Man charged with killing 11-year-old girl in Caazapá; had previous conviction for sexual abuse against her
A 24-year-old man was accused of the homicide of Melania Monserrath in Fulgencio Yegros. The same man had been sentenced in the past for sexually attacking the child when she was 8 years old.
Man charged with killing 11-year-old girl in Caazapá; had previous conviction for sexual abuse against her
On Monday 21 July, an 11-year-old girl was found dead in an empty lot in Fulgencio Yegros, department of Caazapá. The victim's name was Melania Monserrath. The primary suspect is Marcelo Giménez Duarte, a 24-year-old man who had previously been imprisoned for sexually attacking the girl in 2022, when she was 8 years old, and who obtained conditional release in April 2025.
ACI Prensa reported a statement from the Archbishopric of Asunción, which described the incident as painful and terrible news.
The body was found in an overgrown lot near the family home. Marcos Velázquez, chief of investigations of the Caazapá Police, told local media that it is believed someone persuaded her to go to that place under the pretext of collecting sand to continue playing. There she was killed.
The officer stated that the girl's clothing suggested an attempt to make the case appear to be a suicide. One garment was tied to a shrub and another around the child's neck. Despite this, the investigation determined that she died from mechanical asphyxiation resulting from hanging.
Prosecutor Carlos Ramírez accused Giménez Duarte of intentional homicide and requested that he remain in preventive detention. In response to complaints from the girl's relatives, an autopsy was ordered to be performed.
The local Catholic Church expressed its grief and called for justice, stating that there cannot be true peace while crimes of such cruelty are not punished with the full rigour of the law. It also reminded that the State must protect the most vulnerable, especially children.
Source: Google News PY — Asunción