17-year-old farmworker from Corrientes detained for killing 82-year-old rural producer in Coronel Suárez
A teenager from Paso de los Libres was remanded in custody charged with murdering María Elina Cook on a rural road in Buenos Aires province.
Young farmworker beats 82-year-old producer to death in southern Buenos Aires
A 17-year-old adolescent from Paso de los Libres, Corrientes, has been detained and remanded in custody in the municipality of Coronel Suárez, charged with the murder of María Elina Cook, an 82-year-old agricultural producer known in her community as Eileen. According to perfil.com, the incident occurred on Wednesday 4 November on a country road in the south of Buenos Aires province.
The young man worked as a farmhand at Estancia de Horacio Cook, the victim's brother, whose property is located opposite the woman's farm. The case was referred to the Office of the Public Prosecutor for Minors No. 3, which charged him with simple homicide, a crime carrying sentences of between 8 and 25 years' imprisonment. Investigators are considering adding the aggravating factor of treachery.
The sequence of the crime
That Wednesday, the adolescent had a disagreement with his employer after lunch and asked to be taken to the town of Coronel Suárez. As there was no one to take him at that time, he was given money to take a taxi. After 3:00 pm, the young man walked across the fields until he reached Estancia La Plegaria, the property of María Elina Cook.
The producer agreed to give him a ride in her white Ford Ranger pick-up truck to the intersection of La Primavera and La Jacinta roads, approximately 15 kilometres from Huanguelén and 30 kilometres from Coronel Suárez. During the journey, according to accounts incorporated into the case file, the woman is said to have refused to lend him her mobile phone to make a call.
In response, the young man allegedly forced her to get out of the vehicle, ran her over and repeatedly struck her in the head with a 10-millimetre iron rod used for electric fencing. He then escaped in the pick-up truck.
Discovery of the body and arrest of the suspect
The flight ended when the vehicle crashed at the intersection of Avenida Conturbi and Calle Bartolomé Mitre in the town centre of Coronel Suárez, where Buenos Aires State Police officers detained the driver. At around 5:00 pm, a ranch hand found Cook's body lying on the country road next to her mobile phone, her glasses and her wristwatch, and immediately notified the Rural Patrol Sub-command in Huanguelén.
A 33-year-old witness proved key to reconstructing the sequence: he stated to the police station that he had seen the Ford Ranger travelling in a zigzag pattern along the country road at 5:15 pm and recognised the same vehicle after the urban collision at 7:45 pm. The initial procedural steps were taken by assistant prosecutor Nisela Wagner Cabrera, following which the Office of the Public Prosecutor for Minors No. 3 formalised the charge of simple homicide and obtained the remand in custody of the minor.
Who was María Elina Cook
Cook belonged to a traditional Coronel Suárez family with a long history in Buenos Aires agriculture. Mother of four children—Mauro, Milagros, Agustín and Débora Mascotena—she was recognised in the region for her active participation in rural work and the direct management of her property.
The Cook surname played a pioneering role in Argentine cattle breeding through the development of the Limangus breed, which resulted from the crossing of five-eighths Aberdeen Angus and three-eighths Limousin cattle. From 1975 onwards, after incorporating French genetics observed at the INTA in Balcarce, the family consolidated its breeding operation from Estancia Los Choles, managed by Horacio Cook.
Source: Google News AR — Buenos Aires