Tabella refuses to give statement over Retiro femicide; Córdoba awaits to question him over Daniela Villalba
The man detained for two femicides in Buenos Aires and Córdoba refused to give a statement to the Buenos Aires courts. The Córdoba fiscal's office recharacterised the case as femicide and is managing his transfer.
Tabella rejects statement in Buenos Aires while Córdoba advances on Daniela's murder
Renato Iván Tabella, the 28-year-old man charged with two femicides that occurred in Buenos Aires and Córdoba days apart, refused to give a statement on Tuesday before the Buenos Aires courts over the death of Tatiana Micaela Fernández, according to eldoce.tv.
The questioning was conducted by judge Guillermo Rongo, head of the National Criminal and Correctional Court No. 22, who took jurisdiction following the arrest ordered by fiscal Matías Di Lello.
In parallel, Córdoba fiscal Pablo Camacho changed the legal classification for the death of Daniela Villalba, 29, and recharacterised the case file as femicide. The fiscal's office then requested that the procedure be initiated to transfer the accused from the Federal Capital.
The judge overseeing proceedings in Córdoba will have to submit the request to the Buenos Aires court, a process estimated to be completed between Wednesday and Thursday. Once that step is resolved, the Buenos Aires court will have to rule on whether to authorise the transfer. Should matters proceed swiftly, it is planned that Tabella will be taken to Córdoba to be questioned; if the process is delayed, the alternative is to conduct the statement by videoconference.
For now, Tabella has the assistance of a public defender from the Córdoba Courts.
The detention and links between both cases
The suspect was apprehended on Sunday night in a hotel in the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of San Nicolás. Until then, he was being sought by Córdoba courts in the investigation into Daniela Villalba's murder in the Cofico neighbourhood and, at the same time, had come under suspicion for the death of Tatiana Fernández in Retiro.
The Buenos Aires case began on Sunday, 25 October, when a friend found Fernández dead in an apartment on Libertad Street at number 1200 that both had rented through Airbnb to work as escorts. The victim had arranged a meeting with a client who identified himself as "Iván".
The telephone line attributed to that man was already under surveillance within the case file for Daniela Villalba's femicide in Córdoba. That information made it possible to link the two investigations and track the suspect's movements until locating him in a hotel on Teniente General Juan Domingo Perón Street at number 1500. During the operation, investigators found a mobile telephone that allegedly belonged to Tatiana Fernández.
The Córdoba precedent
Daniela Villalba had been found dead in the apartment she rented in the Cofico neighbourhood. In the days before the discovery, waste collectors had found a suitcase with belongings and garments with blood stains inside a rubbish bin. Security cameras made it possible to identify a suspect, and the tracking of his telephone later placed him in Buenos Aires City, which triggered the search that culminated in his arrest.
Source: Google News AR — Buenos Aires