Agostina Vega, missing since May 23, was discovered Saturday in a vacant lot. A 33-year-old man is detained as the primary suspect.
4:10 AM
The body of Agostina Madeleine Vega, a 14-year-old girl missing since Saturday, May 23, was found buried in a vacant lot in the Ampliación Ferreyra neighborhood of Córdoba, Argentina, on Saturday afternoon.
The remains were discovered around 4 p.m. local time after more than 30 hours of intensive police operations in the rural area. Authorities confirmed the discovery near 4:30 p.m., though formal identification was pending forensic testing. Fiscal Raúl Garzón, the prosecutor leading the investigation, stated at a press conference that human remains found at the site were "98 percent probable" to be Agostina's, but said he would not confirm identity until all forensic tests were completed.
Claudio Barrelier, a 33-year-old man and former partner of Agostina's mother, remains detained as the primary suspect. During his second interrogation on Friday, Barrelier admitted that Agostina had been in his house for between 30 minutes and one hour on the night of her disappearance. He had initially claimed the person seen entering his home in security camera footage was his own 11-year-old daughter, but later acknowledged it was Agostina. Authorities said Barrelier recognized being present at the location where the remains were subsequently found.
The discovery prompted immediate public reaction across Argentina. Protests, road blockades, and demonstrations by neighbors and family members demanding justice erupted following the announcement. At the location where the body was found, Agostina's father Gabriel Vega, Fiscal Garzón, and Juan Pablo Quinteros, Córdoba's security minister, were present during the final search operation.
Agostina's mother, Melisa Heredia, was hospitalized earlier Saturday with dehydration after becoming ill upon learning of the discovery. Family members at her home initially said they had no information when sources first confirmed the finding to media outlets.
The investigation began after Agostina was last seen the evening of May 23 when she boarded a taxi driven by a family acquaintance to travel to a nearby neighborhood where Barrelier was waiting. The provincial government had activated the "Alerta Sofía" protocol to intensify the search. Hundreds of police officers had been conducting sweeps of the area for two days prior to the discovery.
Fiscal Garzón stated that the motive for the crime "remains to be clarified" and emphasized that the investigation "has not ended."
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