Thursday, January 5, 2023 | 2:00 p.m.
The Investigating Judge Two of Oberá, Horacio Alarcón, received the autopsy report performed on the corpse of Ramona Cardozo (61) who was alive while alive, a study that confirmed that the retiree suffered a violent death.
In this way, the Justice ratified the homicide hypothesis that was raised from the outset as a result of the circumstances of the event and the way in which the body was found, on December 19 in a vacant lot in the Mate Rojo neighborhood, in Oberá, on national route 14.
Likewise, forensics took biological samples to determine if the victim was sexually abused, which could not be confirmed or ruled out in the physical examination due to the advanced state of decomposition in which the corpse was found.
As El Territorio found out, Cardozo’s body had multiple injuries, including defensive ones, a clear indication that he fought for his life.
Consequently, once the violent death is confirmed, the situation of the detainees is complicated.
Although two young people were initially detained, as the investigation progressed, four people were captured, according to a source in the case.
“Of the four, two are the most compromised and the others would have been at the scene and did not report what happened. Now the biochemical studies remain to determine if the victim was raped,” the spokesperson remarked.
From the beginning, the hypothesis of sexual abuse gained strength, since the body of the retiree was found without clothes.
Cardozo was last seen on Friday, December 16, and her remains were found three days later.
clues
Of the four detainees, the main suspicions point to Matías A. (19) and Damián F. (23), who at the time of the event were on the streets.
Meanwhile, it transpired that the former would suffer from a maturational delay aggravated by alcohol and drug use, while months ago he was the protagonist of a situation that could reveal features of his behavior.
On that occasion, a neighbor on Avenida Italia recorded him having sex with an older woman who appeared to be asleep on public roads.
The images spread through social networks and several users assured that the alleged victim of the abuse would have been the perpetrator’s own mother.
The event went viral and the Police acted ex officio, although there were no legal consequences because the parent did not file a complaint.
It was also learned that Matías A. had no fixed address and it was common to see him drinking alcohol in the company of other people in the area where Cardozo’s body was found.
Precisely, the Police found the main suspects based on the testimony of a woman who declared that on Friday she shared a round of drinks with the victim and those cited at the same place of the crime. Said witness would be the mother of one of the two main suspects.
“They took her by force”
Juan Kowalczuk (31), Cardozo’s son, was dejected by the tragedy and asked for justice, while considering it “impossible” that his mother had joined those involved to drink.
In this context, he mentioned the testimony of the alleged witness who “admitted to having been with my mother until around that time, although uncertainty appears at that point because we do not know how she ended up in that place where she would never go alone.”
“This woman says that they went together and that they were drinking with other people, but that is impossible. On her account she would not go to such a place, so I am sure she was taken by force,” she added.
Neither do the neighbors endorse the statements of the witness summoned by the Police, since the victim was a person who enjoyed a good opinion in the neighborhood.
In this regard, Kowalczuk commented that his mother had recently begun to enjoy her retirement as a housewife and was in charge of her 34-year-old daughter, who suffers from a motor disability.
“She was the one who took care of my sister, gave her the medicines and they were very close,” she said.
For this reason, he remarked that his mother “could never have gone of her own free will” to the place where she was murdered.
“We believe that she went to the center or to a friend’s house, but we never imagined what she was doing in that place,” he said.
request for justice
Cardozo lived in the same Mate Rojo neighborhood, nine blocks from the land where they found his body.
Regarding her disappearance, her son mentioned: “Although we did not live with her, we tried to stay in touch and it caught our attention that she did not show signs over the weekend. We began to investigate and finally reported her disappearance at the Third Police Station.
Among the hypotheses of the crime, it is not ruled out that the day of his disappearance the victim went to the Macro bank teller that is located in the bus terminal, a little more than a block away from where his lifeless body was found.
In this sense, the son acknowledged that “it is one of the versions that appeared, but the reality is that we do not know what he did in those last hours or who he was with. Because if he went to the ATM he was going to return via Asunción avenue, which is illuminated, safe and more direct towards the house”.
And he added: “With this possibility, it does not close that he has moved away to enter Quito street, which is dark, dangerous and it is known that in that wasteland they gather to drink. There are even people from the street who sleep there”.
To confirm or rule out that the victim went through the Terminal ATM, the analysis of the security cameras of the place will be key.
For his part, Kowalczuk stressed that “justice be done and it be determined with certainty what happened, who did that to him and why, and even though they are street people, as they say, go to jail and be convicted.”
“I trust the Justice and that they will be able to solve this murder. I am not going to stop insisting and claiming so that everything is clear and that whoever killed my mother pays the consequences, ”she assured.
