Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.

This story originates in 2016 in the Argentine city of Mendoza. On January 10, 2016, 21-year-old Marina Menegazzo and 22-year-old Maria Jose Coni went on a long-awaited journey.

However, it eventually became one of Latin America’s most high-profile investigations over the past decade.

in 2016  22- year old maria jose coni  studied esconomics at the national  university of kyo

and 21- year old  marina menegazzo  studied  speech therapy at the Akon  Kaga university .

both girsl  worked as wolunteers in an organization that helped people forced to llive on the street for one resaon or another .friends and acquaintances described them as two very cheerful girls who were very close to their families.

marina  and maria  went on a trip with two  other  friends with  whom they eventually split up.

the girls   set off on january  10th ,one could follow their route by looking throug maria  jose conis post  instagram.

on january 13th the girls were in the Peruvian city of Cusco.this ancient city , is the former capital of the Inca Empire.

the next day , january  14th was published also  taken in Cusco .

the following image was  published on january 15 th , the picture was taken on a Railway bridge near the Machu Picchu.hydroelectric power plant.

machu picchu is an  ancient Inca City that people call the city above the clouds,it is one of the most famous attractions in Peru

and   is part of the UNESCO world  heritage list  . judging  by the activity on Instagram the girls stayed in the area for several days.

On january  18th maria posted two more  photos from there.

On Januart 19th  the girls said goodby to the  city of Cusco   by  posting this image.

4 days later on  january 23rd ,the girls were already  in ecuador maria posted a taken on the  beach   of montanita

for the next 10  days the girls traveled along the cost of  ecuador. and then went  into Inland

On february 4th maria posted this image taken  in san antonio

and on february  6th  ,a photo from cuenca, ecuador

on february  10th maria posted a photo showing all four girls.the journey  that began on january 10th was ending and it was a kind of farewell post as two girls from this company were returning home to argentinga.

maria and marina  still had about 10 days of vacation, they were in no hurry  to return home.instead they returned to montanita which was their beginning of  acquaintance  with  Ecuador

 on february  22nd maria posted  of herself with marina. this post was the last  on her Instagram account. On february 22nd the girls also contacted their families in Argentia, they said ,they  soon be  home.

 they had to take a bus from ecuador to  the peruvian city of Lima and spent the night at their friends house and fly from Lima to santiago, the capital of chile  on february 25th . 

from there  they would  take the  bus to their Native Mendoza  in Argentina.

at the same time the girls  warned  their relatives that it would be difficult to contact  them by phone for a couple of days due to a poor signal .

however their relatives couldn’t contact the girls  either in a couple of  days or later  there was no activity on maria and mareina’s  social media  accounts and their relatives began to worry .

marias sister was the first to bring attention to this case on social media  , she posted a photo of two girls with the following phrase.

” my syster and her friend  disappeared on monday  the 22nd in montanita, ecuador. please spread this  information”

 

The girls family wanted to know if they left the counttry and boarded a flight.

However they couldn´’t get a response from the  airline representatives. they stated  they would  disclos this information only after the families   provided  a court order 

more over the friends in whose house the  girls planned to spend the  night before the departure said they didn’t appear.

therefore the relatives of maria and marina called the emergency  service in ecuador and reported the disapearence

they also contacted the  consulate of Argentina and asked for help, the consulate intervened in the case on february 27th.

argentina’s authorities of  both girls to Ecuador and they did it  for a reason.

a few days before on february 25th an unidentified  womens body was found  in montanita and transported to Guayaquil

comparing the fingerprints obtained from the argentin police with thefingerprints of an  unidentified body

they established  that this body belonged to maria jose coni .

on saturday  february 27th after examining the place where they found maria’s body

the police found the body  of marina  menegazzo .it was only 43  yards from maria´s body. both bodies were in plastic bags  wrapped with duck tape.

according to the information voiced by the ecuadorian police ,they  didn’t find marina’s body  right away because  the criminal tried to hide it by putting something on top of it .

during the autopsy , the medical expert established that maria died from blunt force trauma  to the head.she had injuries described as genital by the ecuadorian authorities and a broken femur and a toe. more over marks on maria’s wrist´s indicated that she was tied up.

marina  died from six stab wounds to the neck.  she had the same spots on her wrists which meant she  was tied up too. according to the reports, the girls died on february  23rd.

toxicological analysis  showed that their blood contained a large amount of the drug used in psychiatric treatment.given the circumstances of the death  the police concluded that  the girls did not voluntarily take this drug.

and perhaps they  did  not even know that they had taken it . it meant someone could  have mixed it into their  food or drinks.

but just  24 hours after discovering the second body, there was a new development in this case.

and it cuased a mixed reaction among the girls families .

