Couple shot dead in Cobija leaves three young daughters abandoned
A man and a woman were executed by hitmen in the 11 de Octubre neighbourhood of Cobija, Pando. Their three daughters, aged 1, 2 and 3, were rescued the following day by an aunt.
Double murder in Cobija: three girls found alongside bodies of their parents
Two people were shot dead inside a property located in the 11 de Octubre neighbourhood, on Tajibos avenue in Cobija, capital of the Pando department. According to El Deber, the bodies of the couple—identified as Giovani, aged 30, and Ximena, aged 33—remained lifeless for hours whilst their three daughters, aged 3, 2 and 1, were left abandoned at the scene.
An aunt of the minors went to the property the day after the crime and was the first to discover what had happened. She entered the house and found the man's body first, riddled with bullets, and then the woman's body in her bedroom. The three girls, who had witnessed the death of their parents, were evacuated immediately and placed in safe custody by the authorities.
Police, alerted by this discovery, had conducted a sweep of the area the previous night after gunshots were heard, but detected no irregularities. It was only at 10:00 on Monday 21 September that they received a formal report of the double murder.
The autopsy determined that Giovani received six bullet impacts—five with entrance and exit wounds, and one in the abdomen with no exit wound—whilst Ximena died from a single gunshot. Both victims died from haemorrhagic hypovolaemic shock. The time of death places the crime between 21:00 and midnight on Sunday.
At least 12 bullet casings and other evidence were collected at the scene. Police and the Public Ministry of Pando opened investigations to identify the perpetrators and establish the motives for the act.
From La Paz, the general commander of the Bolivian Police, Adrián Álvarez, announced the deployment of all operational units of the institution in Pando. "There are already advances in the case, and we will surely have important announcements about the course of the investigation in the coming hours," he stated.
The authorities do not rule out that the crime was an act of revenge. According to information gathered, the couple had reportedly received threats from Comando Vermelho (CV), allegedly linked to drug trafficking and activities of the organisation known as Los Choleros, a line of investigation that the Police are maintaining as active.
Source: El Deber