had to intervene when the police arrived at the scene. Also from the Federal Oral Court 8, which must carry out the trial against D’Alessio along with two former Buenos Aires police officers, a former spy and a prosecutor, among others accused of illicit association, extortion and money laundering. Menchi, who was a witness in the case of the Triple Crime of General Rodríguez, was one of those involved to sit on the bench.
That was why, as revealed infobae last February, the judge Sabrina Namerin charge of the TOF in this debate, reported the death of Menchi in this case and stressed that it is the second death of a defendant in the framework of this investigation: Carlos Linania former Customs employee who was also indicted in the D’Alessio case, appeared dead in his apartment on Soler Street at 6000 in September 2021. According to expert reports, he also committed suicide by inhaling gas. Judge Namer noted that “At the beginning of this investigation, another death occurred in equally doubtful circumstances: that of Natacha Jaitt”.
It may interest you: D’Alessio case: about to go to trial, one of the defendants appeared with a shot to the head in the bathroom of his home
What could be reconstructed from de Menchi’s last hours? Ana, his partner, had left him and had gone to take refuge in her family’s house in Misiones. “Spark” she kept sending him messages. He told her to come back from her, that he loved her, that he couldn’t live without her. On January 17, Ana received a call. They spoke without fighting. They agreed to meet. They were going to coordinate the visits and the food quota. But after that talk, the young woman began to receive videos. In the messages, he said goodbye to his eldest children, also to their baby. It didn’t seem strange to her. She had already said several times that she was going to take her life.
On January 18, she called him many times, as they had agreed. But Menchi did not answer him. He wasn’t surprised either. Such behaviors were common in his ex-partner, he told investigators. On January 19, she decided to go to the apartment on Tagle Street. It was 8 a.m.
When he entered with his key, he saw everything in order, the windows open, the air conditioning on. The bathroom light was on. He walked a few steps. She saw a bullet on the ground. She was afraid and immediately left the house. He went to a police station to re-enter, but with a SAME policeman and doctors. They told him that Menchi was dead.
When testifying in the case, the woman explained that her partner had no health problems, but that since May 2022 he was “weird, depressed.” That is why their fights had also increased. She had told him that she should go to a psychologist, but Menchi flatly refused. The relationship between them had entered a crisis two years ago: continuous fights, daily threats; her, wanting to leave him, he, telling her that she was going to commit suicide if she did, revealed to infobae the sources consulted.
Prosecutor Orfila also called Elías Acosta, the first officer who entered the apartment along with two witnesses, to testify. In the bathroom, a man was lying in the bathtub, face up, with his legs semi-flexed. On the right temple was the impact of the shot. The weapon had been resting on the right material of his abdomen. It was a Glock 22 that was registered to Menchi. And on the ground, the pod served.
SAME doctor Carina Minasi confirmed the death at 12:06 on January 19. The time of death was estimated between 15 and 18 hours before analyzing the body. The City Police Criminal Unit arrived at the scene. “From the inspection carried out, no signs of damage to accesses or apparent crime in the home were observed.”, he concluded.
The report also detailed: “They do not show signs of defense on the cadaverous surface. The examination established that there were “particles of fused lead, barium and antimony, characteristics of gunshot residue” on the hands and forearms and also on the forehead. This reinforces the theory that It was Menchi himself who handled the weapon before activating it.
The cause also added the videos that Menchi sent to Ana. There are five video files where the former custodian, visibly sensitized, speaking in front of the camera that is filming him. Four were for Ana. The last one was for her son. She asked for forgiveness. And she told her partner that she wanted them to be happy. That this was the only way. She was wearing the same short-sleeved shirt with which her body was found.
“When the time has come to evaluate the records, I warn you that At the moment, there is no direct or indirect intervention of third parties who may have intervened in the resulting death of whoever Eduardo Ariel Menchi was alive.”sustained the prosecutor Orfila before the judge William Ronco, in charge of the criminal and correctional court 22. In the opinion to which infobaeHowever, the Public Prosecutor’s Office official pointed out that “toxicological, histopathological and forensic genetic studies have been ordered, tending to provide a complete picture of the fact under study” and therefore the case will remain awaiting those proceedings.
The prosecutor, however, ordered something else: he asked Judge Rongo to order the investigation of whereabouts and summons of Menchi’s ex-partner, “in order for him to go to the prosecutor’s office to give testimonial statement” to amplify what he already gave in the first hours after the discovery of the body. It is that, as revealed to infobae the sources consulted, the woman left the country after declaring before the Justice.
With her she took the four-year-old son she had with Menchi. The noted custodian of D’Alessio also He left his cell phone and computer in the possession of his ex-wife. What’s more, in the video where he announced his decision and said goodbye, he reminded him of the key with which he could enter, the sources revealed.
It may interest you: Who was “Chispa” Menchi, the defendant in the D’Alessio case who appeared with a shot to the head
Menchi was one of the protagonists of the D’Alessio case, the case that shook politics in the summer of 2019 and splashed the federal prosecutor Carlos Stornelli, who at that time promoted the Cuadernos mega-cause. It all began with the statement of a businessman, Pedro Etchebest, who assured in the federal court of Dolores that D’Alessio was asking him for money to arrange with Stornelli not to be one of those arrested in that investigation after the confession of a repentant man who never existed. .
while the deputy Elisa Carrió denounced an operation to flip the case notebooks and provided the transcripts of what was the basis of the case known as Operative Puff, the then judge of Dolores Alejo Ramos Padilla moved forward with an investigation and accumulated evidence that led to an indictment against D’Alessio for extortion, money laundering and conspiracy. He also annexed to this other investigations for espionage in the bases BOTH and the complaint for monitoring the relatives of the victims of the ARA San Juanwhere the former president Mauricio Macri He was first prosecuted and later dismissed. By decision of the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation, the case is in Comodoro Py 2002, where the trial for the D’Alessio case should also be held.
D’Alessio -convicted of extortion in another case- He has been in jail for four years. At the beginning of March, the TOF 8 rejected his house arrest. As indicated to infobae judicial sources, the court is concerned about the safety of those involved and witnesses in this investigation. That was exposed after Menchi’s death. That is why the custody of those who were released and the reinforcement of the control of D’Alessio, who is still imprisoned in the Ezeiza prison, was ordered. It is not yet certain when the trial will begin.
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