the ministerof the  interior of ecuador  announced that  the  police had solved the case. yjjru  sttrdyrf  33 year old  alberto  segundo mina ponce  and and 39  year old  Aurelio ediardo rodriwuez.

who pleaded guilty and told how the events  unfolded.

police found blood stains in the house of one of the accused  Mina ponce

marinas’  mobil phone, backpack and other items were near the house.the most strange thing apart from the quick arrest , was the instant confession of the two men . it caused a resonance among the people who followed this case. the men told their wersion of everything that happened.

ecuador’s  minister of the interiror ,jose  serrano, said the girls left the hotel where they rented a toom on  february  22nd at 2:00 p,m.

someone stold all their money at the hotel, so they planned to hitchhike to Lima ,but  this version was refuted by the owner of the hotel, who claimed  that no one stole from the girls

maria and marina families also didn’t believe this story .after all ,they had credit cards with them. therefore the  girls would use them in case of financial problems.

and yet , there was no activity on the cards.perhaps someone stole both their cash and  credit cards.

still  we can use the funds in the account  without having the card

for example, girls the girls could  pay for a trip online but they didn’t .

then according to  ecuador’s minister of the interior the girls went in to one of the bars and asked  for couple of glasses of water to quench their thirst

the bars owner confirmed this version saying she gave the girls water because they  had no money.

it will  remain unclear whether  someone actually  stole all the money  from maria and marina.

revealing the further developement of events, the minister referred to the testimony of suspects who let me remind you ,fully  admitted their guilt., so ponce said  that  on that day  at about  8:00.p.m  rodriguez told him about two argentinian girls in a bar. 

 they aproched the girls together and started a conversation,during which  marina and maria said they were hitchhiking to Lima because they didn’t have money for a bus .

and this version also raises  a lot of questions

the girls had bought plan tickets from lina to santiago in chile. why would they save money  om credit cards and try to hitchhike more than 1 , 000 miles,knowing they could miss the plane.?

as previously mentioned they bought the ticket for february 25th and this conversation according to ponce took place on the evening on february 22nd sound dubious ,right?

but  on the other hand ,witnesses found by the local police confirmed  all these strange versions.

Ponce offered them to spend the night at  his house  ,the girls agreed

but police found a  taxi driver who confirmed   he drove marina and maria and ponce to his home, this  picture shows the house where Poncel lived.

Next

following  the information voiced by the  ecuadorian authorities Ponce   returned to the bar and started with rodriguez.

Marina and Maria were alone in the house at that time, the h heavily drunk men returned home 2:30 a.m but maria and marina were not their.the police found out that the girls went to a store near  the  house to by a soda. the exact type of drink remains unknown.

The police  againd found a witness who confirmed this, a store cashier, if this is strue ,it means the girls still had some cash.

according to ponce ‘s testimony,when the girls  returned to the house,he stayed in the room with maria and rodriguez  was in another  with  marina.

Ponce admitted that he wanted  persuade maria to intimacy but she resisted. and tried to leave the house , then he grabbed a stick  and hit the girl in the head. from which she died instantly.

at the same time he heard a scream from the other room, entering the room he saw that rodriguez had taken marina life. Rodriguez left the house immediately after that .

According to ponce he started thinking about  how to get rid of the bodies, ponce tried to clean up all traces in the house and wrap the bodies in  plastic bags and duct tape.

In the afternoon, he borrow a cart  from someone he knew

and took them to a westland near the ocean shore about 440 yards from home.

let me remind you again that  everything mentioned is  the official version of the Ecuadorian  authorities.

at the same time, there was no explanation of where the marks on the girls wrists came from. there were also no explanation for the toxicological analysis that said the blood  of both girts contained traces of a potent  drug.

given all the circumstances and inconsistencies in the case the girls familiy started doubting the version presnted to them by the  ecuadorian authorities.

they believed this case could be related to human traffiicking and that  the ecuadorian  authorities were covering for someone.

marinaand maria’s families had several reasons for doubt.

• firstly the girls ran out of money but did not  used creditcard.
• secondly they  were under the influence of drugs.

The only people who saw maria and marina that day where the ones who confirmed the authorities version

• the bars owner
• a taxi driver
• and a cashier who allegedly sold the girls soda.
• and the town had 5,000  residents.

also the families could not understand why the bodies was foound with a different of two days while they were 43 yards from each other. moreover it seemed strange that maria and marina turned to ponce and rodriguez for help.

There are always a lot of Argentine tourists in Montanita and it would be more logical for the girls to approach a person from their country and ask for help.

the brother of one of the victims said he saw used syringes lying on the floor  when the ecuadorian police brought him to the crime scene

when he asked about them, they magically disappeared. 

moreover thosee syringes weent’ even in crime scene photos and the expert who examined placed denied their exsitence.

According to the family the two men   were just a cover  for something bigger such as human trafficking.

the authorities scheduled a second autopsy and a new toxicological examination in addition .

in addition it  turned out that both defenants repeatedly changed  their version of  events.

according to one version .

