Nurse Found Dead in Caguas Home Was Murdered, Police Say; Ex-Convict Held
Authorities in Puerto Rico now classify the death of Jennifer M. Torres Castro as a homicide after forensic examination revealed she was killed violently inside her Caguas residence.
Nurse Found Dead in Caguas Home Was Murdered, Police Say; Ex-Convict Held
The death of Jennifer M. Torres Castro, a 36-year-old nursing professional discovered lifeless inside her Caguas dwelling, has been upgraded to a homicide investigation by Puerto Rico law enforcement. Forensic specialists at the Institute of Forensic Sciences concluded that the woman met a violent end, prompting officers to place Carlos Manuel Estefano Pino under detention as a person linked to the killing.
In an updated statement released this Sunday, the police force relayed that forensic pathologist Paola Luna García had examined the remains and determined the manner of death to be violent. This finding caused investigators to shift the case from its original classification of "undetermined cause" to murder.
The grim discovery took place at a house in the Quebrada Arenas area of the Río Cañas district. Torres Castro left behind two children, ages 10 and 12.
Department of Correction and Rehabilitation personnel took Estefano Pino, age 67, into custody after the fatal incident came to light. Records show the man had walked free in 2018 thanks to a parole decision by the Board of Liberty Under Supervision, even though his prison term for a 1990 slaying of a young woman still had 85 years left to run.
Samuel Silva Rosas, who heads the parole panel, told El Nuevo Día earlier this week that the board issued an arrest warrant for Estefano Pino once he surfaced as a murder suspect. Silva Rosas noted that, up to that point, the individual had followed his release conditions, appeared at yearly check-ins, and faced no formal grievances.
The detention triggers a parole revocation procedure, Silva Rosas added, involving summary and full hearings to decide whether the convict should remain in the community or return to confinement.
Relatives of Torres Castro have rejected any suggestion that she was romantically involved with the detained man.
El Nuevo Día reached out to the island's Department of Justice to ask whether prosecutors would press charges, but officials had not answered by press time.
Source: El Nuevo Día
Source: Google News PR — Crime