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Without the smile that dwarfed her chin. Without her large, poking popsicles, or her margarita marked on her right cheek. Without his black, shiny pupils. Lifeless. Without company, without anyone. So it was found. He was three years old and his name was Tomás Bravo.
During the morning of 18th of February, in Lebu, Biobío Region, they began to speak of his disappearance. Tomás was lost for nine days in the deep field of the Arauco province.
At 2:00 that day, his family reported to the PDI that since the night before, the February 17th, Tomás was missing. He had accompanied his great-uncle to listen to the Colo Colo game against the University of Concepción, and then they left the house to carry cows.
“I went out with him to look for the calves and cows, and in that way we walked the field between the two of us, I with him, the little hand. And then I had to drive the cows over here and I left him standing in one place; and in that part I got down and then when I came back, I couldn’t find it. I looked for him, I yelled for him, I called him and he didn’t answer me (…). Maybe he went outside, I don’t know. I came up to the road and he was not there. He hit the road and someone took him, I don’t know “, detailed to Mega on February 19 Jorge Escobar Escobar, your great-uncle.
The area of the loss was located in the Caripilun sector, on Route P-40 of the El Molino de Arauco bridge sector, in the commune of Arauco. Once the facts were known, the entire Lebu turned to search for the minor, day and night. The Biobío Regional Prosecutor’s Office does the same, the PDI, Firefighters, Police and more than a hundred volunteers who daily swept the area in search of the child.
Meanwhile, the PDI progressed in the investigations, questioning his family nucleus and witnesses, as well as intervening the communications of the people who were the last hours with him. Satellites of the Chilean Air Force even joined the search.
The Homicide Brigade of the PDI organized into gangs to distribute eight kilometers around, from the place where Tomás had disappeared. The days passed and the investigators spent a week searching, without rest. But also without traces of the child.
In the last hours, the detectives and the prosecutor of the case, Jose Ortiz, they decided to expand the radius of the investigations, integrating more tracking quadrants. Thus, on the morning of this Friday the civil police gave the order to assess the “Quadrant 24”, located three kilometers from the field where the boy was last seen.
Around noon, a group of detectives entered a privately owned farm that was delivering some clues: traces of blood and disturbed soil in a place full of grasslands. There was a ditch that emptied into the Raqui River. PDI officials searched, searched the pastures, until they found it.
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The boy’s body was dressed in the same clothes with which he had been reported missing: an orange zip-up hoodie, pink shirt, blue fleece pants and light blue sneakers with a blue lake.
“In principle there would be a simple homicide. This is not an accident. Clearly, there is intervention by third parties (…). The date of death has to be established by the expert opinion of the Legal Medical Service, but it is seen that it is several days ago “, explained the prosecutor José Ortiz.
The persecutor added that the boy’s great-uncle, the main defendant in the crime, had already been arrested, the same one who delivered his version on television, seven days ago. It was, in principle, the last person who was with Tomás.
The discovery of the body of the minor, for the investigators, is not the end of the case. On the contrary, from now on they will begin to review a history that would hide abuse and a complex family relationship.
According to sources in the case, the PDI investigates an alleged sexual abuse by the detained great-uncle. The suspicions are based on the interrogations that were made to him, as a witness, before being arrested.
In their statements, the researchers detected alleged “atypical” sexual traits and “exacerbated” sexual behavior. That would be part of what the latest psychological tests carried out by the civil police revealed.
In addition, the PDI collected the mother’s testimony, Estefanía Gutiérrez, to learn about Tomás’ behavior and detect suspected behaviors that point to possible sexual abuse. Only the results of the expert reports can confirm these suspicions.
The expertise of the SML will be key, comment the sources consulted. It, then DNA traces that may be found will be analyzed, in an autopsy that will be fundamental for the future of the case and its legal qualification.
That, because although the prosecutor Ortiz spoke of the imputation of a “simple homicide”, depending on what these expert opinions deliver, it could vary to a qualified homicide.
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In addition, the PDI provided another clue. The regional chief of the civil police in Biobío, Inspector Prefect Hugo Ruiz, maintained that “We will see if there are more involved in the investigation. We never rule anything out. ”
Sources in the case added that there is a second suspect, also from the family nucleus and that he shared with Tomás, who was already being investigated for a sexual abuse committed against a minor under 14 years of age in the region.
Cristian Echaiz, lawyer for Moisés Bravo, Tomás’s father, announced the filing of a criminal complaint against Jorge Escobar. “And, additionally, we are going to file a complaint against all those who are responsible, bearing in mind that we have well-founded suspicions that there is at least knowledge or participation of third parties,” he said.
At the PDI headquarters in Lebu, where Tomás’s great-uncle was taken, a hundred people came to demonstrate, which generated moments of tension with the police, after they began to throw stones at the building, breaking windows and causing other damages.
After the serious incidents, the PDI confirmed that Escobar was transferred to another police station, outside of Biobío, without providing further information.
Meanwhile, around 5.30 p.m., personnel from the Legal Medical Service removed Tomás’s body from the farm where he was found, to carry out the tests.
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President Sebastian Piñera He referred to the discovery of the child’s body and assured that “it hurts and deeply moves us.”
“We express our deepest condolences to his loved ones. And all my gratitude to all those who collaborated with such commitment and dedication in his search. All of Chile demands and deserves justice ”, expressed the President through his Twitter account.
This Friday night Jorge Escobar, the man arrested in Lebu, he was giving a statement to the prosecutor and the PDI. During this Saturday the only person accused of the crime so far will be transferred to his detention control.