• Mina ponce denied that  he  and rodriguez committed this crime.
• he stated that the man who took the girls lives
• was an illegal substance dealer.
• of venezuelan origin,
• hwo lived in the area
• the only he knew about the mans was that his pseudonym was ” el chamo”

The police detained this man however , he says he had nothing to do  what happened  and was  ready  to take a polygraph test or give his DNA sample. he wanted to prove he wasn’t in that house at all .

several DNA samples were  found at the crime scene .

• DNA from Mina Ponce
• DNA from the girls
• and several unidentified samples.
• this unidentified samples did not belong rodrigue ,the alleged second perpetrator
• nor  to El Chamo,who was ruled out as a suspect ,after undergoing al DNA tests.

After the second autopsy  conducted by experts from Argentina ,it became clear that both girls was in such a state that  they could not defend themselves

 before their deats they were forced to intimacy ,the autopsy also gave other deatails.

• maria jose coni had bruises and scratches only on  one side of her body  as if someone had thrown her out of a moving car

a new  toxicological analysis  -again confirmed that both girls were  under the influence of a potent drug used in psychiatric treatment.this drug suppresses the will of a person

unforttunately  as it often happens,people made the girls responsible for their deaths 

moreover they were blamed not only  by ordinary internet users ,but also by well-known public people 

one of those  who believed  the girls were to blame for whay happened to them was the deputy minister of  tourism of ecuador maria christina Rivadeneira

 during the same days as the news about the death of maria and marina appeared,

Rivadeneira gave an interview to a German news agency, in which  she said that given the way the girls traveled,something had to happen to them  sooner or later .

she also added that she had never been to  montanita, since this place did not coreespond to her  social status .

it wa essentially victim blaming at the state level and that is a very said fact.

After Rivadeneira gave this  interview ,the Ecuadorian goverment apologized to the families of  maria and marina and fired the women.

most condemned people was the  Argentine psychiatrist Hugo Marietan who called the girls  favorable victims,mentioning  that such  people make other people commit crimes.

after a firestorm of criticism ,the doctor claimed that  people had misunderstood him and that he never absolved criminals of responsibility 

NEXT

The trial  began on august  8th 2016 there was many  faulures in the case .the prosecutor changed three times which significantly delayed the process.

the prosecution presented witness statements and more than 200 physical evidence from the crime scene

the police found some of the girls  belongings,biological fluids and phones  in the house where the crime occured and next to it.

During the trial ponce declared his innocence and said he had confessed under pressure from the police and this only strenghened the belief of the girl’s families, that he Ecuadorian authorities were hiding something

Rodriguez also changed his testimony by claiming that  some colombian dealers of banned substances were involved in the girls  deaths

during the first week of the trial the prosecutors  stated that he  suspected other persons involvement in the  case  since the police had fond three more samples of male DNA at the scene along with the DNA of rodriguez and ponce’s. 

the court sentenced both Alberto  Ponce and  Eduardo  Rodriguez to 40 years  in prison. the maximum sentence under the law  of ecuador.

in November 2016,the Ecuadorian authorities announced that they had arrested another person whos DNA they found at the crime scene. this man was 34  years old Jose Luis Perez Castro.

His defense argued that he lived in this house a few weeks  before the  incident and they found his blood on the wall because of a dental infection he had suffered, he  allegedly just  spat on  the wall.

the laywers also said  that the reason the police found his DNA on the girls bodies, was because they had touched a piece of  furniture or things that  he also had touched earlier .

this man’s defense began to crumble when  he’s  dentist came to  testify , as it  turned out  castro did  reach out to him. but it was only 2  weeks  after the police discovered marina and maria’s bodies.

he asked the dentist go give him a note  about  a  dental infection  however the doctor refused to write it  because  he didn’t find any healty  problems after  examining Castro.in the end  the dentist just kicked  him out . the patient wanted a medical certificate

but there  to be pain there must be some of kind of disease but i didn’t see that t when  i checked the dentist stated . 

the man’s defense collapsed after these words.

 while awaiting  trial and contrary to prison rules Castro  appeared on social networks referring to the situation that put him  behind  bars

” i’m  waiting for this injustice happening to me all this time to end , i have great  faith that god will lead me out of this with victory ” castro said on  his social media  account.

despite denying his guilt to the end ,Jose Luis Perez Castro just  like alberto ponce and  eduardo rodriguez was sentenced to 40 years in prison

the girls families doubted the story  presented by the Ecuadorian authorities, even  considering that the  families ensured that police officers from Argentina participated in the investigation.

the version of the Ecuadorian authorities has not changed in any way.

 according to the  assurances of the Ecuadorian police the  search for other men whose samples the police found in the house continues to this day.