Wednesday, January 11, 2023 | 5:00 p.m.
A little over a month ago, the life of Liliana González took an unexpected turn, so much so that she went from full happiness to absolute sadness and a feeling of constant anguish that not only affects her, but also affects her children. : Micah (4) and Leonel (14).
She is the mother (and siblings) of Gisela Báez, the 19-year-old student from Panambí who died on December 27 of last year as a result of the serious injuries she suffered when she was run over at the exit of her graduation party (on December 3 December) by the adolescent Mateo Román E. (17), who was driving drunk and speeding his father’s vehicle on the Provincial Coastal Route Two.
“Your absence hurts us too much,” Liliana summed up with a broken voice. “She was a very present, attentive, affectionate daughter, an example for her siblings. She was involved in every decision we made at home, my right hand in every way. Beyond being a daughter, she was also my friend and confidante. We were so close that I began to miss her since she told me about her desire to go to study or work to fulfill her dreams. I never imagined having her away, that they killed her hurts me a lot. I come to believe that I can’t stand it.”
According to the experts, the teenager ran over the motorcycle on which Gisela was returning home with her boyfriend, Braian Patiño. It was shortly before 6 in the morning in a stretch of curves and slopes -about 6 kilometers from the junction with Provincial Highway 5- and since the impact was from behind and at high speed, the student, who was accompanying her, took the worst part. She suffered a traumatic amputation of her left leg, multiple traumas and almost bled to death waiting for the ambulance, which according to witnesses took more than an hour to arrive.
Her condition was very serious and on the same Saturday afternoon she was urgently transferred from the Samic de Oberá hospital to the Madariaga de Posadas hospital, where the doctors operated on her several times for three weeks but the damage ended up being irreversible for the young woman. She died on December 27.
Giselle’s happiness
“All year we prepare for that day, very important to her,” Liliana recalled in relation to the graduation party at the Provincial School of Technical Education 41 where her daughter finished her secondary studies. It was the last moment of happiness shared with the family, without imagining that hours later the minor at the wheel would cause a tragedy.
“I was happy to have completed that cycle and to materialize what he told me with such enthusiasm, which was to continue studying to be better, to improve himself, he longed for his personal growth,” Liliana recalled with tears in her eyes and in this context she recalled that “that Friday (prior to the fatal accident) we accompanied her to the hairdresser’s, she was a little nervous but at the same time very happy because she had passed all the subjects with good grades. I told her that although we are a humble family, she had my full support and that of his brothers as to what he decided to continue studying.
“I’m not going to forget how beautiful she was at the party, with her dream dress, she was a princess. If I had known that it would be the last time I would see her alive, I would put myself in her place. I’d rather die, no her and I feel bad for not having been able to save her,” he said, looking at a portrait in which his smiling daughter is seen at the 15-year-old party.
hours before the disaster
The parent added that in the middle of the event, at 3:30 in the morning, she returned home with Micah and Leonel: “She accompanied us out of the room, I still remember her smile. She took a selfie with her little brothers, hugged them , he gave me a kiss on the forehead and said that he was going to stay a while longer with his friends and that type 5 would return on the motorcycle with his boyfriend”.
“I waited up until 6 but she didn’t come, I was already quite worried when Patiño’s father came to tell them that they had both suffered an accident. I didn’t think it was that serious but at the Oberá hospital, when I saw her, I despaired to see the way this criminal left her,” lamented Liliana.
Although Gisela showed a slight improvement at the Madariaga hospital after three weeks in intensive care and several surgeries, medical efforts were not enough to save her life due to her extremely serious condition. “I talked to her constantly, I told her about her little brothers and I felt that she was squeezing her hand, but from one hour to the next she died. At that moment my life went with her,” she admitted.
And now that?
Liliana bears the pain to the surface, just like Gisela’s brothers. She said that she had to close her daughter’s room to appease the anguish of the boys who are constantly looking for her in the memories that are kept, and also her own, because she unconsciously searches for her despite knowing that she will never again will see her again
In the midst of all this, he must also deal with the presence in the town of the minor who killed his daughter, and the parents, to whom he places an enormous burden of responsibility for having delivered the car to the son, which as a result of irresponsibility ended up being a deadly weapon “Nobody from that family came up to talk to me and I don’t know if it can be said that they are people. They showed absolute contempt for life, everyone, lack of empathy for our suffering, for what they did to my daughter and I say they did because the parents are very guilty for having given the car to their son who is a drunk and here that is not new”.
The minor in command of the car (Volkswagen Gol) barely suffered a few scratches, left the passenger compartment by his own means and was rescued by a relative who was driving behind, in another vehicle, leaving the injured behind. According to the Police it was to take him to the doctor but the relatives of the victims assure that in reality “they helped him to escape and with that reduce the level of alcohol that he had in his blood.”
The force had reported that he had “ethylic breath” and the level of alcohol he had in his blood, detected in the blood test, was not disclosed in court. Beyond that, at least one witness said that prior to the moment of impact, the occupants of both vehicles were running in a tailspin, that even he had to throw himself on the shoulder to avoid being run over. His testimony is key.
“Not only did he run them over from behind driving drunk and speeding, but his relatives who came in another vehicle took him out of the car and escaped from the place, leaving the boys lying in a very serious condition and without attention. They did not even call the Police , they abandoned them, so I think that with all this evidence, justice has to do something because the fact of being a minor does not exempt him from the murder he committed. He killed my daughter. Does that mean nothing to justice?” Liliana questioned. , hurt by the fact that the case continues its judicial course without detainees.
“They have plenty of evidence”
In this sense, the parent observed that “they have plenty of evidence, I don’t understand why this murderer behind the wheel and his parents continue with their normal life, the minor is released, playing soccer, going dancing with friends,” and questioned the judge who understands the cause: “Our family what? My daughter’s life what? The dreams that were taken from her what? Does the person who removed him from the scene have no responsibility? Isn’t that a cover-up? If the minor He can’t go to jail, so who is responsible for the murder of my daughter? Who pays the consequences? I’m afraid that this is a new unpunished case.”
“I just want justice to be done. I lost my daughter in the worst way, all her plans ended in the trash because of an irresponsible man who also killed those who remained. As a mother, my greatest desire was to see her well, happy, achieving her goals, but they took her from me and I miss her so much, I feel her absence and I think that at this moment I can do no more than fight so that her death is nothing. I am determined to insist until the murderer or whoever is responsible pay, because there are no guarantees that they will not kill another person again if they leave everything like this now,” he said.
“The pain I have is indescribable, to imagine that I will never feel her hug again, the kisses she gave me on the forehead, it breaks my soul and although sometimes I think I will not be able to bear it, for her I will find a way to keep myself strong. One way or another, that family is going to have to pay for Gisela’s crime. I will never forgive them, but beyond that I hope that the judge will put himself in my place and act accordingly. Like me, the Society is also waiting for answers,” warned Liliana.
