Paraguay: 11-year-old girl found dead in Caazapá; accused man had previously abused her
Melania Monserrath was found lifeless in a field in Fulgencio Yegros. The man charged with the murder had previously been imprisoned for sexually attacking her in 2022, but was released under supervised liberty in April.
Paraguay: 11-year-old girl found dead in Caazapá; accused man had previously abused her
Melania Monserrath, aged 11, was found lifeless on an empty plot of land in Fulgencio Yegros, in Caazapá department, on Monday 21 July. A forensic examination established that she died by strangulation. The man identified as the perpetrator, Marcelo Giménez Duarte, aged 24, had already served a sentence for sexually assaulting the child in 2022, when she was 8 years old, although he regained his freedom under supervision in April of this year.
The head of investigations for the area, police commissioner Marcos Velázquez, told the press that the victim appears to have been taken to overgrown terrain, a few metres from her house, on the pretext of collecting sand to continue playing. She was killed there. The forensic experts believe they attempted to make her death appear as suicide: one of her garments was tied to a bush and another to her neck.
Prosecutor Carlos Ramírez filed charges against Giménez Duarte for intentional homicide as perpetrator and requested his preventive detention. The child's family had demanded that an autopsy be carried out to determine precisely what happened.
The crime shocked public opinion and prompted a statement from the Archdiocese of Asunción, reported by ACI Prensa. The ecclesiastical institution expressed its dismay, showed solidarity with the mother and relatives of the minor, and demanded that the case be clarified and the law applied with full severity. Furthermore, it recalled that the country has a duty to protect minors, who constitute the most defenceless sector of the population.
Information obtained from ACI Prensa
Source: Google News PY — Asunción