Double crime: Ecuadorian justice will open another investigation – ElSol.com.ar – Diario de Mendoza, Argentina

Three years of double-murdered Mendocinians in Montañita, Ecuador, and the justice of this country will open the third investigation into one of the most serious cases that shocked the province and Latin America.

To date, the crimes of María José Coni (21 years old) and Marina Menegazzo (22 years old) have left several questions unanswered. For the murders, the three defendants were sentenced to 40 years in prison: Segundo Mina Ponce (34), aka "El Negro" as the main perpetrator, and Aurelio Eduardo Rodríguez (39), alias "El Rojo ", as co-author; and, after the second search, José Luis Pérez Castro (31 years old), also author.

But in reality, there were five people who participated in the event, having found two other DNA profiles on the crime scene, so it remains to know who they correspond to.

From Ecuador, Maria Dolores Coloma Pazmiño, the prosecutor who led the first and second investigations, in dialogue with the newspaper The sun, He summarized the work done and said that he wanted Ecuadorian justice to achieve full clarification of the double crime, after the questions that arose throughout the process.

"There are these signs of DNA, I swear that one day they will come to a result", said the prosecutor. Coloma Pazmiño also raised the current questions about defense financing for the defendants, who are very much in demand by a lawyer.

"I took the investigation that confirmed the sentence pronounced in cbadation, which shows that there was no political interference. The tests carried out are very scientific, here there was no information ", said the judicial officer, who revealed that in Italy, they had also opened an investigation, to the extent that Marina Menegazzo was also a citizen of that country. Even after the crime, his European Community pbadport was found.

"After a while, from Italy, they asked for international criminal badistance, I sent everything that I had done, but I do not know any results, I hope that & # 39; 39, it will be possible to know more about what happened.They did not deserve this bloody death, I proved that they had killed first and then the other but they were not forced to go to this house because they accepted this inn when they could return to the hostel, "he added.

With regard to the imminent opening of a third investigation into the crimes, the prosecutor hoped that the other participants in the violent crimes would be solved.

"The DNA is there, it will be several years and if someone talks, we will have to continue the investigation," he added.

It should not be forgotten that Majo's mother, Gladys Steffany, who died last May, has always tried to advance the investigation. Despite their departure, the two young women's families continue to fight for the search for truth and justice.

The sisters of Cuneo are convinced that there are people "from above" who participated in the bloody act.

"Three years after his departure and almost a year without knowing how it would continue, because for me as for my mother and for the rest of my family, there are culprits." I understood and I understand every day more than if we were silent, the state, prosecutors, corruption and even the mafia still hide the truth, I ask myself the following question: Ecuador, what have become Majo and Marina on February 22, 2016, they have not returned to their country? Montañita, what to hide? "said Martina Coni, the youngest of Majo's sisters.

"Almost three years ago, there are things that we have never known, and the truth that I would not know them, so I think that like what happened to them, it happens to others, and that if we remain silent, the truth will not be revealed "he added.

The two murdered youths were last seen on the afternoon of February 22, 2016 in Montañita, before returning to Argentina.

According to what the investigation could prove, they were drugged and beaten in the house of one of the convicts. Coni was abused and received a violent blow to the head. Menegazzo was stabbed. A few days later, the bodies were found, separated by 48 hours, in black plastic bags in a field, far from the famous beach of Montañita.