“How did Lucio not give me a clue, a sign? It gives me impotence and suffering, because I was in there with him but he was happy, he played with us and he didn’t give us any sign at all,” Silvia Gómez lamented about that last meeting in which he said that he saw his grandson between “15 and 20 minutes in the house of his murderers.”
“In July I traveled from (General) Pico to Santa Rosa for an appointment at the doctor and my daughter took me to the house where Lucio lived. After sending him many messages to let me see him, the mother told us to go home,” the boy’s grandmother told Télam.
The visit took place in the house located at 2300 Allan Kardec street, the same one where a little more than four months later Lucio was beaten to death, for which his mother, Magdalena Espósito Valenti, is being held and is being put on trial. , and his partner, Abigaíl Páez.
“When we went, the mother was not there, the other murderer was there, the one who let us in. We couldn’t take him anywhere, because he told us he was congested and couldn’t get out. They spent fifteen or twenty minutes in the house, while Páez gave laps and prepare lunch,” said Gómez.
“In that time, Lucio was happy, he showed us the gifts they had given him for his birthday, which had been July 5. We played with his toys, he seemed like a happy child. Why didn’t he tell us anything? Why didn’t he give us a clue?” the woman wailed.
“He showed us the toys, he was happy and I thanked this murderer for letting us see him. The baby did not have any congestion, he did not have the flu, today it is clear that they did not want the baby to be alone with us outside,” he considered. the grandmother assuming that the mother and the couple feared that Lucio could tell something about the mistreatment he received.
“If we had seen something, if we had asked, if we had found out, Lucio could be alive,” he lamented again.
Gómez explained that generally, because they lived in different cities in La Pampa, she and her husband, Ramón, saw Lucio through video calls.
“Before the trip to Santa Rosa, Lucio was at home for Father’s Day. My son, Christian, brought it and it was the best gift for Ramón,” he said, after which he reflected: “There we did not understand what was happening, with us it was all happiness”.
Facing the verdict for the two defendants, which will be announced by reading in the Santa Rosa Courts on Thursday, February 2, Silvia said that she and her family are “anxious, expectant and mobilized, waiting for the judges to give them the maximum sentence to these murderers”.
In addition, he stated that he wants them to be separated and not remain housed in the same San Luis prison where they are now: “For me they are on vacation, they were all this year and two months together.”
The victim’s grandmother also referred to other people who had to do with what happened to her grandson, maintaining that “there was a chain of responsibilities, that of the judge (Ana Clara) Pérez Ballester, who gave him custody without reviewing the file, without considering that (the mother) went backpacking for two years and abandoned her son”.
“There was no follow-up. They did not find out how Lucio was going to be. Where he was going to live. He did nothing. In education they did not see any drawing where the baby was screaming for help. The director told us that Lucio was a boy who ran, that joined the game, but in the audience, when we saw the drawings, Lucio asked for help,” he asserted.
Regarding medical and police responsibilities, Gómez said: “In (the) Health area he entered five times in almost three months. With a button you can know the history of the creature and you can attract attention. In Security those who went for the calls , they just hit their hands and then said nothing was wrong.”
“They should have found out more,” he questioned. And, she added: “I would have loved if the neighbor who was afraid, she would have communicated with us, that they would tell us that she was not having a good time, everyone turned their backs on Lucio.”
Finally, Silvia announced that next Thursday people from different towns in La Pampa and other provinces, such as Córdoba, Mendoza and Santa Fe, will travel to Santa Rosa to accompany them on Thursday of the verdict.
Lucio was murdered on November 26, 2021 in the house where he lived with his mother and her partner, who took him to the Santa Rosa hospital without vital signs. Both women have since been detained and face charges of qualified homicide and outrageous sexual abuse.
